Cai (surname)

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Cai redirects here. For Cai of Arthurian legend, see Sir Kay. For other uses, see CAI.
蔡; Cài
蔡; Cài

Cài (Simplified and Traditional Chinese: 蔡) is the 34th most common Chinese surname and derives from the name of the ancient Cai state. It is more common in Taiwan, where it is usually transliterated as Ts'ai in Wade-Giles, than in other Chinese societies.

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[edit] History

The Cais are said to be the descendants of the 5th son of King Wu of the Zhou Dynasty (9th century BC – 256 BC), Shu Du. Shu Du was awarded the title of Duke of Cai (centered on what is now Shangcai, Zhumadian, Henan, China), and he was known as Cai Shu. Together with Guan Shu and Huo Shu, they were known as the Three Guards. When King Wu died, his son King Cheng was too young and his uncle, the Duke of Zhou, became regent. Seeing that the power of the Duke of Zhou was increasing, the Three Guards got jealous and rebelled against Zhou together with Wu Geng. The Duke of Zhou suppressed the rebellion, and Cai Shu was exiled. King Cheng reestablished Cai Shu’s son Wu as the Duke of Cai. Some 600 years later in the Warring States Period, the state of Chu conquered Cai in 447 BC and was itself conquered by the Qin state which, in turn, formed the Qin Empire, China's first empire. With the spread of surnames to all social classes in the new empire, many people of the former state of Cai began to bear it as a surname.

Hometown: North west of Dingtao in Shandong Province.

[edit] Transliteration and romanization

Cai is written the same (蔡) in both simplified and traditional Chinese characters.

In Mandarin Chinese, the surname is transliterated as Cài in pinyin and Tongyong Pinyin, Ts'ai in Wade-Giles, and Tsay in Gwoyeu Romatzyh. In Minnan (Taiwanese), it is Chhoà in Pe̍h-oē-jī. In Cantonese, it is Coi3 in Jyutping and Choi in Yale. (This should not be confused with the predominantly Korean surname Choi which has a different Chinese character [崔]). Koreans use Chinese-derived surnames and in Korean, Cai is 채 in Hangul, Chae in Revised Romanization, and Ch'ae in McCune-Reischauer. Vietnamese also use Chinese-derived surnames and in Vietnamese, it is Thái or Sái. Japanese do not use Chinese surnames but for Chinese in Japan who carry the name, it is さい in Hiragana and Sai in the major romanization systems.

Cai is romanized as Cai in the People's Republic of China, Tsai (or occasionally Tsay or Chai) in the Republic of China (Taiwan), and Choi or Choy in Hong Kong. In Malaysia, Singapore, and Brunei, the most common forms are Chua for Hokkien (Minnan) speakers, Chai for Hakka speakers, and Choy for Cantonese speakers. In Indonesia it is usually romanized as Tjoa and in the Philippines it is Cua or Chua.

Other variations include Chye, Coi, Toy, and Tsoi.

In addition, some descendants of the Cai that resided in the Philippines adopted more Western names to avoid persecution by the Spanish rulers during the Philippines' Spanish-Mexican colonial rule of the early 16th to late 19th century. Examples of these are Mercado, which means "Market" in Spanish and was adopted by Domingo Lam-Co (he chose this name to remind his descendants of their trader way of life), and Rizal, which was adopted by Domingo Lam-Co's great-grandson, Francisco Mercado (who was also the father of Philippine national hero, Jose Rizal).

[edit] Prominent people surnamed Cai

[edit] See also

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