There are many Qing palace dramas and novels about the Qing Dynasty. From these, you can sometimes find some very strange phenomena. For example, in some TV dramas, Heshen often is called "He Zhongtang", and important ministers of the Kangxi Dynasty are often called. The picture of Suo'e is "Master Suo". In the late Qing Dynasty, some people called Sushun, an important minister of the Xianfeng Dynasty, "Su Zhongtang".
Of course this statement is in line with the general naming convention, but do you always find it strange because these people are Manchu ministers? In fact, Heshen, Sushun and Suo'etu ?is not what the Han people call ?name?, but is just ?name?.
Is it illegal for Han people and Han ministers to call them this? No, these people basically accepted it. After all, they all took over the Central Plains. Of course, they followed the rules of the Central Plains.
Then they don’t have a last name? Of course not, the Manchu people have surnames. He Shen's surname is "Niu Colu", Suo'etu's surname is "Hesheli", Sushun is even more amazing, he is a clan member, his surname is "Aisin Gioro".
There is an interesting plot in "Huanzhugege". When Qianlong paid a private visit incognito, his pseudonym was "Master Ai". The Chinese surname "Ai" was naturally "Aisin Gioro". The homophony of.
Then why don’t these Manchus say their last names? In fact, this is the custom. Some of the memorials handed down to the emperor by Manchu ministers, as well as the signatures of some paintings and calligraphy works, only include the first name and not the surname.
This habit sometimes makes a lot of jokes. For example, when many encyclopedias introduce the surname "Peng", when talking about celebrities, they often cite "Peng Chun" as the person, Peng Chun. He was a famous general of the Kangxi Dynasty who had participated in the war to expel Tsarist Russia, because "Peng Chun" looked like a Han Chinese name, so his surname was Peng Mingchun. In fact, "Peng Chun" is the transliteration of the name of the Manchu people. It was still the Shunzhi period when he was born. Some Manchus didn't name their names exactly according to Chinese characters, so there was a name like "Peng Chun". Now, in order to avoid misunderstanding, they generally call him "Peng Chun". Pengchun?, his surname is Dong'e. Since the early Qing Dynasty, the Manchus have gradually tended to adopt two-character Chinese names (excluding surnames) and then transliterate them into Manchu. However, the Chineseization of surnames was relatively late. Until the Republic of China, almost all Manchu surnames were changed to Han surnames to avoid trouble.
Why not use it if you have a surname?
This is actually a Manchu custom: when calling a person's name, use the first name instead of the last name. The traditional Manchu official name is divided into two parts: hala (surname) and gebu (given name). The Manchu people developed from the traditional Jurchen nomadic tribe, so the Manchu culture has a strong tribal color. The Hara is the earliest ancestor of the tribe. There is a taboo against intermarriage between the same Hara, similar to the Han people. People with the same surname do not get married. The origin of Hala may come from the place name, the river in the place of residence, or ancient totems or legends.
Under Hara there is Mukun, which is a new clan group formed after the same Hara moved to different areas. For example, the Guarjia clan is a traditional hara of the Manchu people. According to different living areas, it is divided into Suwan Guarjia, Antu Guarjia, etc.
In fact, Hara is roughly equivalent to the "surname" of the early Han people, and Mukun is equivalent to the "surname" of the traditional Han people. Therefore, traditionally, the original hala is called hasuri hala, and the clan surname after the split is called mukūn hala. In traditional Manchu families, everyone can know their own hala and mukun. When offering sacrifices to gods, they first repay Hasulihara and then mukunhara.
Moreover, the surnames of the Manchus are different from those of the Han people. Not only do they use the first name but not the surname in general, even when it is necessary to mention the surname, they use the name Fei Yanggu of Dong E's family. Argument
The Manchus’ habit of using names rather than surnames is actually influenced by the Mongols. This is inferred from a historical perspective, because the clan organization of the early Manchus was fixed, and several geographical tribes composed of haras In the group, everyone actually knows a person's hala, so there is no need to call him or her, and it becomes a habit over time.
In traditional Manchu society, strict exogamy must be ensured, and the leader (Niu Lu Ezhen) manages the household registration. For individuals, there is basically no need to emphasize their surname.
However, in the later period, because their own surnames were diluted and they lived in the Central Plains for a long time, the Manchus sometimes adopted many Han customs. By the Qianlong period, traditional Manchu surnames were combined with Han customs, forming a unique phenomenon of taking names. , is a practice of using the first letter of a name as a surname, which originated from the Manchu custom. For example, Agui during the Qianlong period, his grandfather Asiha, and his father Akdon, all had the prefix of A for three generations. Over time, this prefix was treated as a surname and was called a surname. In order to avoid this phenomenon of sinicization, Emperor Qianlong once issued a decree specifically asking the descendants of the Agui family, the minister, not to follow suit. In the harem, he changed the single-character surname of his concubines to "a certain Jia family" to make them Manchu. Fu Heng also named his sons Fu, and Qianlong issued an order to change Fu to Fu to match his old Manchu surname Fucha.
However, Qianlong’s efforts went against the historical trend. Later, it was basically a common phenomenon for Manchu surnames to be blurred (except for a small number of nobles). Later, even the royal family changed their surnames, such as Mr. Qi Gong, the former Qing royal family Descendant, famous scholar, he insists that his surname "Qi" has merit. He believes that "Aisin Gioro" is not a surname, but the name of the tribe.
So for individuals, the concept of their own surnames became less and less important, and it was of no use to say it anyway. So later on, the Manchus got into the habit of only saying their first names but not their surnames. Sometimes this led to some embarrassing situations, such as the late Qing general Shengbao, who was ridiculed by his colleagues as a "defeat guarantee" because he did not fight well.