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== History ==
Liu was a place name in ancient China (located in present-day [[Henan]]). The Liu family name has two main origins from this place name.

[[Kong Jia]], the fourteenth king of the [[Xia dynasty]], was given a male and a female dragon as a reward for his obedience to the god of heaven; yet he could not train them, so he hired a dragon-trainer named {{ill|Liu Lei (劉累)|zh|刘累}}, who had learned how to train dragons from Huanlong. Liu Lei was a descendant of [[Emperor Yao]], and won the admiration of King Kong Jia for his skill at dragon-rearing. To reward Liu Lei, King Kong Jia granted him a place called Liu as his [[fiefdom]]. Liu Lei took the name of his fief as his family name. One day, the female dragon died unexpectedly, so Liu Lei secretly chopped her up, cooked her meat, and served it to the king, who loved it so much that he demanded Liu Lei to serve him the same meal again. Since Liu Lei had no means of procuring more dragon meat, he fled the palace. Liu Lei was the first person surnamed Liu in Chinese history, and his descendant [[Emperor Gaozu of Han|Liu Bang]] founded the [[Han dynasty]].

During the [[Zhou dynasty]], [[King Ding of Zhou]] granted the fiefdom of Liu to his younger brother, [[Ji Jizi]] (姬季子). Ji Jizi also took Liu as his family name. Eventually, Liu became a state, and Ji Jizi ruled the [[State of Liu]] as [[Duke Kang of Liu]]. After more than a hundred years under the rule of the Liu family, the State of Liu was destroyed by the central government of the Zhou dynasty.

Liu was the ruling family of the Han dynasty, one of the most prosperous and influential empires in Chinese history. The Han dynasty was founded by Liu Bang. Later, Emperor [[Liu Che]] helped expand the Han dynasty even further, ushering in a golden age for China.

The Han dynasty had 30 emperors all surnamed Liu; it was one of the Chinese dynasties with the most emperors. The Han dynasty lasted 400 years, making it one of the longest-lasting Chinese empires in history. The Han is what gives its name to the Han people as well as [[Han characters]] / [[Hanzi]] / [[Chinese characters]].

Even after the Han dynasty, several Liu continued to hold power within China, including [[Liu Bei]] of [[Shu Han]] (whose exploits were described in the [[Records of the Three Kingdoms]]), as well as the [[Han-Zhao]], [[Liu Song]], [[Later Han (Five Dynasties)|Later Han]], [[Northern Han]] and [[Southern Han]] dynasties.

Over history, several non-Han Chinese people have adopted the Liu surname, including [[Xiongnu]] and [[Turkic peoples]].