Ding (surname)
Encyclopedia
Ding is the simplest written Chinese family name in existence (the only two characters that are simpler are "一" and "乙"). It is written in two strokes and is first on the Chinese surname stroke order
.
1) The earliest record of this surname in history was the duke of Ding during the Shang Dynasty.
2) Came from the last name of Jiang. The youngest son of Qi Tai Gong, Qi Ding Gong was a high-ranking judge during the reigns of Zhou Cheng Wang and Zhou Kang Wang. After his death, his descendents used his middle name as their last name to commemorate him.
3) During Chun Qiu period, the descendents of a judge called Song Ding Gong, also used Ding as their last name.
4) During the Three Kingdoms period, a general, Sun Kuang of the Wu kingdom, accidentally burnt the food supply and as a punishment, the king Sun Quan ordered this general to change his last name to Ding (the king did not want to bear the same last name as this guilty general.)
Hometown: North west of Dingtao in the Shandong Province of eastern China.
, the surname Ding is thought to originate from the last syllable of the Arabic honorific "ud-Din", as seen e.g. in the name of the Bukhara
n Muslim Sayyid Ajjal Shams ud-Din
(1210-1279; also spelled al-Din), who was appointed Governor of Yunnan by the Mongol Yuan dynasty
. 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
in Fujian
.
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 named Nasruddin, who "divided" their ancestor's name (Nasulading, in Chinese) among themselves.
The Ding clan continues to be one of the well known Hui clans around Quanzhou
in Fujian
, who identify as Muslim by nationality but do not practice Islam. All these clans needed were only evidence of ancestry from Arab, or Persian, or other Muslim ancestors to be recognized as Hui, and they do not need to practice Islam. Due to their ancestors Islamic religion, it is taboo to offer pork to ancestors in the Ding clan family. However, the living Ding family members themselves consume pork.
One branch of this Ding (Ting) family descended from Sayyid Ajjal Shams al-Din Omar resides in Taisi Township in Yunlin County
, in Taiwan
. They trace their descent through him via the Quanzhou
Ding family of Fujian. Even as they were pretending to be Han chinese
in Fujian, they still practiced Islam when they origianlly came to Taiwan 200 years ago, building a mosque, but eventually became Buddhist or Daoist. The Mosque is now the Ding families Daoist temple.
The Ding family has branches in Taiwan, the Philippines, and Malaysia among the diaspora Chinese communities there, no longer practicing Islam but still maintaining a Hui identity.
Surname stroke order
The surname stroke order is a Chinese name ordering system. It arose as an impartial method of categorization of the order in which names appear in official documentation or in ceremonial procedure without any line of hierarchy. In official setting, the number of strokes in a person's surname...
.
Speculated origins
Ding is the 46th most common surname in China. There are four main sources of the Dings:1) The earliest record of this surname in history was the duke of Ding during the Shang Dynasty.
2) Came from the last name of Jiang. The youngest son of Qi Tai Gong, Qi Ding Gong was a high-ranking judge during the reigns of Zhou Cheng Wang and Zhou Kang Wang. After his death, his descendents used his middle name as their last name to commemorate him.
3) During Chun Qiu period, the descendents of a judge called Song Ding Gong, also used Ding as their last name.
4) During the Three Kingdoms period, a general, Sun Kuang of the Wu kingdom, accidentally burnt the food supply and as a punishment, the king Sun Quan ordered this general to change his last name to Ding (the king did not want to bear the same last name as this guilty general.)
Hometown: North west of Dingtao in the Shandong Province of eastern China.
Hui Chinese
Among the Chinese MuslimsHui people
The Hui people are an ethnic group in China, defined as Chinese speaking people descended from foreign Muslims. They are typically distinguished by their practice of Islam, however some also practice other religions, and many are direct descendants of Silk Road travelers.In modern People's...
, the surname Ding is thought to originate from the last syllable of the Arabic honorific "ud-Din", as seen e.g. in the name of the Bukhara
Bukhara
Bukhara , from the Soghdian βuxārak , is the capital of the Bukhara Province of Uzbekistan. The nation's fifth-largest city, it has a population of 263,400 . The region around Bukhara has been inhabited for at least five millennia, and the city has existed for half that time...
n Muslim Sayyid Ajjal Shams ud-Din
Sayyid Ajjal Shams al-Din Omar
Sayyid Ajjal Shams al-Din Omar al-Bukhari was Yunnan's first provincial governor in history, appointed by the Mongol Yuan Dynasty....
