yǔ wén 宇文

Migration and Distribution (Lack of information) The Yuwen surname has not entered the top 100 surnames in both the Chinese mainland and Taiwan. After researching from the "Biography of Emperor Wen in the Book of Zhou" and the "Clan Compendium in the Comprehensive Records", it can be known that the two characters "Yuwen" were both translated from the Xianbei language at that time. "Yu" means sky, and "Wen" means king. During the Northern and Southern Dynasties, the Central Plains region was in turmoil and many foreign ethnic groups wanted to conquer the Central Plains. The ancestor of the Yuwen clan originally living in Liaodong found a jade seal in the river by chance. They believed it was a sign that they were destined to be emperors. So, they not only changed the name of the state to Yuwen, but also the chief's family all changed their surnames to Yuwen. Perhaps it was really "God's will". After this branch of the Xianbei ethnic group took Yuwen as their surname, they really conquered the world, became emperors and established the Northern Zhou Dynasty in Chinese history. The Yuwen clan got their surname about 1,500 years ago. The place of origin should be around Wuchuan in present - day Suiyuan. There were a total of 6 emperors with the Yuwen compound surname in history, who founded the Northern Zhou Dynasty, which lasted for 25 years. The prominent families of this surname were located in Zhaojun (now Zhaoxian County, Hebei Province); later they moved to Taiyuan Commandery (now Taiyuan County, Shanxi Province).