Probably many people in the Western world know who Confucius is, this Chinese thinker and social philosopher whose teachings and philosophy have deeply influenced not just the Chinese themselves but the Korean, Japanese and Vietnamese thought of life. Confucius's philosophy emphasized personal and govermental morality, correctness of social relationships, justice and sincerity and his teachings can be found in the Analects of Confucius (論語).Many people, I suppose, the Chinese included, are very used to the name Confucius and have in fact accepted and embraced it whole-heartedly. Most probably, the Chinese themselves never question the strangeness of the name. I, for one, didn't until I came across a literature on Chinese names. Chinese names consist of at least two characters. Usually there are three characters and the first character is of course, the surname or family name. The second and third characters make up a person's first name. Talking about surnames, most Chinese surnames in use today were handed down from thousands of years ago. Many of these surnames have clear origins and have evolved throughout history with rich and interesting stories. Chinese surnames were consistently developed and passed on in the following generations and therefore, have cultural values. They are also gradually becoming more recognised in life science. Since most of the surnames have kindred links, research into the distribution of surnames could offer some insight into genetic structure, kinship among different groups and migration of Chinese people. And when we look back at the name of Confucius, one would wonder what the great man's surname or first name is. The truth however is Confucius has his very own Chinese name all the while which is K'ung-fu-tzu 孔夫子, K'ung being the surname and fu tzu being the first name. The original name has in fact been Latinised by the Jesuit Matteo Ricci. Throughout history, one get to see Westeners either latinising, anglicising or christianizing Chinese names during the time they colonized the Eastern world and today, it is common to see Chinese with Christian names before their surnames and being proud of it. Confucius perhaps would be proud too!
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