Is a person’s name important? Do names really have the desired effect? Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty, took great pains to name himself, his ancestors and his descendants.
1. Change your name
We all know that it is dark before dawn, which is the story of Zhu Yuanzhang who herded cattle for the rich man's family when he was a child. At that time, his name was Zhu Chongba, a name that did not resemble his real name. Born into a poor family, he herded cattle, asked for food, and worked as a monk. At the end of the Yuan Dynasty, 25-year-old Zhu Chongba resolutely joined Guo Zixing's uprising army. Due to his bravery and repeated military exploits, he won the respect and trust of Guo Zixing, so he married his adopted daughter Ma Shi (Queen Ma) to him, but the army lieutenant Because he was worried about the unpleasantness of his name "Chongba", he only called him "Mr. Zhu". He married a wife, had children and got promoted, but the only one was burdened by his own name. So he changed his name for the first time: Zhu Xingzong, which meant that he hoped to be able to honor his ancestors.
Two years later, Guo Zixing died of illness, and Zhu Xingzong led his troops to join the more powerful "Red Scarf Army" leader Xiao Ming Wang Han Lin'er. In the sixteenth year of Zhizheng (1356), Zhu Xingzong was regarded as the "Gong of Wu" by the generals for his military exploits. In the twenty-fourth year of Zhizheng (1364), he ascended the throne as King of Wu.
At this time, Zhu Xingzong was no longer satisfied with Yaozu, but was worried that the world would be in ruins. He once again decisively changed his name - Zhu Yuanzhang! Zhu means execution; Yuan means Yuan Dynasty; Zhang means sharp weapons made of jade. Its meaning and vigor are chilling.
In the spring of the twenty-seventh year of Zhengzheng (1367), Zhu Yuanzhang, who was far-sighted and talented, ordered Xu Da and Chang Yuchun as deputy generals to lead an army of 250,000 in the northern expedition against the tyranny of the Yuan Dynasty. Taking Shandong, occupying Henan, capturing Tongguan, conquering most of the capital, and attacking Bianliang, leading to the destruction of the Yuan Dynasty.
In the first year of Hongwu (1368), Zhu Yuanzhang established the Ming Dynasty for hundreds of years.
2. Name or change the names of ancestors.
After Zhu Yuanzhang calmed down the world and settled down the court, he encountered another headache! As the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty, he wanted to be famous for centuries to come, and his ancestors were also included in the royal family tree. Unfortunately, he did not have a decent name.
The rule of the Yuan Dynasty was corrupt, simple, and crude, especially for the Han people. At that time, there was an unwritten rule in the Yuan Dynasty. In order to reduce the trouble of registering people's names, Han people could only use their surname plus date of birth as their name, otherwise they would not be registered. In this way, Zhu Yuanzhang's father was named Zhu Wusi, his grandfather Zhu Chuyi, his great-grandfather Zhu Sijiu, his great-grandfather Zhu Bailiu, and his ancestor Zhu Zhongba.
Zhu Yuanzhang was in trouble for entering the temple in the name of his ancestral brothers. At this time, military advisor Liu Bowen said, Your Majesty, if your ancestor’s name doesn’t sound good, you can change it! As a result, the imperial edict was issued and announced to the world:
In accordance with the destiny of heaven, the emperor issued an edict:
Taizu Zhu One hundred and six, he was named Ming Dezu;
Great-grandfather Zhu Sijiu, named Mingyi Zu;
Grandfather Zhu Chuyi , named Xizong of the Ming Dynasty,
His father, Zhu Wusi, changed his name to Zhu Shizhen and was granted the title of Renzu of the Ming Dynasty.
The eldest brother Zhu Chongwu changed his name to Zhu Xinglong and was granted the title of King of Nanchang;
The second brother Zhu Chongliu, He was renamed Zhu Xingsheng and was granted the title of King of Xuyi;
The third emperor’s brother Zhu Chongqi was renamed Zhu Xingzu and was granted the title of King of Linhuai;
3. Name his children and grandchildren Zhu Yuanzhang's wife had fifteen concubines and one family, and she had twenty-six children. After Empress Ma gave birth to Zhu Biao, the prince of the East Palace, Zhu Yuanzhang took the Taoist Five Elements East as the tree, and the wood will show in the forest, and the forest will become a forest, which means that his sons can bloom and prosper, so he ordered all his sons to be named after the word "wood"; In order to prevent confusion among his descendants and facilitate identification, Liu Baiwen was ordered to draw up a twenty-character ranking order for each prince. It was stipulated that the third character of the name must be based on the five elements of the previous generation and in that order, " Fire, earth, metal, wood, water".
