The royal surnames of the feudal dynasties in ancient China had a very high status in every dynasty and every generation. People also called the royal surnames the national surname, and this national surname could be given. Generally, if the emperor attaches great importance to an official who has made particularly great achievements, he will give him the same surname as a member of the royal family to highlight his prominent status. For example, the national surname given by the Han Dynasty was Liu, and the national surname given by the Tang Dynasty was Li. So why was the national surname given by the Ming Dynasty Zheng instead of Zhu? Let me come to you one by one.
First of all, this statement mainly comes from two people, one is the Sanbao eunuch Zheng He, and the other is the national hero Zheng Chenggong. As we all know, the national surname of the Ming Dynasty was Zhu. Logically speaking, the surname given to these two people should be Zhu. Zheng He should be called Zhu He, and Zheng Chenggong should be called Zhu Chenggong. But after Zheng Chenggong was given the national surname, why did he still have the surname Zheng?
The reason why the historical records we learned are of Zheng Chenggong instead of Zhu Chenggong is mainly because of the misleading of Qing Dynasty history books. The emperor of the Qing Dynasty hated the forces that fought against the Qing Dynasty and restored the Ming Dynasty. The most important representative of the rebellion against the Qing Dynasty and the restoration of the Ming Dynasty was Zheng Chenggong. He always took his national surname as his own name and used it as an honor to call on people to fight against the Qing Dynasty and restore the Ming Dynasty. When the officials of the Qing Dynasty compiled the history books of the Ming Dynasty, they changed Zheng Chenggong's surname back to his original surname of Zheng instead of calling him his national surname of Zhu, which later led to the bias against Zheng Chenggong.
The Qing Dynasty officials have always claimed this, and people naturally thought that the surname given by the Ming Dynasty was Zheng instead of Zhu. Therefore, the surname given to Zhu in the Ming Dynasty was mainly due to the false propaganda of the Qing Dynasty officials and the spreading of rumors by interested people, which led to this information misleading everyone. In fact, if you think about it carefully, you can understand that the Ming Dynasty's national surname must be Zhu, and the given surname must also be Zhu. Now you understand why the Ming Dynasty's given surname was Zheng instead of Zhu, right?