yán 阎

### Migration and Distribution Yi, the son of Duke Cheng of Jin, was enfeoffed in Yan. Later, Yan was annexed by the State of Jin. As a result, most of Yi's descendants scattered around Heluo (the area between the Yellow River and the Luo River). Combining with the previous statements, it can be confirmed that there are at least three birthplaces of the Yan surname, namely the present - day Henan, Shaanxi, and Shanxi provinces. During the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, there was a high - ranking official named Yan Ao in the State of Chu, indicating that the Yan surname had settled in Hubei at that time. During the Qin and Han dynasties, people with the Yan surname migrated to Gansu, Hunan, Shandong, Hebei and other places. At the end of the Western Han Dynasty, Yan Zhang, the Minister of the Imperial Secretariat, lived in Xingyang. Yan Xian, the eldest son of Yan Zhang's son Yan Chang, was enfeoffed as the Marquis of Changshe (now in Henan Province). Later, Yan Xian was involved in the replacement of the royal family and was executed. His son Yan Mu fled to Anhan in Baxi (now in Sichuan Province) to avoid disaster, which marked the beginning of the Yan surname's entry into Sichuan. Yan Mu's grandson, Yan Fu, was conferred the title of Marquis of Pingle by Emperor Wu of Wei and returned to live in Xin'an, Henan. Yan Pu, Yan Fu's son, served as the governor of Xiangjun (now in parts of Guangxi and Guizhou) after the unification of the Western Jin Dynasty and settled there. Yan Zan, Yan Pu's son, served as the governor of Hanzhong and settled in Hanzhong, Shaanxi. Yan Zan's son, Yan Heng, was the governor of Liaoxi. Yan Heng's son, Yan Ding, moved to the area of present - day Beijing due to his official career and later died in a disaster caused by Liu Cong. Yan Chang, Yan Ding's son, fled to Mayi (now Shuozhou, Shanxi). Later, a branch of Yan Man, Yan Chang's grandson, moved to Henan, from which other branches such as those in Tianshui and Dunhuang in Gansu originated. Yan Shan, the grandson of Yan Man, moved to Shengle in Yunzhou (now the ancient city site northwest of Helingeer County, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region) because he served as the general of Yunzhong Town. Later, during the period of the "Five Barbarians Intrusion", the Yan surname was forced to migrate southward on a large scale. After the Sui and Tang dynasties, the distribution of the Yan surname in the south of the Yangtze River became more extensive. During the prosperous Tang Dynasty, the Yan surname developed into a prominent clan in Taiyuan. During the Song and Yuan dynasties, with the invasion of ethnic minorities from the north, the Yan surname, which was originally scattered in the south of the Yangtze River, further spread to Central China, South China, and Southwest China. In the Ming Dynasty, as one of the surnames of the migrants from Hongdong Big Sophora Tree, the Yan surname in Taiyuan also had people move to Shandong, Henan, Shaanxi, Beijing, Tianjin and other places. By then, the Yan surname had been distributed all over the country, and some people with the Yan surname migrated overseas. Today, the Yan surname is widely distributed. It is particularly common in Henan, Shandong, and Hebei provinces. The Yan people in these three provinces account for about 57% of the Han people with the Yan surname in the whole country. The Yan surname ranks 50th among the surnames in modern China. The population of the Yan surname is relatively large, accounting for about 0.4% of the Han population in the whole country.