When I read the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, I found that every character has two names, such as Cao Cao's word Meng De. Why?
"Book of Rites Quli" says: "Men are twenty crowns" and "Women are fifteen years old", that is to say, both men and women don't take words until they are adults, and the purpose of taking words is to make people respect them and be honored. Ordinary people, especially peers and subordinates, are only allowed to call their elders by their first names.
The main basis of the ancient life word method is as follows:
1 tautology. For example, Qu Yuan's name is flat, the word is original, and the plain is wide. Confucius' students praised, Confucius said, Confucius said, Yan said, Zhuge said, Tao Yuanming said, Zhou said, Yue said, Yue said, Wen Tianxiang said, Jing Rui and so on all belong to this category.
② Antisense opposition. The word Zhao Shuai, a doctor in Jin Dynasty, is redundant (added). Ceng Dian is white. Tang Wang's ci is useless, Zhu's ci is gloomy, Yuan Zhao Mengfu's ci is proud, and Yan Shu's ci is the same as uncle's.
(3) guess. Zhao Yunzi Zilong (Yun Conglong); Chao, the word is blameless; Su Shi, Zi Zizhan (Twenty-eight Years of Zuo Zhuan: Shi Junfeng Consolidated Tables); Yue Fei's word Ju Peng.
As can be seen from the above three categories, words are closely related to names, and words are often the supplement or explanation of names. This is the so-called "name correspondence". They are both external and internal, so the word is also called "ideogram". These three kinds are the main ones. In addition, there are cases where the main branches and five elements are used for typesetting, or ranking, and the father (character) is added after the word, which is generally included in the scope of the word.
The word "destiny", like naming, has the flavor of the times. A general trend is to beautify words and respect aging, which is more obvious.
After the Tang and Song Dynasties, due to the strengthening of Neo-Confucianism, there were more and more red tape, and scholars also made a big fuss about appellation words to show their respect. But after a long time, they gradually feel that the address forms are not respectful enough, so they have a more respectful number than the address forms.
Why did the ancients name words and numbers?
Nowadays, most people have a "name" without a "word", so when we say "name", we usually mean only a person's name, or a name. But in ancient times, most people, especially officials and intellectuals, had both "names" and "characters", and some names and characters had "numbers" in addition.
(1) What are names and words?
The so-called "name" is the special name of individuals in society, that is, the symbols used by individuals in society. "Zi" is often the explanation and supplement of a name, also known as "ideograph". "Book of Rites Talking about Bows" says: "Young name, crown word." "Shu" says: "Born in March, it was given a new name, so it has a young name. When you are twenty years old and you can't name it, add words to your crown. " Yi Li Guanshi Lee: "If you are crowned, you should respect its name. Your father used to call him by his name, and others called him by his name. " Therefore, this name is from an early age for elders to call. When a man reaches the age of 20, he will hold a coronation ceremony, which indicates that he will become an official and enter the society. When a woman grows up, she will leave her family and promise to marry. Those who are not allowed to get married are called "Wei Zi" or "Dai Zi". When you get married at the age of fifteen, you should also call your friends with words:
In ancient times, the names of early figures were generally simple, such as Kong Jia, Gui Lu, Waibing, Yongji, Pan Geng, Wu Ding and Xiao Xin. All of them were named by cadres, which may be related to people's concept of attaching importance to time at that time. Later, with the progress of society, the development of language and the strengthening of consciousness, people's names became more and more complicated, and naming people became a science. When naming a name, you should carefully consider its connotation and think it over and over again. "Zuo Zhuan Huan Gong Six Years" recorded five principles of naming in the Spring and Autumn Period: "There are five names, faithfulness, righteousness, image, falsehood and category." This was put forward by Shen Ru, a doctor of the State of Lu, when answering the question of Huan Gong's name, which meant that he should be named according to his birth characteristics or from the aspects of pursuing Mu Xiangrui, expressing ambition, praising virtue and pinning his parents' expectations. And put forward seven noes: "not named after countries, officials, mountains and rivers, hidden diseases, animals and coins."
The ancient naming convention that emphasizes meaning and connotation has continued for thousands of years. For boys and girls born, because of their physiology. Personality and occupation are different, so names are different. For men, words are brave, strong and resolute; for women, words are virtuous, gorgeous and beautiful.
In addition, naming also reflects the characteristics of the times. The Xia and Shang Dynasties mentioned above like to use the names of the main branches as a typical example. Later, in the long-term feudal society, rich families of officials were mostly named after loyalty, filial piety, loyalty, longevity, health, promotion and wealth, so many people were named after benevolence, righteousness, courtesy, wisdom, faith, music, virtue, longevity, promotion, step-ancestor, honor-ancestor and continuation. People also want to live a good life and look forward to having many children and grandchildren and going to school, so there are many names called Fu Gui, Telford, Jincai, Zhixue, Ping 'an, Changshun, Man Cang, Mantun, Baocheng, Jinsuo and Shuanzhu.
After the founding of New China, many new names appeared, such as founding the country, aiding Korea, protecting the family, supporting the army, building the army, supporting Vietnam, staying in the Soviet Union, Weidong, Hongwei, Cultural Revolution, studying engineering and supporting agriculture.
Since the opening up, the phenomenon of adopting foreign names has risen again, which is undesirable and should not be advocated.