According to legend, Zhu Yuanzhang had a dream, in which nine cows ran into the door of the Golden Temple. Zhu Yuanzhang couldn't sleep well and asked someone to interpret his dream. A minister told him that this matter may be related to recent immigrants from Shanxi. Jiutou Niu belongs to Shanxi Niu family, and there are just nine brothers in the family. Zhu Yuanzhang reasoned and decided to take the "Jiu Niu" apart and move the Jiu Niu brothers to different provinces.
The cow learned that the imperial edict was overwhelming, but could not change it. He can only split up under the big locust tree. The head of the Niu family smashed the big iron pot at home and distributed it to nine brothers. If future generations meet, they will take the iron pot as a token, commonly known as playing the pot cow.
The source of cattle surname.
1, from the surname, is a descendant of Shang Tang. According to the records of Tongzhi imperial clan, the compilation of Yuan and surname, and the genealogy table of Tang books, Zhou Wuwang took Wei Zi's name (his ordinary brother), worshipped Tang Wang, and Song Sikou, the descendant of Wei Zi, as his surname in Song Dynasty.
2. Old name changed to cattle. According to Sui Shu and Tao Shi, Niu Hong in Sui Dynasty was his father Liao Yunci's surname, Niu, and Liao Yun was a courtier of the Northern Wei Dynasty (in the Three Kingdoms period, General Wei changed his surname to Laobi, and then changed his surname to Laoyun).
3. Form among the people. Farmers and cows are companions, always inseparable, and some take cows as their surnames.
His family changed his surname. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, there was always a Niu surname in Shigu and Zhongjiang in Lijiang, Yunnan Province, which was Naxi nationality. Manchu surname in Qing dynasty, living in Shenyang, belongs to Huangqi Tuguan; Today, Manchu, Tibetan, Tujia, Mongolian, Dongxiang, Hui, North Korea, Yi and other ethnic groups all have this surname.