yè 叶

### Migration and Distribution 1. After the death of Lord Ye, during the Warring States period and the Qin Dynasty's conquest of the Chu state, to avoid the disaster of genocide, one or several branches of his descendants changed their surname from Shen to Ye, revering Shen Zhuliang as their ancestor, and moved to Hejian in Hebei, Yongzhou in Shaanxi, and Xiapi in Jiangsu. This is why although Ye County is the ancestral land of the Ye surname, there are not many Ye clan members there, and most of the Ye clan members in Henan are the descendants of those who later migrated south and then returned to their hometown. 2. At the end of the Western Jin Dynasty, due to the ethnic minorities' encroachment on the Central Plains, some of the Ye descendants who had migrated to Shaanxi and Hebei moved south, while others returned to the Central Plains. At this time, the prestigious family concept represented by the "Nanyang Ye Clan" was formed. 3. The Tang and Song Dynasties were the most frequent periods of Ye surname migration. As there were many branches, the migrations were erratic. Some migrated to avoid the chaos at the end of the Tang Dynasty, and some followed the royal family of the Song Dynasty southward when they served as officials. Among them, the branch that migrated from Ye County in Henan to Gushi and Guangshan had a great impact on the subsequent migrations of the Ye surname. Ye Ang, Ye Zhu, and Ye Ting, who migrated to Fujian at the end of the Song Dynasty, became the ancestors of the Ye clans in Anbing, Foling, and Lianxi. At this time, a large number of the Ye clan members who had lived in Xiapi also moved to Kuozhou and Ningbo in Zhejiang. The Tang and Song Dynasties were also the periods when many famous Ye people emerged, and the Ye surname became a well - known surname in the south of the Yangtze River. 4. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, with the rise of Western industrial civilization, ambitious people along the coast went overseas to develop, including some famous Ye people. Many people went to Taiwan during the Ming Dynasty, and even more went to Taiwan to start their careers during the Qing Dynasty. It can be said that there is no branch of the Ye clan in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, and Guangdong that did not go overseas to develop. The Ye clans currently living in Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan are all their descendants. There are more than 200,000 Ye people in Taiwan, ranking 20th among all the surnames. 5. At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, the Ye descendants along the coast and in Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan began to move to Southeast Asian countries, especially Singapore, Malaysia, and the Philippines. There also emerged prominent Ye people in countries such as the United States, Canada, Australia, and Japan. The descendants of Ye Yalai, who lived in Malaysia, became a large clan in the Malay Archipelago. Currently, after thousands of years of reproduction, the Ye clan has spread all over the world. There are the largest and most concentrated populations in Fujian, Taiwan, Guangdong, Jiangsu, and Jiangxi. Overseas, the largest numbers are still in Singapore, Malaysia, and the Philippines. Ye Chinese have spread to many places around the world. The Ye surname ranks 49th among the 100 major surnames in modern China, with a relatively large population, accounting for about 0.41% of the Han population in the country.