Chinese surname No.361 Ou

[CHUNG Yoon-Ngan]

This is my first posting to SCT and I am not sure if
my story is welcomed here because the Chinese characters
are all romanized in pinyin.
I am a Malaysian residing in Australia.

Chinese surname No.361 Ou
Ou means: a Chinese surname.
e.g. Ou Zhou means Europe
Surname Ou is about 2300 years old.
This is the history of surname Ou.

These three surnames: (1) Ou (2) Ou Yang2 (3) Ou Hou2
originated from the same ancestor. However it seemed that surname
Ou Hou2 had disappeared from history for unknown reasons.

There was a big pavilion built on a mountain called Ou Yu4. It was
facing south. So it received sunlight throughout the year. People living
around the area near the mountain called it Ou Yang2 Ting2 (Ou the sunshine
pavilion: present day Wu2 Jin4 Xian4 in Jiangsu province). It was situated
within the dominion of the State of Yue4 (present day Zhu Ji4 Xian4 in
Zhejiang province).
Yue4 and Chu3 (present day Jiang Ling2 Xian4 in Hubei province) were
neighbouring and rival States. In 334BC Chu3 and Yue4 were at war. State
of Yue4 was defeated and annexed by Chu3.
Ti2 the second son of the last ruler ( Wu2 Jiang) of Yue4 was delegated
to administer the district of Ou Yang2 Ting2. He was titled Ou Yang2 Ting2
Hou2 (Marquis) which was inheritable by his descendants after his death.
By the end of the period of Warring States (453BC to 221BC) there were
only 7 States left in the land. State of Qin2 (present day Feng Xiang2
Xian4 in Shaanxi province) was the strongest and in 221BC it conquered
the other 6 States and united China.
In 223BC State of Qin2 conquered Chu3. The title Ou Yang2 Ting2
Hou2 was abolished. Ti2 the first Ou Yang2 Ting2 Hou2 had many
descendants. Some of them adopted Ou, some adopted Ou Yang2 and some
adopted Ou Hou2 as their surnames and left off the word Ting2
(pavilion). The members of the Ou branch emigrated to the north.

Surname Ou was originated in an area called Ping2 Yang2 Prefecture
during the Han4 Dynasty (206BC to 220BC).
Ping2 means: flat; level; plain; smooth.
Yang2 means : the sun; bright; clear; masculine; positive.
The present day location of Ping2 Yang2 Prefecture is in
Lin2 Fen2 Xian4 in Shanxi province China.

This is a comment by a Mr Ou
-----------------------------

Thank you for yet another interesting story. I saw your previous article on
the Ouyang surname. Believe it or not, it was a great relief to me when I
learned from you that Ouyang and Ou actually came from the same family. My
great-grand father's surname was Ouyang but my grandfather's surname was
changed to Ou during the colonial time of Japan in Taiwan because Japanese
who have double- character for their surnames did not like Taiwanese to have
double-character surnames (so I was told!). My oldest cousin was named
Ouyang by my grandfather over 60 years ago to ensure that the Ouyang surname
was inherited by at least one member of the family. My family still worships
Ouyang ancestors but not Ou ancestors during Chinese fetivals such as New
Year's Eve, Lantern Festival, etc. So next time when another Ou person tells
me that we were in the same family generations ago, I don't have to tell him
that he is making a mistake any more. Great! :-)

CHUNG Yoon-Ngan. chu...@mozart.collective.com.au

[Hung J Lu]

In article <4vhtlr$j...@disco.iinet.net.au>,

CHUNG Yoon-Ngan <chu...@collective.com.au> wrote:
>
> There was a big pavilion built on a mountain called Ou Yu4. It was
>facing south. So it received sunlight throughout the year. People living
>around the area near the mountain called it Ou Yang2 Ting2 (Ou the sunshine
>pavilion: present day Wu2 Jin4 Xian4 in Jiangsu province). It was situated
>within the dominion of the State of Yue4 (present day Zhu Ji4 Xian4 in
>Zhejiang province).

Interesting. Since you probably speak Malay, let me tell you
that there is a theory that the <Ou> word that appears so
often in Southeastern China, might come from Austronesian/Malay
word <orang>, meaning "person, people". Yes, so you have the
<o> in <orang>, and the <rang> later became <laang> or <noong>
in Southeastern Chinese dialects meaning "person, people". The
<o> remained as toponym (name of geographic places). The
Vietnamese people believe they descend from Au Lac, and the <Au>
word has the same origin as <Ou>, I guess. (The right half of
the character is slightly different.)

> Yue4 and Chu3 (present day Jiang Ling2 Xian4 in Hubei province) were
>neighbouring and rival States. In 334BC Chu3 and Yue4 were at war. State
>of Yue4 was defeated and annexed by Chu3.

> ....

> By the end of the period of Warring States (453BC to 221BC) there were
>only 7 States left in the land. State of Qin2 (present day Feng Xiang2
>Xian4 in Shaanxi province) was the strongest and in 221BC it conquered
>the other 6 States and united China.

Annexed by China is a more appropriate description.
To understand the population, language and culture
of Chu and Yue kingdoms, you can read

CALL # DS730 .K8 1984

AUTHOR Ku, Tieh-fu.
TITLE Chu kuo min tsu shu lueh.
EDITION Ti 1 pan.
PUBLISHER [Wu-han shih] : Hu-pei jen min chu pan she : Hu-pei sheng hsin
hua shu tien fa hsing, 1984.
SUBJECTS Ethnology --China, Southeast.
China, Southeast --Race relations.
China --Civilization --To 221 B.C.
DESCRIPTION 159 p. ; 21 cm.

Up to the date of conquest of Chu by Qin, the previous southern
states like Chu and Yue were simply not sinitic kingdoms. For
instance, the language of Yue might have been a lot more similar
to today's Bahasa Malaysia than Chinese.

Today's trend is to put equal emphasis and maternal and paternal
ancestors.

-- Ekki