The 黄 surname

Huang (黄) is one of the most populous surnames of Taishan, found all over the county. Most of the Taishan Huang honor as their first-generation ancestor Huang Juzheng (黄居正), who in the Southern Song moved south from Putian (莆田), Fujian, by way of Zhuji Lane (珠玑巷) in Nanxiong (南雄); his eldest son Huang Yuanshen (黄源深) moved to Gangzhou (冈州, present-day Duruan (杜阮), Xinhui, Jiangmen), and the descendants of Yuanshen's sons in turn spread out to settle all over Taishan. The Hakka Huang of the Chixi (赤溪) and Tiantou (田头) area, on the other hand, came in the Qing dynasty and are not of this line.^[1][2]

Origin of the surname[edit]

The Huang surname comes mainly from the Ying (嬴) surname. According to tradition, descendants of Boyi (伯益) were enfeoffed in the state of Huang, in the area of present-day Huangchuan (潢川), Henan; the state of Huang was destroyed by Chu in 648 BCE, and its people took the name of the state as their surname. Later the Huang clan lived together in Jiangxia (江夏, in present-day Hubei); the Jiangxia Huang were the most renowned in the Han dynasty, and later Huang families mostly take Jiangxia as their ancestral commandery.^[3] The Taishan Huang likewise use “Jiangxia Hall” (江夏堂) as their hall name, and their ancestral halls and ancestral tablets mostly bear this name. The genealogies of different places give differing accounts of the ancient line of descent: some honor Huang Yun (黄云), son of Luzhong (陆终), as the founding ancestor, while some scholars hold that these ancient lines were mostly composed after the Song dynasty and cannot be fully trusted.^[1]

Coming to Taishan[edit]

According to the family genealogies, Huang Juzheng, whose taboo name was You (由) and whose art names were Yinzhai (寅斋) and Wanshi (万石), originally lived on Hantou Street (涵头街) in Putian, Fujian. He passed the jinshi (palace) examination in the second year of Chunxi of Emperor Xiaozong of Song (1175), rose to be Vice Minister of Personnel, and was later sent out as prefect of Yingzhou (英州, present-day Yingde), living with his family at Zhuji Lane in Nanxiong. His wife was of the Wu (巫) clan, and they had four sons: Yuanshen, Yuanda (源大), Yuanfu (源辅) and Yuanzan (源赞). The Taishan Huang honor Juzheng as their first-generation ancestor; his tomb is at Hengtang (横塘), Shuibu (水步), and is popularly called “the Rhinoceros Gazing at the Moon”.^[1]

The eldest son, Huang Yuanshen, whose taboo name was Guanghan (广汉) and art name Yunshan (云山), is called in the genealogies a jinshi of the eighth year of Chunxi (1181). In his later years, because of the Consort Hu affair (胡妃之乱; another account says because of his official career), he moved from Zhuji Lane to Yuanqing Ward (源清坊) in Gangzhou (present-day Duruan, Xinhui). Yuanshen's wife was of the Mi (米) clan, and they had six sons: Guozong (国宗), Guotai (国泰), Guo'an (国安), Guobing (国秉), Guoqi (国器) and Guoshe (国舍). Except for Guo'an, the other five branches all have descendants living in various parts of Taishan, and so the Taishan Huang honor Yuanshen as their second-generation ancestor. Yuanshen's tomb is on Tongtianzhu Hill (通天烛山) at Nancun Village (南村), Duhu (都斛).^[1] A 2017 report by Taishan Television also says that most of the Huang in Taishan are descendants of Huang Yuanshen.^[2]

The Guotai branch

The Guotai branch has multiplied most widely in Taishan. Guotai's great-grandson Huang Yinlong (黄隐龙) moved to Dongkou (洞口) and was the founder of the settlement at Dongkou; by the 10th generation of the Taishan Huang his line had divided into three branches, Deren (德仁), Deyi (德义) and Dezhi (德智). The descendants of the Dezhi branch are found throughout Fucheng (附城), Shuibu, Sanba (三八), Sanhe (三合), Sijiu (四九), Chonglou (冲蒌), Duhu, Doushan (斗山), Guanghai (广海), Shalan (沙栏), Haiyan (海宴), Wencun (汶村), Shangchuan (上川), Xiachuan (下川) and other places; by a count of the 10th year of the Republic (1921), they already numbered about 20,000.^[1]

The Guozong branch

By the 10th generation, the descendants of the Guozong branch lived in Baisha (白沙), Fucheng, Sijiu, Sanba, Shuibu, Sanhe, Duanfen (端芬), Haiyan, Shalan, Dalongdong (大隆洞), Nafu (那扶) and other places, most of all in Baisha, though the first migrant ancestors of the various villages are not all the same.^[1]

The Hakka Huang of Chixi and Tiantou

According to the Survey of Taishan Past and Present (《台山古今概览》), the ancestors of the Chixi Hakka moved into Xinning (新宁) from the counties under Huizhou (惠州), Chaozhou (潮州) and Jiaying Prefecture (嘉应州) in the Yongzheng and Qianlong periods of the Qing. The Comprehensive Book of Chinese Surnames (《中华姓氏通书》) says that the Hakka Huang of Guangdong are mostly offshoots of Huang Qiaoshan (黄峭山) of Shaowu (邵武), Fujian. The Huang of Chixi and Tiantou came relatively late, and do not share a settlement founder with the Huang of other parts of Taishan; their first migrant ancestor is yet to be verified.^[1]

