A commonly cited but erroneousfactoid in the 1990Guinness Book of Records listed it as the world's most common surname,[8] but no comprehensive information from China was available at the time and more recent editions have not repeated the claim.
Zhang inMandarin, alternatively romanized asChang inTaiwan and among theChinese diaspora using older romanization systems. However, Zhang has been the official first-recommended translation for張 inTaiwan since 2017.
Zhang Fei (died July or August 221 AD)'s subordinates Fan Qiang (范彊) and Zhang Da (張達) assassinated their commander, decapitated the corpse, and brought the head along with them as they defected to Sun Quan's side.
As mentioned above,張 is thethird-most-common surname inmainland China, making up 6.83% of the population of the People's Republic of China.[9] In 2019 it was the most common surname in exactly one provincial-level division,Shanghai municipality.[10] In Taiwan,張 is thefourth-most-common surname, making up 5.26% of the population of the Republic of China. In 2019 it was again the third most common surname in Mainland China.[10]
Zhang Wei (张伟) has been the most common family name and given name combination in China for many years.
張 combines theChinese characters弓 (gōng, "bow") and長 (simp.长,cháng, "long" or "wide"). It originally meant "to open up" or "to spread" as an arching bow, but as a common noun in modern use it is ameasure word for flat objects such as paper and cloth, like the English "sheet of".
The traditional origin of the surname張 (Old Chinese:*C. traŋ[1]) is rooted in Chinese legend. The fifth son of theYellow Emperor,Qing Yangshi (simplified Chinese:青阳氏;traditional Chinese:青陽氏;pinyin:Qīng Yángshì), had a sonHui (挥;揮;Huī) who was inspired by the Heavenly Bowconstellation (天弓星,Tiān Gōng Xīng) to invent the bow and arrow. Hui was then promoted to "First Bow" (弓正,Gōng Zhèng) and bestowed the surname張, which – when broken into its constituentradicals – means "widening bow" or "archer". ItsMiddle Chinese pronunciation has been reconstructed asTrjang.[1]
for some families, it is traced back to Xie Zhang (解張), whose style name was Zhang Hou (張侯, lit “Marquis Zhang”) a noble inJin during theSpring and Autumn period.
from the family ofZhang Liao (張遼), an official inCao Wei duringThree Kingdoms period. Zhāng Liao's family had changed fromNie toZhang to avoid association with his disgraced ancestorNie Yi (聶壹).[13]
the surname is also traced back to Long Youna, chief of a minority ethnic groups during the Three Kingdoms period, who was given the Chinese surname Zhang (張) byZhuge Liang, the prime minister ofShu.
^McFarlan, Donald (2001).1990 Guinness Book of World Records. Sterling Pub. Co.ISBN189205101X.
^公安部统计：'王'成中国第一大姓 有9288万人 [Public Security Bureau Statistics: 'Wang' Found China's #1 'Big Family', Includes 92.88m People].news.eastday.com (in Chinese). 24 April 2007. Archived fromthe original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved27 March 2012.
This page lists people with thesurnameZhang. If aninternal link intending to refer to a specific person led you to this page, you may wish to change thatlink by adding the person'sgiven name(s) to the link.
