In the traditional cultural system of China, the name is an important symbol of a person's family background, origin and personality factors. Because of such an important role, the name system of ancient China people was complicated, including characters, numbers, nicknames and so on, in addition to official surnames and first names. In the Qing Dynasty, Tang Zhen wrote "Hidden Books"? The name says: "The famous person, the order is long and young, distinguish between noble and low, don't be suspicious, and the big one is also polite." This is from the naming point of view, the name is not only a symbol referring to an individual, but also a sign of the position of an individual in the social order.
China people paid attention to names from the Shang and Zhou Dynasties. In the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, people began to attach importance to names, and names gradually became ritualized and institutionalized, and various taboos and restrictions on names also emerged. Because in the upper class, no matter how to choose a name or a word, you have to go through a grand ceremony, and you can't call each other by their first names casually, so many families give their childish children a nickname first, so that they can be called among their families and close people. Nicknames are often called "milk names" because they are often given to children shortly after birth and during breastfeeding. In the Spring and Autumn Period, it was very common for aristocratic family members to take nicknames. However, the lower class in society, because they have no right or ability to carry out a grand ceremony of choosing names and characters, the "nickname" they took when they were young is often the "big name" when they grew up.
according to historical records, Jin Xiangong's nickname, Qiu, means scorpion; Zheng Zhuanggong was born with dystocia, so he took the nickname "Life"; Kong Qiu's son is nicknamed "carp". Shi Chong's nickname is Qinu, Wang Xianzhi's nickname is Guannu, Gu Kaizhi's nickname is Hutou, Tao Yuanming's nickname is Xigou, Wang Anshi's nickname is Badger Lang, and Song Xiaozong's nickname is Lamb. Not only the Han nationality, but also the ruling class of ethnic minorities who entered the Central Plains at that time often left a record of nicknames in historical books. For example, the nickname of Yeluyi, the ancestor of Liao Dynasty, was "Sip Li Zhi".
In addition, because the female members of the upper class in feudal society lived in the family boudoir for a long time and rarely showed their faces outside, nicknames became more popular, but they were only used in the family, also known as "boudoir names". Such as the nickname "Gillian" of Emperor Chen of the Han Dynasty, and the nickname "Insect Mother" of Princess Tang Shouchang.
We can find that most of the above-mentioned "birth names" are base names. According to legend, this can make children grow up safely and avoid the death of demons and ghosts. This custom should have been formed in the Han and Wei Dynasties. The phenomenon of birth name is a language custom with a long history. According to Mr. You Guoen's textual research, the custom of nickname "flourished in the Han Dynasty and flourished in the Six Dynasties". It is not uncommon to find records about the nicknames of ancient people in ancient literature. Such as "Southern History"? Zhang Jinger's Biography records that in the Southern Qi Dynasty, there were two brothers. The elder brother Zhang Jinger was nicknamed Dog and the younger brother Zhang Gonger was nicknamed Pig. Inspired by divination and dreams, Zhang Jinger thought that he would become the son of heaven, so he conspired to rebel and fabricated nursery rhymes and said, "Where is the son of heaven? He lives in Chigukou (the place name in front of Zhang Jinger's house). Who is the son of heaven?" Non-pigs are dogs. " Later, he was killed by Emperor Wu of Qi. "Tang Shu? The Biography of Li Junxian recorded a court game about nicknames. Emperor Taizong invited the military attache to have a banquet in the palace, so that everyone could make a drinkers' wager game and each reported his nickname. Li Junxian, the secretariat of Huazhou, named herself Wuniangzi. Taizong laughed at him and said, "What kind of woman are you, so brave and fearless?" At that time, the custom of nicknames was very common. Not only the common people, literati and bureaucrats took nicknames, but also the emperor who was called the son of heaven had nicknames. Xin Qiji, "Eternal Joy? In Beigu Pavilion Nostalgia at Jingkou, it is said: "Grass trees in the setting sun, ordinary lanes, and humanitarian slaves once lived." "Looking back, there is a crow club drum under the baboon raccoon temple." The word "Send Slave" is the nickname of Emperor Wu of Song Wudi in the Southern Dynasties, and "Baboon Beaver" is the nickname of Tuoba Tao, the emperor of the Northern Wei Dynasty. The most well-known nicknames of ancient emperors are Liu Chan's "A Dou" and the famous minister Cao Cao's nickname "A Yun". The above nicknames, whether belonging to ordinary people or bureaucrats and royals, are based on the principle of vulgarity and ugliness, which is very different from elegant and pleasant names that positively reflect social order and life ideals. It can be seen that birth name is a custom of naming and appellation with unique social and cultural value.
Birth names have the function of blessing in villagers' consciousness. Wang Xun, a poet in the Song Dynasty, said in "Wild Guest Series": "Parents want it to be easy to have children, so it is named after dogs ... Today's names still have this intention, and the reason is very clear." According to the Song Dynasty poet Xing Jushi's "Record of Zhangs" and the Qing Dynasty Liang Zhangju's "Wandering Tales" (Volume 6), Ouyang Xiu had a son named Augus; People asked him why he chose this name, since he never cared much about Buddhism. He replied, "Children in other families often take cheap things as nicknames, such as dogs, sheep, horses and cows, and the name of Augus also means this." In A Dream of Red Mansions, Wang Xifeng said to Grandma Liu, "Just give her a name ... You are farmers, and you are not afraid of your annoyance. You are poorer after all. If you poor people give a name, I am afraid you can hold her down." In the eyes of rich people, the name given by poor people is a base name, so they can avoid evil and get rid of diseases.
In the traditional sense, children are named "lock" and "tie", thinking that by reciting the words that have become names often, a kind of spiritual power can be born, which can really keep children from dying; Named "Niu Er" and "Xiao Zhu", I think that children can really support people by eating poor food and not caring for them carefully, just like cattle and pigs, which are lowly and easy to feed. Named "iron", "steel" and "gold", it is thought that children's bodies can be as strong as these metals and not get sick. The ancients also believed that by exerting external force on names, people's own situation could be affected. Taking children's names as base names, or names with "lock", "tie", "iron" and "Zhang Wangye" are often recited. The reason why this kind of witchcraft against names can affect children themselves lies in the fact that the ancients thought that names had substantial connections with people themselves. And "stealing the name of his children" to name their children is because the namer thinks that the name is the sustenance of the soul. Since this birth name is not the real name of their children, it is the children of other families who are taken away when ghosts come to seduce.
From this perspective, birth names can play a role in protecting children in traditional beliefs, not only relying on homeopathic witchcraft thinking mode, but also cooperating with contact witchcraft thinking mode.
If a baby's birth name is a temporary name in the fragile period of a child's life, so people think it is not a real name, then it can be regarded as a way to hide a name. In this way, not only the baby names with obvious witchcraft words or witchcraft have the effect of avoiding evil spirits, but also all the baby names have the effect of avoiding evil spirits and protecting children by hiding their names. However, the function of this kind of hidden name has been ignored in the long-term spread of custom, so we add various more positive measures to the use of words or naming methods of birth names.
In the traditional period, the material living standard was low, the medical level was poor, and superstition prevailed, so the surreal factors of birth name occupied a prominent position. In modern society, the material standard of living and the medical level have been fundamentally improved, the infant mortality rate has been extremely low, and people are no longer too worried about the difficulty of feeding babies, so the surreal belief in naming has faded or even disappeared, and the realistic function of birth names has occupied a dominant position, even gradually shrinking under certain conditions.