The surname Kang originated from the posthumous title of Uncle Kang, the founder of the Wei Kingdom.

The ancestor of the Kang family was Uncle Kang of Wei State.

According to "Historical Records: Wei Kangshu Family", Uncle Kang, whose real name was Ji Feng, was the half-brother of King Wu of Zhou Dynasty. After King Wu conquered the world, he was granted the title of Kangdi (now Yuzhou, Henan), so he was called Uncle Kang.

After the death of King Wu of Zhou, a rebellion broke out. Zhou Gong Ji Dan mobilized troops to put down the rebellion, and granted the area around the old capital of Shang and the seven tribes of the Yin people to Uncle Kang, established the Wei Kingdom, and built the capital at Chaoge (today's Qixian County, Henan Province).

After Ji Feng was granted the title of Wei Kingdom, he was called Wei Kangshu.

After arriving in Weiguo, he gained the support of the people because he learned from the experience and lessons of the rise and fall of the Yin Dynasty, cherished the people's strength, and governed the country properly.

Later, he was appointed by King Cheng of Zhou as Sikou of the Zhou Dynasty, with the power of life and death.

From then on, the descendants of Uncle Wei Kang took his original posthumous name as their surname, which was the Kang family.

Lin Bao of the Tang Dynasty recorded in "Yuanhe Surname Compilation": "Kang, the grandson of Uncle Kang of Wei, takes the posthumous surname as his surname." The origin of the Kang family surname, in addition to the Han descendants of Uncle Kang, there is also a branch from the Western Regions.

According to records in "Hanshu", "Old Tangshu" and other books, there was a kingdom of Kangju in the ancient Western Regions, approximately between today's Balkhash Lake and the Aral Sea.

Due to the far-reaching prestige of the Han Dynasty at that time, King Kangju of the Han Dynasty sent his prince to the Han Dynasty and settled there ever since.

In ancient times, there was a Kang State, whose hometown was in the former Soviet Union, Uzbekistan, and was once under the jurisdiction of the Tang Dynasty.

The envoys from these two countries who came to China settled down after coming to China. They all took the name of their country, also known as the Kang family.

According to the "History of the Song Dynasty", people with the Kuang surname in the Song Dynasty changed their surname to Kang in order to avoid the name taboo of Emperor Zhao Kuangyin. However, the main ones were the descendants of Uncle Kang and those from Kang Juguo in the Western Regions.

In the early days, the descendants of Uncle Kang mainly developed in northern Henan.

The Wei Kingdom moved its capital three times. During the reign of Duke Wen of Wei, the capital was moved to Chuqiu (today's east of Huaxian County, Henan Province). During the reign of Duke Cheng of Wei, it was moved to Diqiu (today's southwest of Puyang, Henan Province), which was later destroyed by Wei. Later, it was restored to the state and moved to Yewang.

(Today's Qinyang, Henan).

The capital was moved several times, allowing the descendants of the Kang family to multiply in a larger area.

During the Han Dynasty, some of the Kang family moved north to Hebei and other provinces today, and some moved south to Jiangsu and Zhejiang.

According to the Song Dynasty's Deng Mingshi's "Differentiation of Ancient and Modern Surname Books", the Kang family, who came to China from Kangju in the Han Dynasty, initially lived in the Hexi Corridor area; in the Jin Dynasty, they moved to Lantian (today's Lantian, Shaanxi Province) due to wars, and then gradually

Migrate southeast.

The Kang family, who originated in the north, crossed the Yangtze River and moved south in the early Tang Dynasty, settled in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and prospered in Kuaiji (now Shaoxing, Zhejiang), where they became the local county magistrate. Therefore, most of the Kang family in the south came from Kuaiji.

In the Tang Dynasty, Jingzhao (today's Xi'an, Shaanxi Province) was also one of the counties of the Kang family; the Kang family was also distributed in present-day Shanxi, Shandong and other places.

During the Song Dynasty, some moved to Sichuan and Fujian.

In the Ming Dynasty, the Kang family was more widely distributed, and some moved to Taihe, Jiangxi, Shaoyang, Hunan, Shunde, Guangdong and other places.

Starting from the Qing Dynasty, people from the Kang family in Fujian and Guangdong successively moved to Taiwan, and later some moved overseas.

The more famous Kang family members include: Kang Tai during the Three Kingdoms period, who was one of China's early overseas travelers with experiences and rumors about more than a hundred countries; the eminent monk Kang Senghui during the Three Kingdoms period, a native of Kangju, who was knowledgeable in astronomy

He is the founder of Jiangnan Buddhism.

Kang Chengxun, a general of the Tang Dynasty; Kang Kunlun, a pipa player of the Tang Dynasty, a native of Kang in the Western Regions.

In the Southern Song Dynasty, there were heroes such as Kang Zaiyu, Kang Baoyi, Kang Yanze and scholars Kang Yu.

In the Yuan Dynasty, there were calligrapher Kang Limo and opera writer Kang Jinzhi.

There was a writer named Kang Hai in the Ming Dynasty.

The modern reformist leader Kang Youwei, known as "Mr. Nanhai" in the world, carried out the reform movement in 1898, was suppressed and fled abroad.

He is the author of books such as "An Examination of New Learning and Apocrypha" and "An Examination of Confucius' Reform", etc., and is highly valued by modern academic circles.

Among the hundreds of Chinese surnames ranked by population today, the surname Kang ranks 75th.