The origin of mass revisited

Where does the mass of matter come from? Can we trace its origin? Does our present experimental ability reach the level needed to investigate the origin of mass? The purpose of this paper is to present our current understanding of these problems from the viewpoint of physics. We first revise Newton's Zeroth Law while introducing the binding energy to demonstrate the history and various levels of research on the origin of mass, then focus our attention on the origin of the mass of elementary particles. We will discuss the connection between mass and symmetry, and list three mechanisms of mass generation and splitting that are related to the origin of mass.