Hundred Family Surnames

The Hundred Family Surnames (Chinese: 百家姓), commonly known as Bai Jia Xing,^[1] also translated as Hundreds of Chinese Surnames,^[2] is a classic Chinese text composed of common Chinese surnames. An unknown author compiled the book during the Song dynasty (960–1279).^[3] The book lists 504 surnames. Of these, 444 are single-character surnames and 60 are double-character surnames. About 800 names have been derived from the original ones.^[4]

Chinese百家姓

Hanyu PinyinBǎijiā Xìng

Hanyu PinyinBǎijiā Xìng

Hanyu PinyinBǎijiā Xìng

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Hundred Family Surnames
Chinese name
Chinese	百家姓
Hanyu Pinyin	Bǎijiā Xìng
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Bǎijiā Xìng Bopomofo ㄠㄞˇ   ã„ã„§ã„š   ã„’ㄧㄥˋ Gwoyeu Romatzyh Baejia Shinq Wade–Giles Pai3 Chia1 Hsing4 Yale Romanization Bǎijyā Syìng IPA [pàɪ.tɕjá É•îŋ] Yue: Cantonese Yale Romanization Baakgā Sing Jyutping baak3 gaa1 sing3 Southern Min Hokkien POJ Pah-ka-seⁿ
Vietnamese name
Vietnamese alphabet	Bách gia tính
Chữ Hán	百家姓
Korean name
Hangul	백가성
Hanja	百家姓
Transcriptions Revised Romanization Baekgaseong
Japanese name
Kanji	百家姓
Kana	ひゃっかせい
Transcriptions Romanization Hyakkasei

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In the dynasties following the Song, the 13th-century Three Character Classic, the Hundred Family Surnames, and the 6th-century Thousand Character Classic came to be known as San Bai Qian (Three, Hundred, Thousand), from the first character in their titles. They served as instructional books for children,^[5] becoming the almost universal introductory literary texts for students (almost exclusively boys) from elite backgrounds and even for a number of ordinary villagers. Each text was available in many versions, printed cheaply and available to all since they did not become superseded. When a student had memorized all three, he had a knowledge of roughly 2,000 characters. Since Chinese did not use an alphabet, this was an effective, though time-consuming, way of studying character-recognition before going on to understanding texts and writing characters.^[6]