The 梅 surname

Mei (梅) is one of the major surnames of Taishan, and its members live concentrated in Duanfen Town (端芬镇). The Mei of Taishan honor Mei Yongqing (梅永清) of the early Ming as their founding ancestor; the family genealogy says his ancestral home was Fengyang (凤阳), that his forebears had moved to Zhuji Lane (珠玑巷) in Nanxiong (南雄), and that in the 4th year of Hongwu of the Ming (1371) he was ordered to garrison Xinhui (新会), and later settled at the foot of Fengshan (凤山) in Duanfen (present-day Chikan Village, 赤坎村).^[1][2] From the late Qing onward, large numbers of the Mei of Duanfen went to live in the United States and elsewhere, and they are one of Taishan's well-known emigrant clans.^[1]

Origin of the surname[edit]

The Mei surname comes from the Zi (子) surname, its bearers being descendants of the Shang royal house. King Taiding (太丁) of Shang enfeoffed his younger brother at Mei (梅, around present-day Bozhou, Anhui), who was called Mei Bo (梅伯, the Earl of Mei); under King Zhou of Shang, Mei Bo was killed for remonstrating forthrightly, and his descendants took the name of the state as their surname. The ancestral commandery of the Mei is Runan (汝南), and a commonly used hall name is Runan Tang (汝南堂), among others; the family shrines in the homes of the Mei of Taishan are also often inscribed "汝南堂上历代祖先神位" ("Spirit seat of the ancestors of all generations of the Runan Hall").^[3][1] Besides this, there have historically also been Mei surnames among the ethnic minorities of the south and the north.^[3]

Coming to Taishan[edit]

According to the account by Mei Yimin (梅逸民) in Origins of Taishan's Surnames (《台山姓氏源流》, vol. 1), the founding ancestor of the Mei of Taishan, Mei Yongqing (taboo name Mei 美, courtesy name Yucun 玉存), was a jinshi (palace graduate) who served as Commissioner (经略) of Guangzhou Prefecture; his ancestral home was Fengyang County, Fengyang Prefecture, north of the Yangtze (江北), and his forebears had moved to Zhuji Lane in Nanxiong. In the 9th year of Xianchun of the Southern Song (1273), Mei Hongyi (梅弘一) and his brothers moved south from Nanxiong to escape unrest and settled at Longshan (龙山) in Shunde (顺德) and Jiujiang (九江) in Nanhai (南海).^[1][2]

In the 4th year of Hongwu of the Ming (1371), Mei Yongqing was ordered by imperial decree to garrison Xinhui; touring on inspection, he came to the waters from Huanzhoulang (环洲朗) in Duanfen to Haiyang (海阳), and, loving the hills and waters there, he built a hut and settled with his wife, née Yang, at the foot of Fengshan (present-day Chikan Village). Clan tradition holds that he was later ordered back to the capital (another account says he fled back to Shunde to escape danger and died at Longshan in his old age), leaving behind only his beard, hair and teeth, which were buried at Shuangjian Peak (双尖峰) in Shangze (上泽), and the place has therefore been called Yashan (牙山, "Tooth Hill").^[1][2] At that time the Duanfen area belonged to Xinhui County; after Xinning County (新宁县) was split off and established in the 12th year of Hongzhi of the Ming (1499), the descendants of the Mei were registered in Xinning.^[2]

Mei Yongqing had two sons, Yanliang (彦良) and Yanming (彦明); Yanliang moved to Yangchun (阳春), and Yanming stayed in Duanfen. Yanming had four sons, Yanfu (延福), Yanshou (延寿), Yanchang (延昌) and Yanling (延龄); their principal heirs still lived at the old site in Chikan (present-day Shandi area, 山底), while the other sons each founded a village of their own, forming four branches (fang):^[2]

• Eldest branch, Yanfu: descendants scattered in Shanhou (山后), Chikan, Shijiaotai (石交台), Huanzhou (环洲), Chaoyang (朝阳), Qibang (棋榜), Xiyuan (西园) and other villages.
• Second branch, Yanshou: descendants scattered in Xitou (西头), Liuxiang Township (六乡), Shanzihou (山子后), Meilong (美隆), Nanyang (南阳), Shangzedakuang (上泽大圹), Fengyangli (凤阳里) and other places.
• Third branch, Yanchang: the other sons live in Kengmei (坑美), Jian'an (建安), Anhuai (安怀), Jinping (锦屏), Qionglin (琼林) and other villages.
• Fourth branch, Yanling: descendants scattered in Shandi, Dongling (东陵), Hele (和乐), Haiyang, Dongmentou (东门头) in Guanghai (广海), and other places.

