The Romanization Ji represents at least seven different Chinese surnames, some of them of extremely ancient origin. 1. Chinese 纪: from the title Marquis of Ji, which was awarded to a descendant of an ancient emperor. In due course his descendants adopted Ji as their surname. This character also means ‘write down’ or ‘record’. 2. Chinese 季: from a term meaning ‘youngest brother’, which was also used as a personal name. The descendants of some of these youngest brothers adopted Ji as their surname. 3. Chinese 姬: there are two sources of this character as a surname. The first is from Bo Shu, a great-grandson of the legendary emperor Huang Di (2697–2595 BC). He was given an honorary surname, Ji, which was adopted by his descendants and later slightly altered to another character for Ji (a prescient decision, as the older character now means ‘prostitute’ in modern Chinese, while the altered form means ‘auspicious’). The second source is from Manchuria. 4. Chinese 冀: from the state of Ji during the Zhou dynasty (1122–221 BC). 5. Chinese 姬: from a byname of the legendary emperor Huang Di (2697–2595 BC), who supposedly acquired the name from the Ji river, by which he lived as a boy. A branch of his descendants kept the surname, and it was from this branch that the rulers of the Zhou dynasty (1122–221 BC) claimed descent. 6. Chinese 籍: from one of the characters in the word dianji ‘library’, ‘collection of classical books and historical records’. In the state of Jin during the Spring and Autumn period (722–481 BC), there existed an official in charge of classical books and historical records. Descendants of at least one such official adopted this character as their surname. 7. Chinese 嵇: from part of the name of an area called Huiji. A king of the Xia dynasty (2205–1766 BC) granted this area to his son, and its name was subsequently adopted by the son's descendants as their surname. At the beginning of the Han dynasty (206 BC–220 AD) a branch of this clan move to an area in present-day Anhui province called Ji Mountain. The characters for Ji in the names Huiji and ‘Ji mountain’ are very similar and are pronounced the same; this branch of the family modified the surname to correspond to the name of their new home in Ji mountain.