(1210-1279; also spelled al-Din), who was appointed Governor of Yunnan by the Mongol Yuan dynasty
Yuan Dynasty
The Yuan Dynasty , or Great Yuan Empire was a ruling dynasty founded by the Mongol leader Kublai Khan, who ruled most of present-day China, all of modern Mongolia and its surrounding areas, lasting officially from 1271 to 1368. It is considered both as a division of the Mongol Empire and as an...
. 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
Chendai
Chendai is a town within Jinjiang county-level city, Quanzhou prefecture-level city of China's Fujian Province. It is located a few miles south of Quanzhou central city, and just north of Quanzhou Jinjiang Airport....
, near Quanzhou
Quanzhou
Quanzhou is a prefecture-level city in Fujian province, People's Republic of China. It borders all other prefecture-level cities in Fujian but two and faces the Taiwan Strait...
in Fujian
Fujian
' , formerly romanised as Fukien or Huguing or Foukien, is a province on the southeast coast of mainland China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, and Guangdong to the south. Taiwan lies to the east, across the Taiwan Strait...
.
A Hui legend in Ningxia
Ningxia
Ningxia, formerly transliterated as Ningsia, is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. Located in Northwest China, on the Loess Plateau, the Yellow River flows through this vast area of land. The Great Wall of China runs along its northeastern boundary...
links four surnames common in the region - Na, Su, La, and Ding - with the descendants of Shams al-Din's son named Nasruddin, who "divided" their ancestor's name (Nasulading, in Chinese) among themselves.
The Ding clan continues to be one of the well known Hui clans around Quanzhou
Quanzhou
Quanzhou is a prefecture-level city in Fujian province, People's Republic of China. It borders all other prefecture-level cities in Fujian but two and faces the Taiwan Strait...
in Fujian
Fujian
' , formerly romanised as Fukien or Huguing or Foukien, is a province on the southeast coast of mainland China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, and Guangdong to the south. Taiwan lies to the east, across the Taiwan Strait...
, who identify as Muslim by nationality but do not practice Islam. All these clans needed were only evidence of ancestry from Arab, or Persian, or other Muslim ancestors to be recognized as Hui, and they do not need to practice Islam. Due to their ancestors Islamic religion, it is taboo to offer pork to ancestors in the Ding clan family. However, the living Ding family members themselves consume pork.
One branch of this Ding (Ting) family descended from Sayyid Ajjal Shams al-Din Omar resides in Taisi Township in Yunlin County
Yunlin County
Yunlin County is a county in the western part of Taiwan, the Republic of China. Yunlin is located to the right of the Taiwan Strait, the east of Nantou County and sharing a border with Changhua County divided by the Zhuoshui River. Yunlin is one of the counties of Taiwan that is part of the Chianan...
, in Taiwan
Taiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
. They trace their descent through him via the Quanzhou
Quanzhou
Quanzhou is a prefecture-level city in Fujian province, People's Republic of China. It borders all other prefecture-level cities in Fujian but two and faces the Taiwan Strait...
Ding family of Fujian. Even as they were pretending to be Han chinese
Han Chinese
Han Chinese are an ethnic group native to China and are the largest single ethnic group in the world.Han Chinese constitute about 92% of the population of the People's Republic of China , 98% of the population of the Republic of China , 78% of the population of Singapore, and about 20% of the...
in Fujian, they still practiced Islam when they origianlly came to Taiwan 200 years ago, building a mosque, but eventually became Buddhist or Daoist. The Mosque is now the Ding families Daoist temple.
The Ding family has branches in Taiwan, the Philippines, and Malaysia among the diaspora Chinese communities there, no longer practicing Islam but still maintaining a Hui identity.
Other variations
- Ting.
- Đinh (DinhDinh (surname)Dinh is a Vietnamese surname. In Vietnam, the surname is spelled Đinh or Đình but Đình is very rare in Vietnamese. The name Đinh is transliterated as Ding in Chinese.-Notable people with the surname Đinh:...
), used in VietnamVietnamese languageVietnamese is the national and official language of Vietnam. It is the mother tongue of 86% of Vietnam's population, and of about three million overseas Vietnamese. It is also spoken as a second language by many ethnic minorities of Vietnam...
