It was under the feudal system, perhaps a thousand years before Christ,
that the people of China began to possess family names. Previous to that
time there appear to have been tribal or clan names; these however were
not in ordinary use among the individual members of each clan, who were
known by their personal names only, bestowed upon them in childhood by
their parents. Gradually, it became customary to prefix to the personal
name a surname, adopted generally from the name of the place where
the family lived, sometimes from an appellation or official title of
a distinguished ancestor; places in China never take their names from
individuals, as with us, and consequently there are no such names as
Faringdon or Gislingham, the homes of the Fearings or Gislings of old.
Thus, to use English terms, a boy who had been called "Welcome" by his
parents might prefix the name of the place, Cambridge, where he was
born, and call himself Cambridge Welcome, the surname always coming
first in Chinese, as, for instance, in Li Hung-Chang. The Manchus, it
must be remembered, have no surnames; that is to say, they do not use
their clan or family names, but call themselves by their personal names
only.

Chinese surnames, other than place names, are derived from a variety
of sources: from nature, as River, Stone, Cave; from animals, as Bear,
Sheep, Dragon; from birds, as Swallow, Pheasant; from the body, as
Long-ears, Squint-eye; from colours, as Black, White; from trees and
flowers, as Hawthorn, Leaf, Reed, Forest; and others, such as Rich,
East, Sharp, Hope, Duke, Stern, Tepid, Money, etc. By the fifth century
before Christ, the use of surnames had definitely become established for
all classes, whereas in Europe surnames were not known until about the
twelfth century after Christ, and even then were confined to persons
of wealth and position. There is a small Chinese book, studied by every
schoolboy and entitled _The Hundred Surnames_, the word "hundred" being