yì 易

Migration and Distribution There is a lack of information about the activities of the Yi family name in the pre-Qin period. Records of the Yi family name did not appear until the Three Kingdoms period. Hebei was the main early activity area of the Yi family. By the Western Jin Dynasty, the Yi family had left their marks in Hunan and Gansu. In the Tang Dynasty, the Yi family immigrated to Jiangxi. During the Song and Yuan dynasties, the Yi family also appeared in regions such as Shanxi, Shandong, Guangdong, and Hubei. At the latest, in the Ming Dynasty, the Yi family entered the southwestern region and Fujian. During the Song Dynasty, there were approximately 60,000 people with the Yi family name, accounting for about 0.08% of the country's total population and ranking after the 150th place among the surnames in the Song Dynasty. Hunan was the province with the largest number of people with the Yi family name, accounting for about 59% of the total population with the Yi family name nationwide. The distribution of the Yi family in the country was mainly concentrated in the three provinces of Hunan, Jiangxi, and Shandong, forming two major gathering areas of the Yi family centered around southern Hunan and Jiangxi and northern Shandong in the country. During the Ming Dynasty, there were approximately more than 170,000 people with the Yi family name, accounting for about 0.19% of the country's total population and being the 95th largest surname in the Ming Dynasty. The distribution of the Yi family in the country was mainly concentrated in the three provinces of Jiangxi, Hubei, and Hunan, accounting for about 80% of the total population with the Yi family name. Secondly, they were distributed in provinces such as Sichuan, Jiangsu, and Henan. Jiangxi was the province with the largest number of people with the Yi family name. During the Song, Yuan, and Ming dynasties, the Yi family population mainly migrated to the southeastern, southern, and western regions. Basically, a gathering area of the Yi family centered around the provinces in the Yangtze River Basin was formed in the country.