For example, the lineage of the descendants of the eldest prince Zhu Biao is: "Yunwen follows the instructions of the ancestors, the powerful king wins, the road is auspicious, the teacher is good and makes good use of Sheng", and his son, that is, The emperor's grandson, later Emperor Jianwen, was named Zhu Yunwen; the descendants of the fourth-room Yan king Zhu Di who later launched the "Jingnan Campaign" to seize the throne from his nephew were: "Gao Zhan Qi Jianyou, Hou Zai Yi Chang You, Ci He" Yi Bocu and Jian Jingdi first?" ;
Zhu Di's "棣" is next to the character "木", so his son should be next to the character "火". Zhu Di's son, later Renzong of the Ming Dynasty, was called Zhu Gaochi - "Gao" is the middle character, and "Chi" is next to the character "fire". Zhu Gaochi's son, later named Xuanzong of the Ming Dynasty, was called Zhu Zhanji - "Zhan" is the middle character, "Ji" is next to the character "Tu", and so on.
The last emperor of the Ming Dynasty, Chongzhen, was called Zhu Youjian - "You" is the 10th of the 20 characters, and "Jian" is next to the word "木". Each of Zhu Yuanzhang's sons has 20 characters, and their descendants are named according to this rule. Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang's descendants are very easy to identify.
Finally, as for why the name of Zhu Yuanzhang’s grandson is not next to the character for fire, is it Zhu Houzhao? Does he dare to violate Zhu Yuanzhang's regulations? No! "History of the Ming Dynasty: The Anthology of Emperor Wuzong": "Wuzong Chengtian, Daoying, Su Ruizhe, Zhaode, Xiande, Hongwensi, Xiaoyi, Emperor Huuzhao, the eldest son of Xiaozong." The "灬" part of the character "Zhao" belongs to the "fire" department. head. This is just like "水" belonging to the radical "氵". In addition, "炂" can also be used as "zhao".
This is not surprising, because when Zhu Yuanzhang was still alive, he stipulated that the naming of the descendants of the royal family surnamed Zhu must be based on the principle of the five elements.
As we all know, Zhu Yuanzhang was poor when he was a child. He once herded cattle for landlords and became a monk in Huangjue Temple. Later, he participated in the Red Scarf Army uprising and resisted the Yuan Dynasty.
After Zhu Yuanzhang established the Ming Dynasty and proclaimed himself emperor, he implemented many wise policies during his reign, which is known as the "Hongwu Rule" in history.
Why did Zhu Yuanzhang, who came from a grassroots background and had a low level of education, become so outstanding? Because he has a strong learning ability, is good at accepting advice, and attaches great importance to cultural construction.
For example, he specially promulgated the naming rules for the descendants of the royal family surnamed Zhu. According to the principle of the five elements, they were named in this order: wood produces fire, fire produces earth, and earth produces metal. , metal generates water, water generates wood.
The core principle is that it must be based on the "Five Elements". For example, Zhu Yuanzhang had 26 sons in his lifetime, and their names all had "wood" as the radical. For example, Zhu Yuanzhang had 26 sons in his lifetime. Biao, Zhu Di, Zhu Xi, Zhu Fan, Zhu Zi, Zhu Qi, Zhu Tan, Zhu Bai, Zhu Nan, etc.
For another example, he stipulated that the descendants should be strictly followed in alphabetical order.
For this reason, he gave his sons tailor-made characters. According to this order, in the names of men of each generation, one word can clearly represent the seniority.
For example, the generation of the descendants of Prince Zhu Biao is: Yun obeys the instructions of the ancestors, Qinwu Jun wins, it is good luck to follow the road, and the teacher is good and kind.
