The state of Dai was a vassal state during the Zhou Dynasty (the former place was in the southeast of today's Yu County, Hebei Province). It was destroyed by Zhao Xiangzi during the Warring States Period. The descendants took the state name as their surname. Later, in the Second Scheme for Simplification of Chinese Characters, Dai was simplified into Dai, which led to the change of some Dai surnames into Dai surnames, confusing the two surnames and abolishing them with the Second Scheme for Simplification of Chinese Characters. Some of these Dai surnames were not changed back to Dai, making Dai a major source of Dai surnames.
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Dai Zhong. In the early Western Zhou Dynasty, after putting an end to the Wugeng Rebellion, Zhou Gongdan granted Weizi, the brother of Xin (Zhou), the last king of the Shang Dynasty, the capital of Shang Dynasty, the old capital of Shang Dynasty, and established the State of Song and the capital of Shangqiu. After the death of the eleventh monarch of the State of Song (who reigned from 799 BC to 766 BC), his posthumous title was Dai Gong. His commoner son Zhu took his father's posthumous title as his surname and called him Dai Zhong. Later generations also followed the surname Dai, and respected Dai Zhong as the ancestor of the surname Dai.
The Dai family is a multi-ethnic and multi source group of surnames. It ranks 57th in the list of surnames in mainland China today, with a population of about 5.292 million, accounting for 0.33% of the total population of the country. In the Pre Qin period, the Dai surname mainly developed in the east of Henan, its birthplace. When Dai Zhunsheng was introduced to Dai Yunsheng, Dai Yunsheng moved to Bozhou, Qiaojun, from the Song Dynasty, and stayed here for generations, forming the first prefecture in the history of the Dai surname, Qiaojun.