Hundred Family Surnames (Bai Jia Xing) - 百家姓

The "Hundred Family Surnames" (Bai Jia Xing) is one of the three classic Chinese primers, along with the "Three Character Classic" and "Thousand Character Classic". It was compiled in the early Northern Song Dynasty, originally containing 411 Chinese surnames, later expanded to 504 surnames, including 444 single-character surnames and 60 compound surnames. The "Hundred Family Surnames" is easy to read and memorize. The order of surnames in the "Hundred Family Surnames" is not based on population size. The first four surnames "Zhao, Qian, Sun, Li" were placed at the beginning because the book originated in the Wuyue region during the Song Dynasty, where the Zhao family (Song emperors), Qian family (Wuyue kings), Sun family (wife of Qian Chu, the last Wuyue king), and Li family (Southern Tang kings) were the most prominent families.