Bon-gwan is the concept of clan in Korea, which is used to distinguish clans that happen to share a same family name (clan name). Since Korea has been traditionally a Confucian country, this clan system is similar to ancient Chinese distinction of clan names or xing (姓) and lineage names or shi (氏). The bongwan system identifies descent groups by geographic place of origin. According to the population and housing census of 2000 conducted by the South Korean government, there are a total of 286 surnames and 4,179 clans.