This common Korean surname means fertile land, or solemn, serious and reserved. Other Korean versions of Chung include Chong, Cong, Zhong, Zhung, Zong and Jung. The earliest record of the Chong or Chung clan in Korea dates from 32 AD, when Chibaekho, one of the six ruling elders of pre-Silla Korea was given the surname by the third Silla king, Yuri Isagum (24-57 AD).

Chung has its roots in the Chinese name Zheng. The eleventh emperor of the Zhou Dynasty, Zhou Xuan Wang (827-781 BC), made his younger brother, Ji You, the duke of the lands east of Hua in Shanxi province. Ji You adopted the name of Zheng Heng Gong. He had a government minister called Zhou You Wang who turned out to be a most cruel and untrustworthy man who incited a rebellion in which Zheng Heng Gong was killed while trying to escape to the south of the Yellow River.

Zheng Heng Gong's son survived and helped the thirteenth Zhou emperor, Zhou Ping Wang (771-720 BC), to put down the rebellion. This son was able to restablish the Zheng kingdom in the fertile land to the south of the Yellow River. The capital of this territory was called Zhengzhou, though settlement of the site itself dates back to the Shang dynasty.

The Han dynasty took over the kingdom of Zheng in 375 BC, but the rulers retained their surname which came to denote a rich and powerful family by the time of the Tang dynasty (618-907 AD).

In Vietnam, the surname has evolved into Trinh, and in Japan, Tei.


Sources:
utopian.net
ancestry.com

~Contributed by Feiyan Zhou