niè 聂

### Migration and Distribution Regarding the exact place of origin of the Nie surname, due to diverse opinions, it is impossible to verify today. However, there is no doubt that the Nie surname originated in the areas now known as Henan and Shandong. The first Nie surname person recorded in historical records was Nie Zheng in the Warring States period, who was from Zhi (now southwest of Jiyuan, Henan Province) in the State of Han. Later, in the Western Han Dynasty, there was Nie Yi (also known as Nie Wengyi) from Mayi, Yanmen (now Shuozhou, Shanxi Province). In the Eastern Han Dynasty, there was Nie Jibao from Xiangcheng, Yingchuan (now Xiangcheng, Henan Province), and there was also Nie Shang, who was the governor of Shu County (now Chengdu, Sichuan Province) and later became the Minister of Justice. This shows that before the Eastern Han Dynasty, the Nie surname basically had the north as the central area for its reproduction and development. During the Wei, Jin, and Southern and Northern Dynasties, the Nie surname developed rapidly in the area of present - day Xia County in Shanxi, showing a large clan with many branches and a prosperous population. Thus, the first major commandery - based clan of the Nie surname, the Hedong Commandery, emerged. In addition, due to the social unrest at that time, some Nie surname people had migrated to the south of the Yangtze River. Among them, those who settled in the Xin'an River Basin gradually formed the Xin'an Commandery - based clan of the Nie surname through reproduction and development. The historical figures of this period include Nie You, a person from the State of Wu in the Three Kingdoms, who was from Yuzhang (now Nanchang, Jiangxi Province), and Nie Song in the Southern Liang Dynasty. It can be seen that the Nie surname had migrated to present - day Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, and Anhui at this time. During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the Nie surname continued to thrive in the above two major commandery - based clans and spread to the surrounding areas with these two places as the centers. During the Two Song Dynasties, most of the Nie surname people recorded in historical records were from the south, and there were also those in present - day Fujian, Hunan, and Hubei, especially after the Southern Song Dynasty established its capital in Lin'an. At the end of the Southern Song Dynasty, since the north had been under the rule of ethnic minorities for many years and was relatively more stable than the south, the reproduction of the Nie surname showed new characteristics, that is, the north developed steadily while the south saw migrations to avoid chaos. At the end of the Yuan Dynasty, due to the strife among warlords and the prevalence of plagues, there were starving people everywhere and desolate lands in the Central Plains, East China, and Central South regions. After the Ming Dynasty unified the country, in order to restore the local economy, people were forcibly migrated from Shanxi, which was not affected by the war. Therefore, the Nie surname people in Shanxi were among the surnames of the migrants from Hongdong Big Sophora Tree in the Ming Dynasty and were resettled in Henan, Hebei, Shandong, Jiangsu, Anhui and other places. After the middle of the Ming Dynasty, some Nie surname people living along the coast migrated to Taiwan. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, Zhang Xianzhong's massacre in Sichuan led to a sharp decline in the population of present - day Sichuan and Chongqing. Later, during the immigration from Huguang to Sichuan, some Nie surname people from Hubei and Hunan moved to Sichuan. After the Qing Dynasty, the distribution of the Nie surname became even wider. Today, the Nie surname is widely distributed across the country, especially in Hubei. People with the Nie surname in Hubei account for about 15% of the Han people with the Nie surname in the whole country. The Nie surname ranks 126th among the surnames in contemporary China, with a relatively large population, accounting for about 0.1% of the Han population in the country.