Xiao Qin -
Pronounce My Name
|
Pronounce
My Name |
|
When most Americans see my name, they wonder how to
pronounce it. I pronounce my name like "Shiao Chin", but not like
"Ziao Queen". The spelling of my name is, of course, unusual
because it is a Chinese name. My Chinese friends pronounce my name like
"Chin(second tone) Shiao(fourth tone)". This is because a Chinese
name is written with family name first and given name second. Qin
( Qin
Chinese surname history:
Qin The
surname Qin stemmed from the surname Ying of the ancestors of Ying Zheng
(First Emperor 259-210BC). The offspring of Gao Tao in ancient times called
Feizi was good at horse training and was conferred as the leader of the
region Qin by King Xiao of Zhou Dynasty. Later,
a descendant of Feizi Duke Zhuang of State Qin distinguished himself with
exploits and his son Duke Xiang was conferred as a prince for expedition
against peoples in the west and convoying the eastward move of King Ping to
Luoyi. Duke Xiang moved east to officially set up State Qin - the beginning
of the glory of the surname Qin. Following
this Duke Xiao made his state one of the seven big states in the Warring
States Period (475-221BC) by appointing Shang Yang to preside over a reform
that greatly enhanced the state's overall strength. When it came to Ying
Zheng, State Qin finally unified the other six states and founded Qin
Dynasty. Qin
Dynasty perished after only one succession. Its royal descendants took the
name of the state as their surname to commemorate the glorious history of the
clan. Another
branch of the surname Qin originated from the surname Ji. The son of Duke Dan
of Zhou Dynasty Bo Qin inherited his vavasory in Qin and his offspring took
the name of the place as their surname. This branch was very prosperous in
Han Dynasty. The
Romans who migrated to China changed their name and became a source of the
surname Qin. These people stayed in China, took the surname Qin and gradually
blended into Chinese Qin-surnamed. Since
the surname Qin was formed their people evolved into prosperous clans in
Tianshui of Gansu and Taiyuan of Shanxi. They are distributed mainly in Henan, Shaanxi, Shandong, Sichuan, Hubei and Hebei. At
the beginning of Western Han Dynasty the Qin-surnamed mainly inhabited in the
central Shaanxi plain. Since Qin Dynasty was destroyed by Han Dynasty the
Qin-surnamed did not migrate very much during Western and Eastern Han
Dynasties. During Tang and Song Dynasties the Qin-surnamed migrated mainly to
Henan region. By
People's
Daily Online -- Chinese surname history Qin Qin
Dynasty
From
Wikipedia, the free
encyclopedia The
Qin Dynasty (Chinese: 秦朝; Pinyin: Qín Cháo;
Wade-Giles:
Ch'in Ch'ao) (221
BC - 206 BC)
was preceded by the Zhou Dynasty and followed by the Han
Dynasty in China.
The unification of China 221 BC under the First
Emperor (Qin Shi Huangdi) marked the beginning of imperial China, a
period that lasted until the fall of the Qing
Dynasty in 1912.
The Qin Dynasty left a legacy of a centralized and bureaucratic state that
would be carried onto successive dynasties. Qin
Shi Huang
Qin
Shi Huangdi imposed the State of Qin's centralized, non-hereditary
bureaucratic system on his new empire in place of the Zhou's feudalistic
one. The Qin Empire relied on the philosophy of legalism (with skillful advisors like Han Fei and Li Si).