The descendants of King Zhu Di of Yan are: Zhan Qi Jian You, Hou Zai Yi Chang You, Ci He Yi Bo Zhong, Jian Jing Di Xian You.
Therefore, the sons of Zhu Di, the founder of the Ming Dynasty, belonged to the generation with the character "Gao" and were named after the character next to the character "火". They were named Zhu Gaochi, Zhu Gaoxu, Zhu Gaosui and Zhu Gaoyang;
Zhu Gaochi's sons were born with the character "Zhan". Fire generates earth, so they were named after the characters next to the character "土". They were named Zhu Zhanji, Zhu Zhanquan, and Zhu Zhanji. Zhu Zhanyong et al. Zhu Zhanji's sons belonged to the "Qi" generation and were born in gold, so they were named after the characters next to "jin", so they were called Zhu Qizhen and Zhu Qiyu.
In the generation of Zhu Youxiao, Emperor Xizong of the Ming Dynasty, the five elements in his name belonged to "wood", so he followed the principle of "wood generates fire" and the five elements circulated back to "fire". Moreover, the next generation belongs to the generation with the word "ci", so Zhu Youxiao named his sons Zhu Ciran, Zhu Ciyan, and Zhu Cijiong.
Zhu Yuanzhang's naming concept for the descendants of the royal family surnamed Zhu is rare in Chinese history. The rules are very unique and have great cultural connotations.
However, what Zhu Yuanzhang did not expect was that this principle later encountered embarrassment.
As Zhu Yuanzhang's descendants multiplied and spread, the population of the royal family doubled.
When the royal family names their children, the surname "Zhu" and the character for seniority are fixed, and only the last character in the name can be used. As for the last word, while taking into account the "Five Elements" principle, it is also necessary not to repeat names or avoid taboos.
As the population of the royal family continues to double, fewer and fewer Chinese characters meet the requirements for naming, becoming a scarce resource, and the options are getting smaller and smaller. Later, Chinese character dictionaries became a decoration, and the names of the descendants of the royal family surnamed Zhu faced the embarrassing situation of "no words to choose from".
As long as your thinking does not slip, there are always more solutions than difficulties! Finally, the descendants of the royal family surnamed Zhu came up with a solution: create characters!
As a result, people will see that the huge lineage of kings in the Ming Dynasty has very unique names. Among them are many uncommon words whose pronunciation is unknown. Most of these rare characters are the result of coined characters.
Therefore, some new Chinese characters were added in the Ming Dynasty to the already established and large-number Chinese character system.
It stands to reason that these improvised characters are only used by the descendants of the royal family surnamed Zhu. In addition, they are uncommon and are not used by ordinary people. This will result in these characters appearing only briefly in the Ming Dynasty and gradually being lost thereafter.
But what these character creators and the descendants of the Ming Dynasty royal family did not expect was that these characters would come in handy hundreds of years later.
In the mid-19th century, foreign scientists created a "periodic table of elements" composed of many chemical elements based on the chemical elements sorted from small to large atomic weight. As new chemical elements are discovered, the periodic table continues to grow.
In the late Qing Dynasty, Xu Shou, a famous scientist and the enlightener of modern Chinese chemistry, translated a number of books on Western science.
When translating the English version of the "Periodic Table of Chemical Elements" into Chinese, he invented the naming method of transliteration plus free translation, and named a set of Chinese names for chemical elements.
That is, he translated the first syllable of the English pronunciation of a chemical element into Chinese characters as the Chinese character name of this element. Then add a radical to it that is related to the characteristics of the element itself.
The names of gaseous elements all start with the word "gas", such as hydrogen and ammonia; the names of solid elements all start with the word "stone", such as silicon and sulfur; and the names of metal elements all start with the word "stone". Next to the word "钅", such as lithium, sodium, calcium, potassium, etc.
For the Chinese at that time, chemical elements were a brand new product. In the process of translation and naming, Xu Shou also encountered the embarrassing situation of "having no words to choose from".
Finally, the knowledgeable Xu Shou had a sudden idea and boldly adopted the name of a descendant of the Ming Dynasty royal family.
