Yin (surname)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Yin (Chinese: 殷; pinyin: Yīn; literally "flourishing" and "blood red") is a rare Chinese surname dating to the fall of the Yin (Shang) Dynasty in 1046 BC. After the Yin's collapse, the surviving Yin ruling family collectively changed their surname from their royal surname 子 (pinyin: zi; Wade-Giles: tzu) to the name of their fallen capital and country, Yin (殷). The family remained aristocratic and often provided needed administrative services to the succeeding Zhou Dynasty. The last Shang (Yin) king's brother, the Viscount of Wei (Weizi 微子), was given the territory around the old Shang capital and established the State of Song (宋國). The State of Song and the remaining Yin descendants maintained official rites to the dead Shang (Yin) kings and lasted until 286 BC. This is the only historic origin for this surname. (Source: Records of the Grand Historian Sima Qian. 史记 Shiji).
The surname is still found mostly in northern and northeastern China, although there have been a few historic migrations to the area south of the Yangtze River near the Wu region of China, and since the Qing Dynasty to Taiwan and Southeast Asia.
It is also a rare Korean surname (殷, 은).
Besides Yin, the surname 殷 is also Romanized as "In" (Sino-Japanese, other Chinese romanizations) and "Eun" (Sino-Korean).
[edit] Famous people with this surname
- Yin Xian (殷羡), famous Jin Dynasty general
- Yin Hao (殷浩), another famous Jin Dynasty general
- Yin Zhongkan (殷仲堪), famous intellectual during the Northern and Southern Dynasties era
- Yin Chengzong (殷承宗), premier Chinese pianist and composer who arranged the Yellow River Piano Concerto
- Yin Tseng Yan (殷正洋), Taiwanese pop singer.
