Ji (纪) Family Origin

In China’s ancient times, before the invention of computer and home library, and before records were kept on papers bind to form books, people memorized information’s to pass on to the next generations.  Such is the case with the popular text, Hundred Family Surnames.  This text originally contained 411 surnames, but was later expanded to 504.  Having been composed in the early Song Dynasty, it listed all the surnames – starting with the most important families in the empire at the time.  This text was a very important text back in the days, one many Chinese students memorize for their examination to the palace.   

My grandfather, like most elders in the ancient times was old schooled, and believed in testing his grandchildren through the task of memorization.  So when I was little he made both my younger guy cousin and me memorize the Hundred Family Surnames.  My cousin was more eager in this task than me, but by the time we got to ¼ of the way – the 122^nd surname, a character stick out like a green thumb.  It was Ji, our last name.  The last name Ji came from my grandfather, and from what I can tell it all traced back to Shangdong Province.   

One of the versions I liked stated that I could be a descent from a royal family.  This version states that Ji is a separate lineage of the surname Jiang from the western Zhou Dynasty.  The story goes that during the Spring and Autumn Period in the western Zhou Dynasty, as a reward one of the descendent of the Yan Emperor was given the last name Ji to start his own kingdom.  Eventually the Ji Kingdom was destroyed by the Qi Kingdom, but since then the descendent of Ji has spread out in China and all over the world.  

 I have a map of the Ji clan today in China below.  The color represent the percentage of Ji in the Chinese population.  Base on the table on the bottom right, green represent 0, and then the darker the color the more percentage of people with the last name "Ji resides there.  Also Shangdong Province is in an area in the middle eastern area of China, if you look at the map it's a little lower of under the elbow of the area sticking out on the top right corner.  So it's not surprising that there is more people of last name Ji in the eastern part of China.  

I encourage everyone that's reading this to find out more of who you are, and where you came from.   For me it's definitely been an interesting year of looking back in the past of where my family came from, and how I identify myself based on the Chinese and American culture I have grown up with.  

Thanks for reading, and thanks for checking out my blog!

Jennifer Chan (Chan is my step fathers last name, I still love the Ji last name I was born with:)