Prominent people
- Ding Feng (Chengyuan), military general for Eastern Wu
- Ding Feng (younger)Ding Feng (younger)Ding Feng was a military general of Eastern Wu during the late Three Kingdoms period of Chinese history. He had an older brother, who was also named Ding Feng , but with the style name Chengyuan . The Chinese characters for "Feng" in their names are also different. The younger Ding Feng was...
, military general for Eastern Wu - Ding JunhuiDing JunhuiDing Junhui is a Chinese professional snooker player. Ding Junhui is China's most successful player ever, having become only the second teenager, after John Higgins, to win three ranking titles...
, snookerSnookerSnooker is a cue sport that is played on a green baize-covered table with pockets in each of the four corners and in the middle of each of the long side cushions. A regular table is . It is played using a cue and snooker balls: one white , 15 worth one point each, and six balls of different :...
player - Ding LeiDing LeiDing Lei , is the founder and CEO of NetEase. He made significant contributions to the development of computer networks in mainland China. He was the wealthiest man in China at one point.-Early life:...
, founder of Netease - Ding LingDing LingDīng Líng was the pseudonym of Jiǎng Bīngzhī , also known as Bīn Zhǐ , a Chinese woman author from Linli in Hunan province. She was awarded the Soviet Union's Stalin second prize for Literature in 1951....
, author - Ding Yinhao, PhD student at the University of Adelaide
- Ding LirenDing LirenDing Liren is the reigning Chess Champion of China. On 6 June 2009, at the age of 16, he became the youngest ever person to win the national title. In April 2011 he won the Chinese Chess Championship for the second time. In October 2009, he became China's 30th Grandmaster...
, chess player - Ding WeiDing WeiDing Wei is a Chinese professional Go player.- Biography :In 1992, Ding became a professional. He advanced a rank every year until 2001, where he reached 8 dan. After six years, he reached his current rank of 9 dan....
, go player - Ding Abraham, waste management technician/ regulator
- Ding YuanDing YuanDing Yuan was a regional governor and minor warlord during the late Han Dynasty period of Chinese history. In 189, both he and Dong Zhuo were summoned into the capital Luoyang with their individual troops to assist in the struggle against the powerful eunuch faction...
, Three Kingdoms governor - Ding ZilinDing ZilinProfessor Ding Zilin is currently the leader of the political pressure group Tiananmen Mothers.-Biography:...
, Professor, currently the leader of the political pressure group Tiananmen Mothers. - Samuel C. C. TingSamuel C. C. TingSamuel Chao Chung Ting is an American physicist who received the Nobel Prize in 1976, with Burton Richter, for discovering the subatomic J/ψ particle...
, Nobel Prize laureates in Physics, 1976. - KH Ting, bishop
Fictional characters
- Ding Hai, the central character of The Greed of ManThe Greed of ManThe Greed of Man is a TV drama series broadcast by TVB in Hong Kong in 1992. The story, spanning three decades from the 1970s to the 1990s in Hong Kong and Taiwan, addresses various social and financial phenomena of the times, from violence in triad criminal organizations to corruption in the Hong...
, played by Adam ChengAdam ChengAdam Cheng Siu-chow is a Hong Kong TVB actor and Cantopop singer.-Career:Cheng started his career in the 1970s, where he gained a reputation for playing the lead roles in TVB Wuxia drama series based on the works of Louis Cha and Gu Long, such as The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber and Chor Lau Heung...
. - Ding Yau Kin, the main protagonist of Looking Back In AngerLooking Back In AngerLooking Back in Anger was a 1989 Chinese TV series and one of the most watched TVB series by Chinese people in Hong Kong and around the world. Many factors contributed to the success of this series...
, played by Felix WongFelix WongFelix Wong Yat-wah is a Hong Kong actor and singer. Wong is best known for his performances in many Hong Kong wuxia television drama series produced by TVB, such as The Legend of the Condor Heroes , in which he played the protagonist Kwok Ching...
. - Ding Yau Hong, the main antagonist of Looking Back In AngerLooking Back In AngerLooking Back in Anger was a 1989 Chinese TV series and one of the most watched TVB series by Chinese people in Hong Kong and around the world. Many factors contributed to the success of this series...
, played by Deric WanDeric WanDeric Wan Siu-Lun is a Hong Kong actor, singer and songwriter who has acted in many movies and TV series and released several music albums. He is most notable for his TV theme songs, including a duet with Nadia Chan, a reproduction of the song What One Wants in Life, and TVB series such as Looking...
.