Guo


"Guo", written in Chinese:, is one of the most common Chinese surnames and means "the wall that surrounds a city" in Chinese. It can also be transliterated into English as Cok, Gou, Quo, Quek, Keh, Kuo, Kuoch, Kok, Koc, Kwek, Kwik, Kwok, Kuok, Kuek, Gock, Koay, or Ker. The Korean equivalent is spelled Kwak; the Vietnamese equivalent is Quoc, Quach, Quock, or Que.
The different ways of spelling this surname indicate the origin of the family. For example, the Cantonese "Kwok" originated in Hong Kong and the surrounding area.
It is the 18th most common family name in China and can be traced as far back as the Xia Dynasty. There are eight legendary origins of the Guo surname, which include a Persian origin, a Korean origin, and a Mongolian origin, as a result of sinicization. However, the majority of people bearing the surname Guo are descended from the Han Chinese.
In 2019 Guo was the 16th common surname in Mainland China.

Origins

Royal Ancestors

Legend as it that the Guo family is descended from Yellow Emperor, who is traditionally said to have ruled China around 2697–2597 or 2698–2598 BC. Yellow Emperor had 25 sons, 14 of which were feoffed by Yellow Emperor with 12 names. The first son of Yellow Emperor was Shaohao, bearing the surname Jī .
Shaohao begot 蟜極.
蟜極 begot Emperor Ku.
Emperor Ku begot Hou Ji.
Hou Ji was the founder of Zhou kingdom in northwestern China. Hou Ji begot Buzhu.
Buzhu begot Ji Ju.
Ji Ju begot Gong Liu.
Gong Liu begot Qingjie.
After nine generations following Qingjie, their descendant King Ji of Zhou became the king of Zhou.

Primogenitor

The surname of Guō descended from Prince Guo Shu, the 3rd son of King Ji of Zhou. The character guó is rare in Chinese, and means "to hunt and flay a tiger", indicating that Guo Shu was a brave warrior. During the war unifying China, King Wen of Zhou always consulted his two younger brothers Guo Zhong and Guo Shu.
After establishing Zhou dynasty, King Wu of Zhou feoffed his uncle and mentor Guo Shu to the Western Guo around 1054 b.c. Guo Shu was named the Duke of Guo or with same pronunciation the Duke of Guo since after.
Guo Shu is regarded by Guo's clan as their primogenitor.
In 658 B.C., Western Guo was extinguished and annexed by State of Jin. The descendants of the Guo's clan were exiled and populated to Jinyang and formally adopted the name Guo.

Guo Ting

Guo Ting, died 178 B.C., a local usher, took part in the Great Insurrection against the Qin dynasty and joined the army of Emperor Liu Bang. He was feoffed at Renqiu and conferred Marquess of A Ling in July 201 B.C. after the establishment of Han Dynasty. Guo's clan lost their noble title since 7th century B.C. After almost five centuries, Guo Ting was the first one to acquire a noble title again. Since then, talented Guos began to be active in Chinese history continuously towards the climax of the glory of Guo Ziyi some 800 years later.
Guo Ting begot Guo Ke. Guo Ke begot Guo Ou. Guo Ou begot Guo Guangyi. Guo Guangyi begot Guo Yan. Mengru moved his family from Taiyuan to the Huazhou District.

[Guo Ziyi]

About 700 years after Mengru moved to Huazhou District, Guo Ziyi stepped up to the stage of history.
Guo Ziyi. Prince Zhōngwǔ of Fényáng, was the Tang dynasty general who wiped out the An Lushan Rebellion and participated in expeditions against the Uyghur Khaganate and Tibetan Empire. He was regarded as one of the most powerful Tang generals before and after the Anshi Rebellion. After his death he was immortalized in Chinese mythology as the God of Wealth and Happiness.
Guo Ziyi was the most successful and satisfactory official in China history. His achievements went far beyond Guo Shu and Guo Ting. He had eight brothers and eight sons and eight son-in-laws. Four of his sons conferred dukes and five of his sons and grandsons became Fuma. All his son-in-laws were top brass of the country. one of his granddaughter became the Empress Dowager Guo. His descendants spread all over Northern China. Most of genealogy book of Guo's family over China record him as their first ancestor.

Hui surname

One of the Guo family is from Hui clans around Quanzhou in Fujian.
Early in the 14th century, a Persian Al-Qudsan Al-Dhaghan Nam was sent to Quanzhou by Külüg Khan for assisting grain transportation by sea. He failed to return to Khanbaliq due to war, then got married and settled at Quanzhou. Because his Persian surname Dhaghan pronounces similar to Chinese Guo, Al-Qudsan Al-Dhaghan Nam's grandsons began to change their surname to Guo in order to assimilate with local Han Chinese. It was politically expedient to claim they were descendants of Guo Ziyi in order to be better accommodated by Local people and later Ming Dynasty government. After Haijin policy applied and the Portuguese began to dominate the China-Middle East maritime trade, they were more localized and recognized as descendants as Guo Ziyi by themselves and by local people.
Due to more people of these clans identifying as Hui the population of Hui as grown. All these clans needed was evidence of ancestry from Arab, Persian, or other Muslim ancestors to be recognized as Hui, and they did not need to practice Islam. The Communist party and its policies encouraged the definition of Hui as a nationality or ethnicity. The Chinese government's Historic Artifacts Bureau preserved tombs of Arabs and Persians whom Hui are descended from around Quanzhou. Many of these Hui worship village gods and do not have Islam as their religion; they include Buddhists, Daoists, followers of Chinese Folk Religions, secularists, and Christians. Many clans with thousands of members in numerous villages across Fujian recorded their genealogies and had Muslim ancestry. Hui clans originating in Fujian have a strong sense of unity among their members, despite being scattered across a wide area in Asia, such as Fujian, Taiwan, Singapore, Indonesia, and Philippines.
In Taiwan there are also descendants of Hui who came with Koxinga who no longer observe Islam, the Taiwan branch of the Guo family is not Muslim, but still does not offer pork at ancestral shrines. The Chinese Muslim Association counts these people as Muslims. The Taiwan Guo now view their Hui identity as irrelevant and don't assert that they are Hui.
Various different accounts are given as to whom the Hui Guo clan is descended from. Several of the Guo claimed descent from Han chinese General Guo Ziyi. They were then distressed and disturbed at the fact that their claim of descent from Guo Ziyi contradicted their being Hui, which required foreign ancestry. While the Encyclopædia Iranica claims the ancestor of the Guo clan in Baiqi was the Persian Ebn Tur.

Notable people

Historical