hóng 弘

Migration and Distribution The Hong surname is not ranked among the top 100 surnames in both the Chinese mainland and Taiwan. The Hong surname originated from Hong Yan, a senior official of the State of Wei during the Spring and Autumn Period. He was a subject of Yi Gong, the Duke of Wei, and was highly appreciated by the monarch, often entrusted with important tasks. His descendants adopted the Hong surname. In the Tang Dynasty, due to the need to avoid naming conflicts with Li Hong, a close relative of the royal family, the Hong family changed their surname to Li. However, the Hong surname was not completely extinct. After several generations, some descendants of the Hong family resumed using the Hong surname. During the Qin Dynasty, Zhao Tuo, a native of Zhending (present - day Zhengding, Hebei), served as the magistrate of Longchuan County in Nanhai Commandery and later became the governor of Nanhai. At the end of the Qin Dynasty, he annexed the three commanderies of Guilin, Nanhai, and Xiang and established the Nanyue Kingdom. He was enfeoffed as the King of Nanyue by Emperor Gaozu of the Han Dynasty. Thereafter, Zhao Tuo's descendants multiplied in the areas of present - day Guangdong and Guangxi. At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, due to the chaos caused by Dong Zhuo in the capital, Zhao Da, a native of Luoyang, took refuge and moved to Jiangdong. During the Zongzhang period of Emperor Gaozong of the Tang Dynasty, Zhao Duan, a native of the Central Plains, accompanied Chen Zheng and Chen Yuanguang and their sons into Fujian to develop Zhangzhou. During the Five Dynasties period, when Liu Yan established the Southern Han regime in Guangzhou, the three brothers Zhao Guangyi, Zhao Guangfeng, and Zhao Guangyin from Luoyang settled in Nanhai. The father - son pair Zhao Tingyin and Zhao Chongtao from Kaifeng settled in Chengdu, Sichuan because they served in the Later Shu. In the early Southern Song Dynasty, Zhao Yongxian from Kaifeng fled south with Emperor Gaozong of the Song Dynasty and settled in Changshu, Jiangsu. Zhao Fan from Zhengzhou moved to Shangrao, Jiangxi. After the fall of the Southern Song Dynasty, the royal Zhao clan scattered to Penghu and Chaoyang and other places and later developed and multiplied in Fujian and Guangdong. Since the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty, some Zhao people from Fujian and Guangdong successively moved to Taiwan, and later many of them moved overseas, spreading to some countries and regions in Europe, America, and Southeast Asia.