Cen (surname)

Cen is the Mandarin pinyin romanization of the Chinese surname written 岑 in Chinese character. It is romanized Ts'en in Wade–Giles, and variously as Sam, Sum, Sham, Shum in Cantonese, Gim, Khim, Chim in Taiwanese Hokkien and Chen in other pinyin forms. Cen is listed 67th in the Song dynasty classic text Hundred Family Surnames.[1] As of 2008, it is the 235th most common surname in China, shared by 340,000 people.[2] Cen is considered a rare surname. A person with a rare surname like Cen may be able to trace his or her origins to a single ancestral area.[3]

Eliza Sam (岑麗香)
Cen 岑
Chinese character for surname Cen
Pronunciation[tsʰə̌n] (Mandarin)
[sɐ̏m] (Cantonese)
[gîm] (Hokkien)
Language(s)Chinese
Origin
Language(s)Old Chinese
Word/nameChina
MeaningSteep hill, mountain
Other names
Variant form(s)Ts'en, Tsen, Sam, Shum, Sham, Sum, Sang, Gim, Khim, Chim

Notable people

Cen clan of Guangxi

In Imperial China, large parts of Guangxi and Guizhou were ruled by the local tusis of Cen clan, such as Tianzhou or the Sicheng native prefecture (Sicheng tufu). The Cens are ethnic Zhuang, but how and when they became Zhuang is unclear. Genealogies from Ming and Qing dynasties state that the founding ancestor is Cen Zhongshu, the Song general from Zhejiang.[9]

Prominent members include:

  • Cen Zhongshu (岑仲淑; 1015-1077). Song dynasty general
  • Cen Shumuhan (岑恕木罕; circa 1340), aka: Cen Numuhan. In 1340, he was granted hereditary control over the Sicheng region in Guangxi by the Mongolian Yuan Dynasty Emperor Toghon Temür. He was given the title of Khan. In Chinese he was known as and used the word Han (汗) which is a derivative of the word Khan, which means "Supreme Ruler" of his territory.[10] He had a younger brother named Cen Tiemur (岑鐵木兒).[11]
  • Cen Boyan (岑柏颜; circa 1368), aka: Cen Bayan (岑百眼) or Cen Baiyan (岑百眼). He was known as and used the given name of the famous Mongolian generals named Bayan. In 1368, he surrendered to the advancing forces of the first Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang, and as a route commander his command was changed to a prefecture and he was granted a seal and appointed a Tianzhou Prefectural Magistrate.[12]
  • Cen Tianbao (岑天保; circa 1368). In 1368, he surrendered to the first Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang, and was made the Prefect of Tianzhou, Guangxi. He and the Cen clan had ancestors with Mongolian-style names due to their closed military, economic, social, and political ties with them[13][14]
  • Cen Meng (岑猛; 1496-1527). Chief of Tianzhou, Guangxi. Raised 100,000 man army of Han, Tang and Zhuang to defend area against Ming army colonization of Southern China.[15]
  • Cen Yidong (?-1789), Qing dynasty tusi of Tianzhou, Guangxi
  • Cen Chunxuan (1861–1933), Qing dynasty Viceroy of Liangguang
  • Cen Deguang (1897–1945), politician of the Wang Jingwei regime, son of Cen Chunxuan

References
  1. "百家姓" [Hundred Family Surnames] (in Chinese). Guoxue. Retrieved 2014-09-16.
  2. 中国最新300大姓排名（2008） [300 most common surnames in China (2008)] (in Chinese). Taiwan.cn. 2009-01-06. Retrieved 2014-09-18.
  3. Three Zhang, Four Li: The Secret History of Chinese Surnames, by Susie Gordon, eChinacities.com (April 18, 2011).
  4. Eminent Chinese of the Chʻing period, 1644-1912 ... v.2., Corporate Author: Library of Congress, Other Author: Arthur William Hummel, (Washington : U.S. Govt. Print Off., 1943-1944), pages 742- 745, Tsen Yu-ying.
  5. Articles reference his name under Shum Yuk-po.
  6. The East of Asia Magazine: An Illustrated Quarterly, Volume 1, July 30, 1902, Tsen Chun-min.
  7. The Trade and Administration of the Chinese Empire, by Hosea Ballou Morse; Francis Lister Hawks Pott; A. Théophile Piry (Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore & Yokohama : Kelly and Walsh, Limited, 1908), p. 78.
  8. Eminent Chinese of the Chʻing period, 1644-1912 ... v.2., Corporate Author: Library of Congress, Other Author: Arthur William Hummel, (Washington : U.S. Govt. Print Off., 1943-1944), page 745, Tsen Chun-ming.
  9. Empire and Identity in Guizhou: Local Resistance to Qing Expansion, Jodi L. Weinstein (Seattle:University of Washington Press, 2013), p. 52.
  10. Empire and Identity in Guizhou: Local Resistance to Qing Expansion, by Jodi L. Weinstein (Seattle: The University of Washington Press, 2014), Chapter 3: The Consolidation of the Qing Rule, p. 52.
  11. Hanvueng: The Goose King and the Ancestral King: An Epic from Guangxi in Southern China, translated and annotated by David Holm and Meng Yuanyao (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2015), Introduction, p. 8.
  12. On the Margins of the Grand Unity: Empire, Violence, and Ethnicity in the Virtue Ethics and Political Practice of Wang Yangming (1472--1529), by George Lawrence Israel, (Urbana, Illinois, 2008), p. 294.
  13. Chieftains into Ancestors: Imperial Expansion and Indigenous Society in Southwest China, edited by David Faure; Ho Ts'ui-p'ing (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2013), p. 172.
  14. Empire at the Margins: Culture, Ethnicity, and Frontier in Early Modern China, eds. Pamela Kyle Crossley; Helen F. Siu; Donald S. Sutton (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006), p. 177.
  15. The Last Campaigns of Wang Yangming, by Leo K. Shin (University of British Columbia).
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