China Naming Network - Ziwei Dou Shu - How did the title "Ding Bai" come from?
How did the title "Ding Bai" come from?
Ancient society was hierarchical, and even there were various restrictions on wearing clothes. Ordinary people can only wear linen clothes, not silk, so "cloth clothes" is used to refer to ordinary people. "Xunzi. Outline ""The ancient sages were humble for cloth and poor for ordinary people. " Huan Kuan, a scholar of the Western Han Dynasty, explained in his "On Salt and Iron": "Shu Ren, an ancient man, was old and dressed in silk, while the others were just numb, so he was ordered to wear cloth." Hemp xi, that is, linen clothes Seventy or eighty years old means that ordinary people can only wear silk clothes at seventy or eighty years old. Ancient China was rich in all kinds of hemp, so everyone could afford to wear the cloth with the lowest idiom of hemp fabric. Today, flax has become a fashion, which is much more expensive than cotton. It's really the general trend. Many of the founding heroes of the Western Han Dynasty are "originated from cloth clothes" and are called "generals in cloth clothes", just like Chen Sheng's exclamation: "princes will be generals, it would be better to have seeds!" The appellation of "Ding Bai" comes from "white clay" and "Wu Bai". White disciples refer to able-bodied men who have not been temporarily recruited by the army; A white house refers to a house where ordinary people live. According to the hierarchy, ordinary people's houses are not allowed to be painted, so they all show the true colors of wood, so they are called "white houses". There is also a saying that ordinary people can only build roofs with white thatch, so it is called a white house. "Ding" is a title for an adult man. When a person comes of age, he has to bear the tribute. At this time, someone began to call him "Ding". The age standard of adulthood has existed from generation to generation, and it is Ding 40, Ding 23, Ding 2 1, Ding 20. "Ding Bai" refers to the temporary recruitment of able-bodied men. However, there was no such name at that time, just called "white disciple". Later, it was extended to refer to civilians who have no fame or official position as "white clothes". Candidates who took the imperial examination in the Tang Dynasty were collectively called "white-clothed officials" because they were the reserve forces of officials. The formal title of Ding Bai began in the Tang Dynasty or earlier. Liu Yuxi's "Humble Room Inscription" made the title of "Ding Bai" widely known: "There is a scholar in laughter, and there is no Ding Bai in communication." Ding Bai's opposition to scholars refers to people without learning. There are several similar titles in Tang poetry, such as Wei's "Journey of Picking Jade": "The official levy says picking sapphire." Here, "Ding Bai" refers to the jade workers temporarily recruited by the government. Mou Rong's Four Poems of Zhu Qingyu's Idle Residence: "Ding Baiyuan is outside the door, but Shu Ren is not." Civilians opposed by Ding Bai refer to ordinary people. Luo Yin's Four Poems of Jia Zi in the Mid-Yuan Dynasty: "Ding Bai attacked Chang 'an, Cui Nian bent the yellow road. "Ding Bai here refers to the rebels such as Huang Chao, who are all civilians. Interestingly, in today's online language, the word Ding Bai is used to refer to the behavior of those childless Dinks who go back on their word and want to have children. It means "tinkering is useless"