Mei Mingkui (梅命夔) of the 11th generation of the eldest branch, a juren (provincial graduate) of the 5th year of Kangxi of the Qing (1666), wrote the Genealogy of the Mei of Duanfen (《端芬梅氏族谱》) and set the generation names for the 11th generation onward: 元 (Yuan) 锡 (Xi) 德 (De) 瑞 (Rui), 远 (Yuan) 耀 (Yao) 迺 (Nai) 宗 (Zong), 友 (You) 恭 (Gong) 忠 (Zhong) 良 (Liang), 万 (Wan) 福 (Fu) 攸 (You) 同 (Tong); later generations drew up a further sequence: 崇 (Chong) 礼 (Li) 尚 (Shang) 仁 (Ren), 克 (Ke) 绳 (Sheng) 祖 (Zu) 武 (Wu), 开 (Kai) 基 (Ji) 创 (Chuang) 业 (Ye), 贻 (Yi) 厥 (Jue) 孙 (Sun) 谋 (Mou).^[2]

Distribution[edit]

According to Origins of Taishan's Surnames (vol. 1), the descendants of the Mei are spread over 64 natural villages in the seven management districts of Shandi, Shanhou, Jinjiang (锦江), Liuxiang Township, Haiyang, Xitou and Nanyang in Duanfen Town, and over a number of villages in the Qilian (七联), Xize (西泽), Tangdi (塘底), Nachao (那潮) and other management districts; outside Duanfen, Mei families also live at Dongmentou in Guanghai, Xiaocun Village (萧村) in Haiyan (海宴), Houxie Village (后斜村) in Beidou (北陡), Shatouchong Village (沙头冲村) in Shenjing (深井), Shenshui Village (深水村) in Longwen (隆文), Taicheng (台城) and other places. The book cites 1996 figures: about 3,700-odd households and more than 14,500 people surnamed Mei in Duanfen.^[2]

From around the 11th year of Guangxu of the Qing (1885), young and able-bodied members of the Mei of Duanfen went to the United States in large numbers, first to the West Coast and then on to Chicago, New York and other cities, most of them making a living with laundries, restaurants and grocery stores. According to a 1989 estimate cited in the book, there were about 1,500 in Chicago and its vicinity, about 2,000 in New York and about 540 in Boston; besides these, about 20,000 in Hong Kong and Macau, and about 1,000 in Singapore and Malaysia.^[1][2]

Ancestral halls and overseas Chinese magazines[edit]

• The Yongqing Mei Gong Memorial Hall (永清梅公纪念堂) and Yongqing Memorial Park (永清纪念公园), in Duanfen, built in October 1997 with funds raised by Mei clansmen living abroad.^[2]
• The Mei Family General Association of America (美国梅氏总公所), in Chicago, whose association building was completed in 1922; there are also Mei family associations in Washington, New York, San Francisco, Boston and elsewhere.^[2]
• The World Mei Clan General Association (世界梅氏宗亲总会), founded in Taipei in 1975, whose first president (chairman of the board) was Mei Youzhuo (梅友卓); it held its 12th reunion convention in Taishan in November 2013.^[2][4]
• Flowers of Runan (《汝南之花》), founded by young people of the Mei of Duanfen and published from 1927 to 1937; it was later revived twice, and in 1981 revived for the third time.^[2]
• Plum Blossom Monthly (《梅花月报》), a literary magazine founded in Duanfen in October 1982.^[2]

People[edit]

• Mei Yongqing, of the early Ming, founding ancestor of the Mei of Taishan.^[1]
• Mei Mingkui, juren (provincial graduate) of the 5th year of Kangxi of the Qing (1666), author of the Genealogy of the Mei of Duanfen.^[2]
• Mei Zongzhou (梅宗周), an overseas Chinese community leader in the United States who took part in founding Chicago's Chinatown.^[2]
• Mei Guangda (梅光达), a famous overseas Chinese community leader in Australia, awarded a fifth-rank military merit medal by the Qing government.^[2]
• Mei Qiaolin (梅乔林), in the late Qing president of the Tongmenghui (同盟会) in Chicago, United States, later a secretary in the Office of the Provisional President; Qiaolin Village (乔林村) in Duanfen was renamed after him.^[2][5]
• Mei Jingzhou (梅景周), in the Republican period consul in Honolulu and minister to Venezuela and Cuba.^[2]
• Mei Guangpei (梅光培), appointed by Sun Yat-sen as director of the Guangdong Provincial Department of Finance.^[2]
• Mei Youzhuo, overseas Chinese community leader, first president of the World Mei Clan General Association.^[2][4]