Si () was a

Chinese surname Chinese surnames are used by Han Chinese and Sinicized ethnic groups in China, Taiwan, Korea, Vietnam, and among overseas Chinese communities around the world such as Singapore and Malaysia. Written Chinese names begin with surnames, unlike t ...

during the

Xia Dynasty The Xia dynasty () is the first dynasty in traditional Chinese historiography. According to tradition, the Xia dynasty was established by the legendary Yu the Great, after Shun, the last of the Five Emperors, gave the throne to him. In trad ...

. According to

Records of the Grand Historian ''Records of the Grand Historian'', also known by its Chinese name ''Shiji'', is a monumental history of China that is the first of China's 24 dynastic histories. The ''Records'' was written in the early 1st century by the ancient Chinese hist ...

, the surname of the

ruler was Si (姒). In general, the Chinese hold Xia founder

Yu the Great Yu the Great (大禹) was a legendary king in ancient China who was famed for his introduction of flood control, his establishment of the Xia dynasty which inaugurated dynastic rule in China, and his upright moral character. He figures prominen ...

(禹) to be a descendant of

Emperor Yao Emperor Yao (; traditionally c. 2356 – 2255 BCE) was a legendary Chinese ruler, according to various sources, one of the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors. Ancestry and early life Yao's ancestral name is Yi Qi () or Qi (), clan name i ...

(堯). It is one of the traditional description was what were known as the " Eight Great ''Xing''s of High Antiquity" (), along with Jiāng (), Jī (), Yáo (),

Yíng Yíng () is an ancient Chinese surname. It was the noble house name of the Qin state during the Eastern Zhou dynasty, and the royal name of the subsequent Qin dynasty. Yíng Zheng was the first emperor of the unified Chinese empire. Ying was on ...

(), Yún (), Guī () and Rèn (), though some sources quote Jí () as the last one instead of Rèn. Of these ''xing'', only Jiang and Yao have survived in their original form to modern days as frequently occurring surnames. The

Song dynasty The Song dynasty (; ; 960–1279) was an imperial dynasty of China that began in 960 and lasted until 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song following his usurpation of the throne of the Later Zhou. The Song conquered the rest ...

-era ''

Hundred Family Surnames The ''Hundred Family Surnames'' (), commonly known as ''Bai Jia Xing'', also translated as ''Hundreds of Chinese Surnames'', is a classic Chinese text composed of common Chinese surnames. An unknown author compiled the book during the Song d ...

'' poem does not have Si. Although it exists in the modern day, only an estimated 2000 people in Mainland China today share the name.

Surnames during the Xia

See also