Wei Clan#

Surname: Wei, Pronunciation: wēi

Regions Where the Wei Clan is Found**#

Shangcai County, Henan Province; Fuzhou City, Jiangxi Province

Origins of the Wei Clan#

1. The Wei surname originates from place names. According to “Qianfu Lun,” the Wei clan is a descendant of the Sanmiao people. The “Shun Dian” states that Sanmiao was a kingdom, and its people were descendants of the Jinyun clan. In ancient times, the Sanmiao people lived in the areas from southern Henan Province to the Dongting Lake and Poyang Lake in Jiangxi Province. It is said that during the reign of Emperor Shun, they were relocated to the Sanwei region, from which the Wei clan emerged.
2. The Wei surname also has a connection to the Ji clan, stemming from a collateral son of King Wu of the Western Zhou Dynasty. This form of the surname was granted by the emperor.
3. Another origin of the Wei surname is related to the Si clan, originating from Zhen Xun, the son of Zhen Feng, who held the position of Grand Minister of Works during the Han Dynasty. Zhen Xun changed his surname to escape certain circumstances.

Distribution of the Wei Clan

As of January 2009, the Wei clan did not rank among the top 300 largest clans in mainland China or Taiwan Province. In the Song Dynasty’s “Baijia Xing” (List of Hundred Surnames), it was ranked 140th. In the Jiangxi Province south of the Yangtze River, there have been many families with the Wei surname since the Han and Tang dynasties. As mentioned in the “Qianfu Lun” by Wang Fu, a scholar from the Eastern Han Dynasty, the Wei clan is indeed a descendant of the Sanmiao people. Throughout history, the Wei clan has been spread across regions including Sichuan, Yunnan, Tibet, Guizhou, Hunan, Guangxi, and Qiongzhou. The “Shun Dian” explains that the Sanmiao were a kingdom and descendants of the Jinyun clan, known as the “Taotie” (a type of creature in Chinese mythology). During the Yellow Emperor’s reign, one of the officials, named “Jin,” was granted a fief near Jinyun Mountain in Zhejiang Province.

Notable People with the Wei Surname

• Wei Yilin: Also known as Da Zhai, his ancestral home was Fuzhou, and he later moved to Nanfeng, Jiangxi. He was a medical expert specializing in bone injuries during the Yuan Dynasty and authored the 20-volume treatise “Shi Yi De Jiu Fang.”
• Wei Su: Known as Tai Pu, he was from Huangtong, Jinxī, Jiangxi. A renowned historian, calligrapher, writer, and poet at the end of the Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty. He was well-versed in the Five Classics and studied under Wu Cheng and Fan Gao. During the Yuan Dynasty, he was appointed to review historical texts and compiled the histories of the Song, Liao, and Jin dynasties, as well as the biographies of imperial consorts. In the early Ming Dynasty, he served as a Hanlin scholar and collaborated with Song Lian in editing the Yuan history. His works include the “Wei Xueshi Ji” (Collection of Works by Master Wei).

The Wei clan can be found in various places in China, including Nanfeng, Fuzhou, Nanchang, Lincuan, Nan Cheng, Jing'an, Shangrao, Ruijin, Yongfeng, Guangze in Jiangxi Province; Dongzhi and Lujiang in Anhui Province; Mianyang in Sichuan Province; Shaowu, Fuzhou, Xiamen, Longyan, Pucheng, Wuping, Quanzhou, and Ninghua in Fujian Province; Wuhan, Xianning, Chongyang, Huangpi, Xiantao, Qianjiang, Jingmen, and Tianmen in Hubei Province; Pingxiang, Liuling, Wangcheng, Xinshao, Loudi, and Yiyang in Hunan Province; Nanning in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region; Huadu in Guangzhou, Meizhou in Guangdong Province; Hangzhou and Quzhou in Zhejiang Province; Taipei in Taiwan Province; Cangshan and Wucheng in Shandong Province; Guiding in Guizhou Province; Tianjin; Chongqing; Beijing; the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region; and various counties in Henan Province.

Conclusion

The Wei clan has a rich cultural and historical heritage, with notable individuals contributing to fields such as medicine, history, literature, and calligraphy throughout China.