For example, "lithium" comes from "Zhu Xiaoli, King of Neiqiu", "beryllium" comes from "Zhu Quan, King of Tangshan", "sodium" comes from "Zhu Zaina, King of Ruijin", "Potassium" comes from "Changyuan Wang Zhu En Potassium" and so on.
So, whether it is Zhu Yuanzhang's naming principle of the five elements that complement each other for the descendants of the royal family surnamed Zhu, or Xu Shou introducing the names of the descendants of the Ming Dynasty royal family into the "Periodic Table of Chemical Elements", they all highlight the uniqueness of Chinese characters Charm, the breadth and depth of Chinese culture.
Why do the descendants of Ming Dynasty’s Zhu family have to have these words in their names?
For this huge empire, Zhu Yuanzhang thought of and implemented arrangements and measures in all aspects, and promulgated laws and decrees, whether it was scholars, farmers, industry and commerce, fishery, forestry, agriculture and animal husbandry.
After doing this, Zhu Yuanzhang considered that his descendants might have duplicate names, so he personally formulated the principles and methods of naming for his descendants. He drew up two names for each of his twenty-four sons. Ten characters, except for the single character Mu Pang for his son, all descendants will be given double names. The first character was chosen by Zhu Yuanzhang, and the latter character must be a character with five elements in the radical. The order is "fire, earth, metal, water." , wood";
For example, the lineage of the descendants of Prince Zhu Biao, Yiwen, the eldest son, is: "Yunwen follows the instructions of his ancestors, the great king of Qinwu wins, it is good luck to follow the road, and the teacher "Good use of Sheng", and his son, the emperor's grandson and later Emperor Jianwen, was named Zhu Yunwen;
The descendants of Zhu Di, the fourth king of Yan in Jingnan, later had the name: "Gao Zhan Qi Jianyou, Hou Zaiyi Changyou, Ciheyi Bocuo, Jian Jingdi Xian?" And his eldest son and second son were named: Zhu Gaochi and Zhu Gaoxu.
Although Zhu Yuanzhang treated his ministers very harshly, he treated his sons very well. The population of Lao Zhu's family was increasing and growing rapidly, which led to the growing shortage of names. , but the rules of the ancestors cannot be broken, so I randomly found a word and used it to arrange the five elements radicals, and the name of a chemical periodic table came into being.
This is the origin of the name of Lao Zhu's family. As the questioner said, some of the grandsons should not have the word "火" next to them.
The meaning is that wood symbolizes prosperity, two trees form a forest, and three trees form a forest. Only with wood can roots be planted and branches and leaves flourish. I hope that my descendants will be prosperous and eternal.
According to the five elements, wood makes fire, so the son brings wood and the grandson brings fire.
Zhu Yuanzhang was a very thoughtful person. He spent six years guiding the compilation of the royal classic "Huang Ming Ancestral Instructions" and spent another three years revising it. Re-edited nineteen years later, this classic covers all aspects of the royal family's clothing, food, housing, transportation, etc. It can be said that Zhu Yuanzhang took into account everything he could think about for future generations. How detailed was it? For example: "Every emperor's residence In the palace, you should get up early and go to bed late, drink less wine, eat at the right time, and don't be too full in the afternoon. "You can see Zhu Yuanzhang's persistence in details.
Zhu Yuanzhang stipulated that future generations should be named according to the five elements of wood, fire, earth, gold, and water, that is, wood produces fire, fire produces earth, earth produces gold, metal produces water, and water produces wood. This is father and son. "So the descendants of Zhu Yuanzhang all have these radicals. By the end of the Ming Dynasty, it was no longer enough to use these radical characters to find names for them, even if they were, so many non-existent self-made characters were artificially created. These words are obscure and difficult to understand, which can be regarded as a characteristic.
In ancient times, people named names in strict order. This is the case for ordinary people. As an emperor, you should abide by the rules. The order is wood, fire, metal, and earth. , water, and grandchildren all have fire names, and some have the word fire at the bottom. People are accustomed to calling them four points of water.
The biggest disadvantage of this mutually reinforcing naming method is that. Grandpa will always defeat his grandson
In ancient times, there was a ranking of generations, the generation with the character wood, and the generation with the character fire. Nowadays, cities are less particular about it, but there are still these in the countryside. Only men In terms of seniority, a man counts as a Ding.