Xue

Xue ([ɕɥé]) is the pinyin romanization of the Chinese surname 薛 (Xuē). It is romanized as Hsüeh in Wade-Giles. In Hong Kong and Macau it is usually romanized through its Cantonese pronunciation Sit. In Korean, it corresponds to Seol (설), in Japanese to Setsu and in Vietnamese to Tiết. According to the 2010 Chinese Census, it is the 76th most common surname in China, a sharp decline from 48th in 1982. In a study by geneticist Yuan Yida on the distribution of Chinese surnames, people who carry the name Xue are dispersed throughout the country and is most heavily concentrated in Shaanxi. It is the 68th name on the Hundred Family Surnames poem.[1]

Xue
PronunciationXuē (Pinyin)
Sih (Pe̍h-ōe-jī)
Language(s)Chinese
Origin
Language(s)Old Chinese
Other names
Variant form(s)Hsüeh (Wade-Giles, Taiwan)
Sit (Cantonese)
Sih (Hokkien, Teochew)
Setsu (Japanese)
Seol (Korean)
Tiết (Vietnamese)

Origin

The surname traces back to the State of Xue in what is modern day Shandong. Yu the Great, founding emperor of the Xia dynasty, bestowed upon his minister Xi Zhong the title Marquis of Xue in gratitude for his invention of the Chinese chariot; Xi Zhong's descendants subsequently bore Xue as their clan name.

Sinicized descendants of various non-Han Chinese peoples also adopted Xue as their surname, including the Turkic Tiele Xueyantuo tribe, the Xianbei Chigan clan and several Manchu clans such as Sakda Hala, Sue Hala, Sunit Hala etc.

In literature

In the classical novel Dream of the Red Chamber by Cao Xueqin, the Xue family is one of the four noble families of Jinling. The socially graceful debutante Xue Baochai, a literary embodiment of ideal traditional Chinese femininity, is one of the principal characters in the novel.

Notable people with this surname (薛)

Academics and science

Arts, media and entertainment

Athletics

Business

Government, politics, law and military

Fiction

Notes

    References
    1. K. S. Tom. [1989] (1989). Echoes from Old China: Life, Legends and Lore of the Middle Kingdom. University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 0-8248-1285-9.
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