A probe into the origin of Zou ci

1. Derived from Yao surname, Zou's Yao surname: Yao surname. Shun is good at divination and prophecy, also known as Yao Shun. Yao Di is probably in Pucheng Town, west of Puyang, Henan. Yao, a descendant of Yao, founded Zou State, which was the earliest Zou State. Name code "surname": Zou Guo, Shunhou, Yao surname. It is a vassal state of Yin (Shang Dynasty), and the ancient city of Zouguo is located in the ancient cities in the southeast of Zoucheng City, Shandong Province. At the beginning of the Spring and Autumn Period, Zou was occupied by Cao, and was forced to move to Zoupingnan, Shandong Province, and was later destroyed by Qi. Later generations took the country as their surname and called it Zou. The history of Zou surnamed Yao is at least 3500 years, and it is the earliest Zou surname.

2. It originated from the surname Ji, from Zou State, and was changed by Lu Mugong during the Warring States Period, belonging to the country name. In the early years of the Western Zhou Dynasty, Cao Xia, a descendant of Zhuan Xu, one of the five emperors, was enfeoffed by Ji Fa, Zhou Wuwang, and established the State of Zhu, also known as Zhu Louguo. The capital was founded in Zhu (now Qufu Village, Shandong Province) and moved to Iraq (now Jiwangcheng, Zouxian County, Shandong Province) in the middle of the Spring and Autumn Period. Louguo, a weak country, has always been a vassal state of the great power Lu, and has been oppressed and plundered by Lu repeatedly.

During the Warring States Period, the people of Lu pronounced Zhu and Lou as "Zou", so Lu monarch Lu Mugong Ji Xian, at the suggestion of Mencius, forcibly changed Zhu Louguo to Zou Guo. From the seventh year of the reign of King Lie Zhou to the twenty-ninth year of the reign of King Wang (from 369 BC to 340 BC), Chu Xuanwang's bear personally led the Chu army to destroy Zou, that is, Zhu and the two countries, kidnapped the subjects of the monarch, and sent them to the southwest of Jingchu. After several months' long journey, they drifted to a remote and barren place in Chu at that time. After the State of Zou was annexed by Chu, the people of the old country took the name of the original country as their surname, called Zou, which was passed down from generation to generation and was the same as Cao Shi and Zhu Tongzong.