The Tong Family Name#

Family Name: Tong, Pronunciation: tóng

Regions Where the Tong Family Name is Found**#

Daixian County, Shanxi Province; Nancheng County, Jiangxi Province; Bohai Sea, Liaoning Province

Origin of the Tong Family Name#

The origin of the “Tong” family name can be traced back to the following:

1. Ancient Times: The name originates from the descendants of the Yellow Emperor. One of the Yellow Emperor’s sons was Zhuanxu, who had a son named Laotong. Laotong was born with a beautiful voice; his speech and singing had the clarity and resonance of bells, possessing a musical quality. His descendants adopted the character “Tong” from their ancestor’s name as their family name.

2. From the Xu Family Name: The name also originated from the Xu family, which was a branch of the Hexu clan. During the Spring and Autumn period, there was a nobleman named Xu Tong in the state of Jin who had deep resentment towards the powerful officials Luan Shu and Zhongxing Yan of the Zhou dynasty. After Luan Shu and Zhongxing Yan gained favor with Duke Li, Xu Tong was killed. To avoid retribution, his descendants changed their surname from “Xu” to “Tong.”

Migration and Distribution

The origin of the Tong family name is recorded in the book “Xing Zuan” written by people from the Tang dynasty: “Zhuanxu gave birth to Laotong, and his descendants adopted his father’s name as their family name, with their ancestral home being the Bohai Sea.” Laotong is also a very important figure in the history of Chinese surnames. The two Zhu Rong brothers who were in charge of “illuminating and harmonizing the world” during the reign of Emperor Ku were both sons of Laotong. The descendants of Zhong Li formed the Sima family, while the descendants of Wu Hui gave rise to many other surnames, including Cen, Hu, Peng, Qian, Cao, Zuo, Lou, Su, Gu, Wen, and Dong. It is fitting to describe the people with the Tong surname as a large family with a common ancestor but different surnames. The ancestors of the Tong family were initially active in the Bohai Sea area, which is now part of northern Shandong Province, and gradually migrated south. By the Song and Yuan dynasties, the Tong surname had become well-known throughout the south, with a prominent lineage residing in Yanmen Commandery (now northwest of Daixian County, Shanxi Province). This can be understood from the historical activities of people with the Tong surname over the past 2000 years.

The earliest notable individuals with the Tong surname were from Zhucheng, Shandong, during the Eastern Han dynasty: the kind-hearted Tong Zhongyu, and his two sons, Tong Hui and Tong Yi, who were mentioned in the “Biographies of Upright Officials” in the “History of the Later Han Dynasty.” There are numerous other learned individuals with the Tong surname throughout history. For example, Tong Hanqing of the Tang dynasty was a renowned poet and scholar; Tong Zongshuo, who served as a professor in Yuanzhou, was known for his elegant appearance and noble character, and wrote the “Liu Wen Yin Zhu” (Annotations on Liu Zongyuan’s Prose), earning the respect of his contemporaries as “Mr. Nancheng.”

Today, the Tong surname is not one of the most common in China, with a relatively small number of people carrying it. It does not rank among the top 100 most common surnames on the mainland and is 97th on the list in Taiwan.

Famous People with the Tong Surname**#

• Tong Yu: A poet and painter from the Qing dynasty. He gave up his studies to focus on poetry and classical literature. Along with Liu Wenwei from the same region, they were known as the “Seven Scholars of Yuezhong.” He was particularly skilled in depicting landscapes, orchids, bamboo, trees, and rocks, and authored the collection “Er Shu Shan Ren Ji” (The Collection of the Hermit of Er Shu).
• Tong Boyu: A scholar from the Song dynasty who loved reading and studied under Zhu Xi. He preferred a life of solitude and devoted himself to writing, publishing works such as “Wu Jing Xun Jie” (Explanations of the Five Classics) and “Qing Li Fa Wei” (Analysis of Emotions and Reasoning).
• Tong Dizhou: A modern biologist, educator, and experimental embryologist. After graduating from Fudan University in 1930, he studied in Belgium and France, obtaining a doctorate. He returned to China in 1934 and dedicated himself to the study of the embryology of lancelets and other fish and amphibian eggs, making significant discoveries regarding the developmental capabilities of these organisms.