Like modern times, the names of ancient people in China are symbols used by people to represent individuals in social communication. What we call someone by name now is different from the ancients. In ancient times, the name was a name, and the word was a word, each with its own purpose. The ancients were named as soon as they were born, and when they were adults, they had characters and numbers; After death, there was posthumous title. "Book of Rites. On the Tan Bow": "Young name, crown word, Zhou Dao also."
1. Names are personal symbols used in society. Claiming to use names and calling people by words. The word "Zi" is often the explanation and supplement of "Ming", and it is also called "Biao Zi".
2. The relationship between "name" and "character" of the ancients has the same meaning. For example, Ping Zi, a Zhang Hengzi who created the seismograph in the Eastern Han Dynasty, and Mi Heng, a litterateur who beat drums and scolded Cao, have the word Zhengping, and the word "balance" in their names and characters is "ping"; In Song Dynasty, Qin Guan's word "Shaoyou" and Lu You's word "Wu" are synonymous in their names and words.
3. "Name" and "character" complement each other meaningfully. For example, Liang Hongzi, a writer of "Taking Qi Mei as an Example" in the Eastern Han Dynasty, and "Hong" and "Luan" are both praised birds; Bai Juyi, a poet in the Tang Dynasty, was named Lotte, so he was able to "live in Yi" because of "Lotte". Chao Buzhi, a writer in the Song Dynasty, has no blame for his words (blame is a fault), and only by "making up" can he be "blameless".
4. "Ming" and "Zi" have opposite meanings, for example, Zhu Xi, a philosopher in the Song Dynasty, and Zi Ang, a painter and calligrapher in the Yuan Dynasty. The words "Xi" and "Hui", "Fu" and "Ang" are antonyms.
5. The "name" and "character" of the ancients are often taken from the classics of ancient books, such as: Cao Cao's word Meng De, and Xunzi has a sentence that "the husband is called moral operation". Lu Yu, a writer in the Tang Dynasty (who wrote the Book of Tea, and was later honored as the "Tea God") used the word Hung-chien, which was taken from the Book of Changes.
6. The ancient people's "names" and "characters" are also commonly used to indicate the generations in the family. In the pre-Qin period, Jia Bo (Meng), Zhong Shu and Ji Cousins were often added before their first names and surnames, such as Bo Yi and Shu Qi, where Bo was the elder brother and Shu was the younger brother; Kong Qiu word Zhong Ni, "Zhong" is the second child. After the Han Dynasty, people gradually used the same word or radicals to express peer relations in "names" or "characters", such as Su Shi, a writer in the Song Dynasty, and Su Zhe's brothers * * * used radicals "cars" to express peers.
7. In addition to names and characters, some ancient people also had numbers. "Hao" is a fixed alias, also known as another name. Middle-and upper-class people in feudal society (especially literati) often take their own names (including fasting names and room names) based on their residence and interests. For example, Li Bai's Qinglian layman in the Tang Dynasty, Du Fu's Shaoling Yelao, Su Shi's Dongpo layman in the Song Dynasty, Liu Ruju layman in Tang Yin in the Ming Dynasty and Banqiao in Zheng Xie in the Qing Dynasty are all well known to future generations. Some nicknames even exceed their real names (such as Su Dongpo and Zheng Banqiao).
Extended materials
There are restrictions on the use of names
Necessary restrictions should be imposed on the use of names by citizens under certain conditions. The "Regulations" stipulate that the name shall not contain the following contents: 1. It damages the dignity of the country or the nation;
2. Violating national customs;
3. It is easy to cause adverse reactions or misunderstandings of the public.
Considering that the number of words used in China's name is usually two or three Chinese characters with single surname, compound surname or three or four Chinese characters with both parents' surnames, the "Regulations" stipulates that: except for those who use national languages or write or translate Chinese characters, the names should be used in more than two Chinese characters and less than six Chinese characters. For example, if the husband's surname is Zheng and the wife's surname is Fu, they can name the child "Zheng Fu Beckham".
The Regulations stipulate that names may not use or contain the following characters, letters, numbers and symbols: 1. Simplified traditional Chinese characters; 2. Variants that have been eliminated, except those in surnames; 3. Make your own words; 4. Foreign languages; 5. Chinese phonetic alphabet; 6. Arabic numerals; 7. symbols; 8. Other words beyond the scope of Chinese characters and minority languages.
Some forms of Chinese characters:
Add the word "Zi" as a man's respectful name before Chinese characters: for example, Gong Sunqiao's word Zi Chan and Du Fu's word Zi Mei.
adding the word ranking before the word indicates ranking: Kong Qiu word Zhong Ni; There are also those who only use ranking as the word: for example, Liu Bangzi Ji.
The word formation of women in the Zhou Dynasty was different from that of men, and many of them used ranking characters as their surnames, such as Meng Jiang.
In addition, in ancient Chinese, when names and characters are connected, it is customary to say the words first and then the names. For example, in Historical Records, Confucius' father is called "Shu Liang Ge", in which "Shu Liang" is the word and "Ge" is the name.
Baidu Encyclopedia: named
Baidu Encyclopedia: called the word.