Centralization, achieved by ruthless methods, was focused on standardizing
legal codes and bureaucratic procedures, the forms of writing and coinage,
and the pattern of thought and scholarship. Characters from the former state of Qin became
the standard for the entire empire. The length of the wheel axle was also
unified and expressways standardized to ease transportation throughout the
country. To silence criticism of imperial rule, the emperor banished or put
to death many dissenting Confucian scholars and confiscated and burned their books. To
prevent future uprisings, Qin Shi Huangdi ordered the confiscation of weapons
and stored them in the capital. In order to prevent the resurgence of feudal
lords, he also destroyed the walls and fortifications that had separated the
previous six states. A national conscription was devised: every male between
the ages of seventeen and sixty years was obliged to serve one year in the
army. Qin aggrandizement was aided by frequent military expeditions pushing
forward the frontiers in the north and south. To fend off barbarian intrusion
(mainly against the Xiongnu in the north), the fortification walls built by the
various warring states were connected to make a wall; this is usually
recognised as the first Great Wall of China, although the present,
5,000- kilometer-long Great Wall of China was largely built or
re-built during the Ming Dynasty. A number of public works projects,
including canals and bridges, were also undertaken to consolidate and
strengthen imperial rule. A lavish tomb for the emperor, complete with a Terracotta
Army, was built near the capital Xianyang, a
city half an hour from modern Xi'an. These activities required enormous levies of
manpower and resources, not to mention repressive measures. Qin
Shi Huangdi reportedly began going "crazy" from swallowing mercury
pills, which were made by his court alchemists and doctors, containing too
much mercury. Ironically, these pills were meant to make Qin Shi Huangdi
immortal. This may be accountable for most of his paranoiac acts such as
building the terracotta army. This may also be the cause of his death later
on. Second
Emperor
During
his reign Qin Shi Huangdi made five inspection trips around the country.
During the last trip with his second son Huhai (胡亥)
in 210 BC,
Qin Shi Huangdi died suddenly at Shaqiu prefecture. Huhai, under the advice of two high
officials — the Imperial Secretariat Li Si(李斯) and the
chief eunuch Zhao Gao,
forged and altered Emperor's will. The faked decree ordered Qin Shi Huang's
first son, the heir Fusu
(扶蘇), to commit suicide, instead naming Huhai as the next emperor. The decree
also stripped the command of troops from Marshal Meng Tian
(蒙恬) — a faithful supporter of Fusu — and sentenced Meng's family to death.
Zhao Gao step by step seized the power of Huhai, effectively making Huhai a
puppet emperor.
Qin empire in 210 BC. Within
three years of Qin Shi Huang's death, widespread revolts by peasants,
prisoners, soldiers, and descendants of the nobles of the Six Warring
States sprang up all over China. Chen Sheng
(陳勝) and Wu
Guang (吳廣), two in a group of about 900 soldiers assigned to defend
against the Xiongnu, became the leaders of the first revolution by commoners. Third Emperor In
the beginning of October 207 BC, Zhao Gao forced Huhai to commit suicide and
replaced him with Fusu's son, Ziying (子嬰). Note that the title of Ziying was "king of
Qin" to reflect the fact that Qin no longer controlled the whole of
China. The Chu-Han contention ensued. Ziying soon killed
Zhao Gao and surrendered to Liu Bang (劉邦) in the beginning of December 207 BC. But Liu
Bang was forced to hand over Xianyang and Ziying to Xiang Yu.
Xiang Yu then killed Ziying and burned down the palace in the end of January 206 BC. Thus
the Qin dynasty came to an end, three years after the death of Qin Shi Huang,
and less than twenty years after it was founded. Although
the Qin Dynasty was short-lived, its legalist rule had a deep impact on later
dynasties in China. The imperial system initiated during the Qin dynasty set
a pattern that was developed over the next two millennia. Sovereigns
of Qin Dynasty
Note:
King Zhaoxiang of Qin (秦昭襄王) had already
been ruling Qin for 51 years when Qin annihilated the Zhou Dynasty; however
the other six warring states were still independent regimes. Historiographers
thus used the next year (the 52nd year of King Zhaoxiang of Qin) as the
official continuation from Zhou Dynasty. Qin
Shi Huang was the first Chinese sovereign to proclaim himself
"Emperor", after reunifying China in 221 BC. That
year is therefore usually taken as the start of the "Qin Dynasty".
During
the Qin Dynasty, starting with Qin Shi Huang, there were no posthumous names.
The title of Shi Huangdi ("Commencing Emperor") and Er
Shi Huangdi ("Second Generation Emperor") were used during the
rulers' lifetimes. References
A
correction to information on the Qin Dynasty's northern wall from:
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
) is my
family name (surname or last name) and Xiao (
) is my
given name (first name). 
