The 杨 surname

Yang (杨) families are fairly scattered across Taishan: the towns of Dajiang (大江), Doushan (斗山), Chonglou (冲蒌), Guanghai (广海), Duanfen (端芬), Shangchuan (上川), Xiachuan (下川), Wencun (汶村), Shenjing (深井), Nafu (那扶), Chixi (赤溪) and others all have Yang founders of settlements, and Chixi Town has the most Yang.^[1] The Yang of Chixi are Hakka (客家); their genealogy records that their founding ancestor Yang Shiting (杨世廷) moved from Xingning (兴宁) to Chonglou in Xinning County (新宁县), and that his son Yang Zixing (杨子星) moved on to Caochong (曹冲) in Chixi.^[1][2]

Origin of the surname[edit]

Most Yang descend from the ancient state of Yang (杨国, in today's Hongtong (洪洞), Shanxi). The usual accounts are: under King Kang of Zhou, the second son of Tang Shuyu (唐叔虞) was made Marquis of Yang, and his descendants took Yang as their surname; Shangfu (尚父), a son of King Xuan of Zhou, was enfeoffed at Yang, and when the state of Yang was destroyed by Jin in the Spring and Autumn period, his descendants took the name of the state as their surname; Shuxiang (叔向), a descendant of Boqiao (伯侨), second son of Duke Wu of Jin, was enfeoffed with the town of Yang, and his descendants, fleeing trouble, lived at Huayin (华阴) in Hongnong (弘农) and took Yang as their surname, becoming the main body of the Yang. There are other origins too, such as surname changes by northern peoples.^[3][4]

The genealogies of the Taishan Yang tell the story of “enfeoffing a brother with a paulownia leaf” (桐叶封弟): King Cheng of Zhou playfully enfeoffed his younger brother Shuyu with a paulownia leaf, and later enfeoffed Shuyu with the state of Yang; the genealogies say the great founding ancestor of the Yang surname who received the fief was Zhu Gong (杼公), and since the state of Yang was in Hongnong, some Yang use “Hongnong” as their hall name.^[1]

Hall names

Common hall names include Hongnong Hall (弘农堂), Guanxi Hall (关西堂), Sizhi Hall (四知堂) and Qingbai Hall (清白堂). “Four Knowings” (四知) comes from the story of Yang Zhen (杨震) of the Eastern Han, who at night refused a gift of gold from Wang Mi (王密), saying that Heaven knows, Earth knows, you know and I know; “Three Chancellors” (三相) refers to the three Yang who served as chancellors in the Tang dynasty. Common hall couplets include “The Four Knowings, the blessing of generations; the Three Chancellors, the family's renown” (四知世泽，三相家声), “Hongnong, the blessing of generations; purity, the family's renown” (弘农世泽，清白家声) and “For statecraft that surpassed the age, honor the Three Chancellors; to hand down purity in the family, keep the Four Knowings” (经纶盖世推三相，清白传家守四知).^[1][4]

Coming to Taishan[edit]

The Yang of Chixi

From the 4th year of Xianfeng of the Qing (1854), armed clashes between the Punti and the Hakka (土客械斗) broke out in Enping (恩平), Kaiping (开平), Xinning and other counties, and went on for more than ten years. In the 6th year of Tongzhi (1867), Jiang Yili (蒋益澧), Governor of Guangdong, presided over a peace between the Punti and the Hakka and drew boundaries: the bao of Chixi, Caochong, Tonggu (铜鼓), Tiantou (田头) and others were cut from Xinning County to form Chixi Subprefecture (赤溪厅), where the Hakka were settled. Among the Hakka who moved to Chixi, the Yang made up a certain share.^[1]

According to the Yang genealogy, Shiting Gong (世廷公), founding ancestor of the Yang surname in Taishan (the 99th generation, by the genealogy's count), married a woman of the Ye (叶) family and moved from Xingning County to Niujiaoyou Village (牛角尤村), Chonglou, Xinning County. Shiting Gong had two sons: the eldest, Zilong (子龙), married a woman of the Luo (骆) family, had three sons, and later moved to Longchuan County (龙川县); the second son, Zixing (the 100th generation), married women of the Ye, Yuan (袁) and Zhong (钟) families, and moved with his four sons to Wanxing Village (万兴村, today's Dongyang Village (东阳村)), Caochong, where they opened up waste land and settled.^[1][2]

As for when the Yang of Chixi came, the chapter on the Yang in Origins of Taishan's Surnames (《台山姓氏源流》) says that most of the founders of the Yang settlements in Chixi came around the 11th year of Xianfeng (1861), fleeing war and famine, while the same chapter also says they have multiplied in Taishan for eleven generations, some two hundred years and more; the two statements are not reconciled.^[1]

According to Chixi Town's village records, the ancestors of the Zhong, Luo (罗), Yang and other surnames of Dingfeng Village (定丰村) in Tiantou Village came one after another from various parts of Xinning County and settled there after the Wu (吴).^[5]

Distribution[edit]

According to Origins of Taishan's Surnames (Volume 1), the Yang are found in most villages of Chixi and Tiantou, and the two villages of Dongyang and Dalang (大浪) in the Caochong administrative district (曹冲管区) are entirely Yang, with more than five hundred people between them. Because the Yang elsewhere in Taishan have always had little contact with one another and have no clan publication, their number for the whole county could not be counted at the time.^[1] Huling Village (护岭村) in Chixi Town has more than twenty surnames, of which the Yang and the Wu are the most numerous.^[6]