kāng 康

The origin of the surname "Kang": 1. It comes from the Ji family and uses the posthumous title as the surname. According to "Yuanhe Xingzuan" and "Xingyuan", in the early years of the Zhou Dynasty, Kang Shu, the seventh son of King Wen, was enfeoffed in the State of Wei. Later, his descendants took the posthumous title "Kang" (a posthumous title given during one's lifetime) of their ancestor as the surname. 2. It uses the name of a country as the surname. Some envoys from the Western Regions' Kangju Kingdom (approximately between the Balkhash Lake and the Aral Sea) and those who came to China from Kangju took "Kang" as their surname. For example, Kang Mengxiang in the Han Dynasty. 3. It is one of the "Nine Surnames of Zhaowu". Among the people from the Kangguo (in present - day Uzbekistan, around Samarkand) who came to China during the Sui and Tang Dynasties, some took "Kang" as their surname. For example, Kang Qian in the Tang Dynasty. 4. In the Song Dynasty, to avoid the taboo of Emperor Taizu Zhao Kuangyin's name, the Kuang family changed their surname to Kang.