jiǎn 简

### Migration and Distribution The Jian (简) surname is not ranked among the top 100 surnames in the Chinese mainland, but it ranks 32nd in Taiwan. The Jian clan originated from the Ji (姬) surname. During the Spring and Autumn Period, there was a man named Jian Shu in the State of Lu. Some of his descendants took his name as their surname. In the Eastern Han Dynasty, Jian Qiming, the magistrate of Gouzhang County, changed his surname to Jian to avoid taboos. The Jian clan is the descendants of Xu Jianbo, a high - ranking official in the State of Jin during the Spring and Autumn Period. They have always regarded Fanyang and Zhuojun in Hebei as the centers of their clan's growth. If you pay a little attention, you may find that the ancestral hall names of Jian families are either "Fanyang" or "Zhuojun". The State of Jin in the Spring and Autumn Period was founded by Tang Shuyu, the son of King Wu of Zhou, and it was a state of the same surname as the Zhou emperors at that time. Since the ancestors of the Jian clan came from the noble families of the State of Jin, tracing back to their origin, they are undoubtedly the descendants of King Wen of Zhou with the Ji surname and the descendants of Emperor Huang. According to *Xing Zuan* (《姓纂》), "As recorded in *Zuo Zhuan*, Hu Juju, a high - ranking official in the State of Jin, was granted the Xuyi area as his fief and was known as Xu Jianbo. There was also a man named Jian Qing in the Han Dynasty." According to *The Genealogy of the Fanyang Jian Clan* (《范阳简氏家谱》), "Hu Juju, a high - ranking official in the State of Jin, was granted the Xuyi area as his fief and was posthumously titled Jianbo. His descendants took it as their surname. The ancestors of the Hu clan came from Tang Shu, the son of King Wu of Zhou and the younger brother of King Cheng." After Xu Jianbo, both the State of Jin and the Zhou Dynasty had the Ji surname. They were the descendants of Houji and the descendants of Emperor Huang. Later, they were either in Fanyang or in Zhuojun. However, like most famous surnames, the Jian clan is not solely from the noble families of the State of Jin in the Spring and Autumn Period. In addition, according to the research in *Xing Fan* (《姓范》), among the many descendants of this family, a small number changed their surname from Jian (检). *Xing Fan* states, "There were people from the Jian (检) clan who changed their surname to Jian (简) to avoid taboos." The pronunciation of the Jian (检) surname is exactly the same as that of the Jian (简) surname. According to the Qing - Dynasty scholar Zhang Shu, the way they got the surname was "by being in charge of inspection", that is, their ancestors once served as "inspectors" and thus took the name of the official position as their surname. The change of the Jian (检) surname to Jian (简) happened in the Han Dynasty. At that time, a man named Jian Ming changed his surname to Jian to avoid taboos, and since then, it has been passed down from generation to generation, significantly expanding the influence of the Jian clan. The migration situation of the Jian clan over the past more than 2000 years has also been investigated. According to *The Research on the Ancestors of the Jian Clan* (《简氏祖先考》), "In Zhuojun, there was a man named Jian Qing in the Han Dynasty. In Fanyang, there was a man named Jian Yong in the Three - Kingdoms period. After the Jin Dynasty unified the country, due to wars and unrest, the Jian clan migrated southward and scattered in areas such as Nanhai, Jing'an, Xinyu, Dongguan, Maping, and Sichuan. During the Song Dynasty, when people migrated southward to avoid the war, they took refuge in Ninghua, Fujian, and then traveled to Nanjianzhou and Jianningfu. In the second year of the Qiandao era (1166 AD), they moved to Shanghang. The third - generation ancestor moved to Hongyuan Village, Taipingli (he was the first ancestor to settle in Hongyuan). The ninth - generation descendant, Derun, married into the Zhang family in Nanjing in 1280 AD and became the first ancestor to settle in Zhangjiao. He had three sons. The second - generation descendant, Guizhen, moved from Nanjing to Guangdong, and his descendants spread to Chaoyang, Panyu and other counties." According to *The Research on the Jian Clan* (《简氏姓族考》), "In the Three - Kingdoms period, Jian Yong served as a中郎. At that time, the world was in chaos, and his family members followed him. Some were in Shaoyang, some in Yuan'an, some in Xinyu and Jing'an in Jiangxi, and some in Baxian in Sichuan. During the Later Liang period after the Five Dynasties, the Khitan invaded the north. People in Zhuozhou were constantly worried about the war. Some of the clan members who were on official tours in the southern regions outside the mountains decided to stay there. If Liyong is considered a place, those who first entered Guangdong traveled across rivers and the Yangtze River from Zhuozhou. After the Later Jin Dynasty ceded sixteen northern states to the Khitan, and Zhuozhou was among them, more and more members of the Jian clan went to the southern regions outside the mountains and scattered in various counties in eastern Guangdong." From these two historical records, we can know that the Jian clan began to gradually migrate southward before the Five Dynasties. Some of them directly moved to Guangdong, while others moved from Jiangxi to Fujian and then branched out to Guangdong. Later, they flourished into a large clan in Guangdong. Many Jian - surname people in Taiwan migrated from Nanjing, Fujian. The prominent branch of the Jian clan is from the Fanyang Commandery (now Zhuoxian County, Hebei Province).