sháo 韶

Migration and Distribution (Lack of information) The Shao surname is not ranked among the top 100 surnames in the Chinese mainland and Taiwan. In ancient times, Emperor Shun was a well - known tribal leader. Someone in his tribe composed a piece of music called the "Shao" music, which was extremely beautiful. This piece of music was widely spread at that time and could still be played in the Spring and Autumn Period. Once, when Confucius went to the State of Qi, he heard the court musician of the King of Qi play the Shao music. He found it so wonderful that he was deeply attracted and even "didn't know the taste of meat for three months". The descendants of the musician who created the Shao music were proud of this piece of music, and some of them took "Shao" as their surname, which is considered the earliest origin of the Shao surname. There is another branch of the Shao surname, which originated from using a place name as the surname. According to "Xing Yuan" (a book on surnames), "There are people with this surname in Kaifeng, and the prominent family is from Taiyuan." There was an ancient place called Shaozhou, which was probably around present - day Kaifeng in Henan Province. The people there took the name of their place of residence as their surname and passed it down from generation to generation, which is another source of the Shao surname.