Ding (surname)

Ding

Romanization Mandarin: Ding, Ting
Korean: Jeong, Chong
Vietnamese: Đinh
Origin
Word/Name China

Ding (Chinese: 丁; pinyin: Dīng; Wade–Giles: Ting1) is one of the simplest written Chinese family names (the only two characters that are simpler are "一" and "乙"), written in two strokes.

Origins

Ding is the 46th most common surname in China. There are four main hypothesised sources of Ding:

The hometown of Dings is supposedly northwest of Dingtao, Shandong.[1]

Hui ethnic group

The tomb of one of the ancestors of Quanzhou's Ding clan (as well as Jiang and Chen), in Lingshan Islamic Cemetery

Among the Hui Muslims, the surname Ding is thought to originate from the last syllable of the Arabic honorific "ud-Din" or "al-Din" (as in, for example, the name of the Bukharan Muslim Sayyid Ajjal Shams ud-Din (1210–1279; also spelled al-Din), who was appointed Governor of Yunnan by the Mongol Yuan dynasty).[2]

In particular, descent from Sayyid Ajjal Shams ud-Din, known in Chinese as Saidianchi Shansiding (赛典赤赡思丁), is attested in the Ding lineage of Chendai, near Quanzhou, Fujian.[2][3]

Graves of Dings, and their relatives, Jiangs and Chens, in Quanzhou's Lingshan Islamic Cemetery. Note that some tombs bear Christian symbols.

Although some do not practise Islam, the Ding clan remains as one of the better-known Hui clans around Quanzhou, Fujian that still identify as Muslim.[4][5] It is to be noted that these Hui clans merely require descent form Arab, Persian, or other Muslim forebears, and they need not be Muslim.[6] Due to their historical ancestors' religion, it is considered a taboo offer pork to ancestors of the Ding family; the living Ding family members themselves consume pork nonetheless.[7]

One branch of this Ding (Ting) family descended from Sayyid Ajjal Shams al-Din Omar resides in Taisi Township, Yunlin County, Taiwan. They trace their descent through him via the Ding family from Quanzhou, Fujian. Although they feigned to be Han Chinese while in Fujian, they practised Islam when they originally arrived in Taiwan in the 1800s, soon thereafter building a mosque. In time, their descendants would convert to Buddhism or Daoist, however, and the mosque built by the Ding family is now a Daoist temple.[8]

The Ding family also has branches in the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore among the diaspora Chinese communities there but no longer practise Islam; some maintain their Hui identity.

A Hui legend in Ningxia links four surnames common in the region — Na, Su, La, and Ding — with the descendants of Shams al-Din's son, Nasruddin, who "divided" their ancestor's name (in Chinese, Nasulading) among themselves.[9]

Other Romanizations

Notable people

Fictional characters

References

  1. ↑ http://www.yutopian.com/names/02/2ding46.html
  2. 1 2 Kühner, Hans (2001). "The barbarians' writing is like worms, and their speech is like the screeching of owls": Exclusion and acculturation in the early Ming period". Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft. 151 (2). pp. 407–429. ISSN 0341-0137.; p. 414
  3. ↑ Angela Schottenhammer (2008). Angela Schottenhammer, ed. The East Asian Mediterranean: Maritime Crossroads of Culture, Commerce and Human Migration. Otto Harrassowitz Verlag. p. 123. ISBN 3-447-05809-9. Retrieved 2010-06-28.
  4. ↑ Gladney, Dru C. (2004). Dislocating China: reflections on Muslims, minorities and other subaltern subjects. C. Hurst & Co. Publishers. p. 294. ISBN 1-85065-324-0.
  5. ↑ Robert W. Hefner (1998). Market cultures: society and morality in the new Asian capitalisms. Westview Press. p. 113. ISBN 0-8133-3360-1. Retrieved 2010-06-28.
  6. ↑ Dru C. Gladney (1996). Muslim Chinese: ethnic nationalism in the People's Republic. Cambridge Massachusetts: Harvard Univ Asia Center. p. 286. ISBN 0-674-59497-5. Retrieved 2010-06-28.
  7. ↑ Dru C. Gladney (1996). Muslim Chinese: ethnic nationalism in the People's Republic. Cambridge Massachusetts: Harvard Univ Asia Center. pp. 271–272. ISBN 0-674-59497-5. Retrieved 2010-06-28.
  8. ↑ Loa Iok-Sin / STAFF REPORTER (Aug 31, 2008). "FEATURE : Taisi Township re-engages its Muslim roots". Taipei Times. p. 4. Retrieved May 29, 2011.
  9. ↑ Dillon, Michael (1999). China's Muslim Hui community: migration, settlement and sects. Routledge. p. 22. ISBN 0-7007-1026-4.
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