page_title: Li (surname 李)
section_title: Historical distribution and migration
hierarchical_section_title: Li (surname 李) / Historical distribution and migration
caption_attribution_description: 中文（繁體）‎: 西山前李氏家廟
context_page_description: Li is the second most common surname in China as of 2018, behind only Wang. It is one of the most common surnames in the world, shared by 92.76 million people in China, and more than 100 million worldwide. It is the fourth name listed in the Song dynasty classic text Hundred Family Surnames.
  The name is pronounced as "Lei" in Cantonese, but is often spelled as Lee in Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan and many other overseas Chinese communities. In Macau, it is also spelled as Lei. In Indonesia it is commonly spelled as Lie.
  The common Korean surname, Lee, and the Vietnamese surname, Lý, are both derived from Li and are historically written with the same Chinese character, 李. The character also means "plum" or "plum tree".
  According to tradition, the Li surname originated from the title Dali held by Gao Yao, a legendary minister of the Xia dynasty, and was originally written with the different character, 理. Laozi, the founder of Taoism, was the first historical person known to have the surname and is regarded as the founding ancestor of the surname.
context_section_description: Having originated in what is now Henan province, the Lis had spread to Shanxi, Hebei, Shaanxi, Sichuan, and Hubei provinces by the end of the Warring States period. During the Qin dynasty, the Lis spread to Guangdong and Guangxi provinces, while Li Chong established the Longxi Li clan in Gansu.
  During the early Tang dynasty many Lis migrated to Fujian and Hainan provinces. After the mass adoption of the imperial Li surname during the Tang period, Li became the second most common surname during the subsequent Song dynasty, after Wang. There were approximately 5.6 million people with the surname, or 7.2% of the total population at the time, with large concentrations in the northern provinces of Hebei, Henan, and Shandong.
  The Mongol invasion of China in the 13th century caused widespread depopulation in northern China. Li, being overrepresented in the north, was hit especially hard. In the Ming dynasty following the Mongol Yuan dynasty, the Li-surnamed population had declined to 5.1 million, constituting 5.5% of the total population. It fell behind Zhang to become the third most common surname of the time. Many of the Lis had migrated to South China by this period.
caption: Lee Family Temple, Kingmen, Taiwan
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