Characteristics of Zhu Yuanzhang's family name

Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty, was named Chongba by his parents when he was a child. When he grew up, he changed his name to Xingzong, and later he changed his name to Yuanzhang, with the word Guorui. At present, a popular historical reading, Zhu Yuanzhang Volume, begins with a file for Zhu Yuanzhang, and writes in the column of name and alias: "Name: Zhu Yuanzhang alias (nickname): Zhu Chongba, Zhu Guorui." (1) it is obviously wrong to include Zhu Chongba in the column of "alias (nickname)". The correct way is to list Zhu Chongba and Zhu Xingzong as "former names" separately.

So why did Zhu Yuanzhang's parents give him such a name? The author of this popular history book explained: "This name was chosen not because Zhujiajian was engaged in mathematics, but because in the Yuan Dynasty, ordinary people had no names if they could not go to school or be officials, and they could only be named after their parents' ages or the date of birth. Since it is named after the age of parents or the date of birth, his name should be two numbers, so the author said, "Zhu Chongba, this name can also be called Zhu Baba." (2) However, Zhu Yuanzhang was born on September 18th (October 21st, Gregorian calendar) of the first year of the Yuan Wenzong calendar (1328). His father Zhu Wusi was 48 years old, his mother Chen was 43 years old, and his parents' age was 91 years old. If Zhu Yuanzhang's name was named after the parents' age or the date of birth, his name should be September 1st or 18th. Why?

In fact, this author only knows one thing and doesn't know the other. In the feudal society since the Song and Yuan Dynasties, ordinary people who didn't have job titles were named after their peers, in addition to their parents' age or date of birth. In Yu Yue's Essay on Spring in the Hall in the Qing Dynasty, it is said that Xu Cheng 'an's big order is a postscript: "There is a fine print written by the predecessors in the Family Tree of Cai's family in our city, and it is said that:' Yuan system: ordinary people who have no jobs are not allowed to be named, but only in the name of the line and the total age of their parents.' There is no sign of this in the History of Yuan Dynasty, but it is proved that Ming Gaohuang (that is, Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang) called his brother's name, which is exactly the case. There is no doubt that it is a seasonal armor in the Yuan Dynasty. See in Shaoxing countryside, there are quite a number of people in the name. If the husband is 24 years old and the woman is 22 years old, it will be 46, and the child will be named 46; The husband is twenty-three years old, and the woman is twenty-two, making it forty-five, and giving birth to a child may be called five-nine, five-nine-four-five. "The above and Xu Jun said. Yu Kao Ming Xun Chen Kaiping Wang Chang Yuchun, great-grandfather, father, father; Dongou Wangtang and his great-grandfather Wuyi, father Liuyi and father Qiyi are also named after numerals. Another test of Hong Wenmin's "Yi Jian Zhi" contains Song Dynasty chores, such as Yun Xingguo's military and civilian Xiong Er; And cloud Liu 12, Poyang city people also; Fu Tian, Yunnan, Wednesday; There is also a cloud of Xiaoyang Xiaomin Liu; And cloud operators leave people from four; Also YunYun fisherman Yin Er in Shanyang County, Chuzhou; Another cloud solution is Liang Xiaoer, a villager in Anxi, Anyi, Zhou; Yun Dong Xiaoqi, Linchuan; Another cloud is Huizhou Wuyuan citizen Zhang Si; And cloud Huangzhou citizen 16, its servant Cui San; Another cloud is Zheng Xiaowu, a villager in Poyang; Chen Er, a farmer from Xiaoshun Town, Jinhua County. And so on, invincible. It also contains the military cloud of the four generals of Yangwu: when visiting the fishing house, those who have no knowledge have never asked their surname, and those who know it are suspected to be divine clouds. According to the surname, not the name, it is suspected that the alley was thin and the people were unknown in the Song Dynasty. (3)

The name Chongba was chosen according to the order of generations. He belongs to the "heavy" generation. Four cousins are called heavy one, heavy two, heavy three and heavy five respectively, and three brothers are called heavy four, heavy six and heavy seven respectively. He is the youngest and is called heavy eight. Since it is named after generations, it can't be called eight-eight, nor can it be called eleven, two, three, four, five, six and seven. In fact, through the historical records of the Ming Dynasty, there has never been a record of calling the Zhu Yuanzhang brothers 11, 22, 33, 44, 55, 66, 77 and 88.

The author argues: "In fact, history itself is wonderful, and all history can be written beautifully." This popular historical reading book of his uses a lot of descriptions and expressions of popular literature, and its writing is witty and humorous, which is really good-looking. But although history is a thing of the past, it is an objective existence, not a little girl who can be dressed up at will. Any historical work, regardless of its form of expression, whether it is an academic work or a popular reading, should truly reflect the face of history and reveal its rich connotation. Otherwise, joking about history and confusing truth with falsehood will not help people understand history and get useful enlightenment. Therefore, historical works should be written well and truly. Truth is the life of historical works.