The Wang of Nancun

According to the Hong Kong edition of the Huang Genealogy (《黄氏族谱》), the Wang (王) line of Chonglou, Doushan and Nancun in Duhu were originally descendants of Yinlong Gong of Dongkou by a concubine. Tradition holds that when the line of the principal wife and the line of the concubine divided the family property, they went to law over it; the concubine's line lost the case and changed its surname to “Wang”. The ancestral hall in the village is inscribed “Wang Ancestral Hall” (王氏宗祠), yet its ancestral tablets are carved “so-and-so Huang Gong Fujun” (某某黄公府君); the villagers discussed returning to the surname Huang three times, but never carried it out. According to a 1984 survey, the Wang of Nancun Township numbered 12 villages, 856 households and 3,422 people.^[1]

Distribution[edit]

According to historical material cited in Origins of Taishan's Surnames (《台山姓氏源流》, Volume 1), when the building of the Huang Grand Ancestral Hall (黄氏大宗祠) in Taicheng (台城) was proposed in the 10th year of the Republic (1921), the Taishan Huang numbered more than 120,000 in the whole county, not counting Chixi and Tiantou; at the time the book was written (the late 1990s), the author estimated that the Huang residents of the whole city numbered no fewer than 200,000.^[1] According to a 2017 report by Taishan Television, the Taishan Huang live in 20 towns and districts and more than 660 natural villages of the city, with a resident population of about 90,000 by a 2005 count and about 100,000 living overseas.^[2] The two sets of figures are counted on different bases, and both are old. According also to the book Origins of the Huang (《黄氏源流》), the Huang of Dongkou, Ganbian (甘边), Sanshe (三社), Baisha, Chaojing (潮境), Nankeng (南坑), Guanghai, Sanhe, Haiyan and other places all came from Zhuji Lane in Nanxiong.^[4]

Ancestral halls and emigrant magazines[edit]

• Huang Grand Ancestral Hall (Puquan Hall, 溥泉堂): at 17 Zhengshi Street (正市街), Taicheng, in memory of Huang Juzheng; it is the only surviving grand ancestral hall in memory of Huang Juzheng, founding ancestor of the Gangzhou line of the Huang of Guangdong. According to the Taishan Television report, citing the Record of the Rebuilding of the Taishan Huang Grand Ancestral Hall (《台山黄氏大宗祠重修碑记》), the hall was completed in 1923;^[2] Origins of Taishan's Surnames (Volume 1) says it was built in the 13th year of the Republic (1924).^[1] From 1926 a Huang school was run in the hall, later renamed Juzheng Middle School (居正中学); in 1993 the rear hall was rebuilt as a teaching building, with the Juzheng Huang Gong Memorial Hall on the second floor; it was restored in 2002.^[2]
• Yuanshen Huang Gong Ancestral Hall (源深黄公祠): built in both Guanghai and Haiyan, in memory of the second-generation ancestor Huang Yuanshen.^[1]
• Yunshan Associations (云山公所): some overseas Taishan Huang associations are named after Huang Yuanshen's art name, “Yunshan”, such as the Huang Jiangxia Hall Yunshan General Association (黄江夏堂云山总公所) of San Francisco.^[1]

The Huang and the Wu, one family[edit]

Taishan has long had the saying “the Huang and the Wu are one family” (黄伍一家亲). According to a legend of the Chuanbu (船步) area of Chaojing, in the Xuande period of the Ming, a daughter of Huang Bangyong (黄邦用), founder of the settlement at Chuanbu, married into the Wu (伍) family of Doudong (斗洞), Dajiang (大江); her son drowned on a visit to her parents' home, and her brother and his wife gave her their own young son, who looked like him, to take back to the Wu family and raise, and from then on the Huang and Wu surnames became brothers. Overseas, the Taishan Huang and Wu both belong to the Yunshan Associations.^[1]

People[edit]

According to Origins of Taishan's Surnames (Volume 1), of the 38 Taishan people included in the Guangdong Encyclopedia (《广东百科全书》) published in 1995, 9 were surnamed Huang; and of the 66 overseas Chinese included in the biographies of the Gazetteer of Taishan County's Overseas Chinese (《台山县华侨志》) printed in 1992, 14 were surnamed Huang - in both cases the most of any surname.^[1] The people the book mentions include:

• Huang Bingchang (黄秉常), a modern entrepreneur, who founded the Guangzhou Electric Light Company in 1890.^[1]
• Huang Longsheng (黄隆生), an overseas Chinese social activist in Vietnam; the original book says he served as the first deputy governor of the Central Bank founded by Sun Yat-sen.^[1]
• Huang Xinbo (黄新波), a printmaker, once vice-chairman of the China Artists Association.^[1]
• Huang Ningying (黄宁婴), a poet and drama theorist.^[1]
• Huang Guangrui (黄光锐), an air force lieutenant general, once deputy commander of the air force.^[1]
• Anna May Wong (黄柳霜), a Chinese American performing artist, in the 1920s one of the first Chinese artists to win recognition across America.^[1]
• James Wong Howe (黄宗霑), a Chinese American photographic artist, one of the same group of Chinese artists as Anna May Wong.^[5]
• Huang Gongyue (黄公越), chief director of the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association (中华会馆) in the United States in the 2nd year of Xuantong of the Qing (1910).^[1]