Xiong

Xiong may refer to:

Xiong (surname)

Xiong is the pinyin romanization of the Chinese surname 熊 (Xióng).

Romanizations

熊 is also romanized as Hsiung² in Wade-Giles. It is Hung or Hong in Cantonese; Him in Hokkien, Hong or Yoong in Hakka; Hiōng in Gan; Hùng in Vietnamese; and Xyooj in Hmong.

Note that "Hong" and "Hung" may also refer to the unrelated surname 洪.

Distribution

熊 is the 71st most common surname in mainland China, but does not appear at all among the 100 most common Taiwanese surnames.

Although Chinese make up the largest part of America's Asian and Pacific Islander population, none of the romanizations of 熊 appeared among the 1000 most common surnames during the AD 2000 US census.

Origins

Xiong's literal meaning is "bear", Xiong (熊) is surname from Zhuanxu, branch to Mi (surname) (芈) of Chu (state).

Xiong traces back to the legendary Chinese culture hero Fuxi, who was also styled "Huangxiong" (黄熊, lit. "Yellow Bear"). One archaic form of the surname combined this into a single character 𪏛.

Zhuanxu (顓頊) the Gaoyang (高陽)'s grandson Jilian (季連) took the ancestral name Mi (芈, 'Mǐ). His descendant Yuxiong was the tutor of King Wen of Zhou and died during his reign.

Xionites

Xionites, Chionites, or Chionitae (Middle Persian: Xiyon; Avestan: Xiiaona; Sogdian: Xwn; Pahlavi: Huna), or Hunni, Yun or Xūn (獯), were an Iranian-speaking people who were prominent in Transoxania and Bactria.

The Xionites (Chionitae) are first mentioned with Kushans (Cuseni) by Ammianus Marcellinus who spent the winter of 356-57 CE in their Balkh territory. They arrived with the wave of immigration from Central Asia into Iran in late antiquity. They were influenced by the Kushan and Bactrian cultures, while patronizing the Eastern Iranian languages, and became a threat on the northeastern frontier of the Sassanid Empire.

Origins

It is difficult to determine the ethnic composition of the Xionites. Simocatta, Menander, and Priscus provide evidence that the Xionites were somewhat different from the Hephthalites although, Frye suggested that the Hepthalites may have been a prominent tribe or clan of the Xionites. They followed their versions of Buddhism and Shaivism mixed with animism.