What is Cen (surname)?
{{Infobox surname | name = Cen (岑) | image = | image_size = | caption = | pronunciation = Cén (Mandarin)<br />Sam (Cantonese) | language = Chinese | origin = | derivation = | meaning = | related names = Ts'en, Tsen, Shum, Sum, Sam }} '''Cen''' is a Chinese [[surname]]. It is a [[romanization]] of {{lang|zh|岑}}. Cen is listed 67th in the [[Song dynasty]] classic text ''[[Hundred Family Surnames]]''.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.guoxue.com/gxrm/gx_bjx.htm |title=百家姓 |trans-title=Hundred Family Surnames |publisher=Guoxue |language=zh |access-date=2014-09-16}}</ref> As of 2008, it is the 235th most common surname in China. There are 340,000 people with this surname. ==Origins== The surname Cen was first used during the [[Zhou Dynasty]]. Ji Qu, [[Ji Chang]]'s nephew, was the first to use it. He used it because he controlled the area Cen Ting in [[Shanxi]] province. In honor of him, his children changed their name to Cen and posthumously named him Cen Zi. In 1368 Cen Tianbao surrendered to the first Emperor of the [[Ming Dynasty]], [[Hongwu Emperor|Zhu Yuanzhang]].<ref name=Faure172>''Chieftains into Ancestors: Imperial Expansion and Indigenous Society in'', eds. David Faure; Ho Ts'ui-p'ing (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2013), p. 172</ref> He was then made [[Prefecture|prefect]] of Tianzhou.<ref>''Empire at the Margins: Culture, Ethnicity, and Frontier in Early Modern China'', eds. Pamela Kyle Crossley; Helen F. Siu; Donald S. Sutton (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006), p. 177</ref> His descendants were prefects of Zhen'an and sub-prefects of Guishun. Among the [[chieftain]]s of the [[Guangdong]] and [[Guangxi]] provinces, some of the most important were of the Cen surname.<ref name=Faure172/> In the [[15th century|15th]] and [[16th century|16th centuries]] many were strong allies of the Ming Dynasty.<ref name=Faure172/> During the [[Republic of China]] control of Mainland China, Cen Chunxuan became president of the military government o