Li Shimin had so many children, why was only the eldest son named Li Chengqian? His name was three characters. There is no clear record in history, but based on historical events, it is speculated that Li Shimin's other children are older. The children may have had three-letter names originally, but for some reason, they were all changed to their current names. We will continue to talk about the specific situation next.
Everyone knows that after the Xuanwu Gate Incident, Li Shimin killed the sons of his brother Li Jiancheng and his younger brother Li Yuanji. Li Jiancheng’s sons were named Li Chengdao, Li Chengde, Li Chengxun, etc., and they all With Cheng, the sons of his younger brother Li Yuanji are named Li Chengye, Li Chengjiang, Li Chengdu, etc., and they all also bear the word Cheng. Li Shimin's child Li Chengqian also carries the word Cheng. Therefore, it is estimated that Li Yuan made their grandchildren bear the character Cheng, including Li Shimin's son.
In fact, in addition to Li Yuan’s grandsons, there are many others with the character Yuan, such as Li Yuanji, Li Yuanchang, Li Yuanjia, etc. Li Xuanba changed it to the character Xuan because he avoided taboos, and Li Shimin later changed it to the character Xuan because of fortune telling. , saying that he could help the world and bring peace to the people, so he changed his name to Li Shimin. Therefore, it can be found that Li Yuan originally assigned seniority names to his children and grandchildren, but if there are special reasons, the names can be changed. Therefore, according to this situation, all of Li Shimin's children should have been named Li Cheng, but only one of them was named Li Cheng. The others are probably for similar reasons and all have taboo names.
Like in the Qing Dynasty, Kangxi's children were called Yin, but one of them became emperor, and the emperor's name could not be used. Then Li Shimin may have had similar ideas and wanted Li Chengqian to be emperor, so He directly changed the names of other children, but it was not Li Chengqian who became emperor later. Li Shimin also thought of this, so he asked the other children to change their names to single characters, so that no matter which child became the emperor, the other brothers would not have to change their names again. It is also for this reason that many royal descendants have two-character names.