The relationship between "name" and "character" of ancient people in China

The ancients took names and characters in various ways, which can be summarized as follows.

closure type: names and characters are tightly closed, and * * * both indicate a profound content. For example, Qu Yuan, whose name is Ping and the word is Yuan, is "Plain". Ceng Gong, an essayist in the Northern Song Dynasty, has a solid word, which is called "consolidation".

juxtaposition: a name and a word are two aspects of the same thing or the same attribute. Mencius, Ming Ke, Zi Yu,

"Ke" and "Yu" are all related to cars. Wang Chong, a litterateur in the Eastern Han Dynasty, has the same character as Ren.

Annotation: Names and words can annotate each other, which makes the truth clear. Ge Hong in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, whose word is Yachuan,

has the meaning of "Dachuan Hong Tao", which means to carry out routine practices and follow the moral norms of the sages, and expresses great aspirations.

Synonymy: Names and words are represented by the same word. Ming Feng Menglong, whose word is still dragon, uses the same word "dragon".

Li Yu, a dramatist in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, used the same word "jade".

Relativity: Names and characters are in opposition, with strong contrast. Zhu Xi, a philosopher in the Southern Song Dynasty, has no dark words, and "light and dark" are opposite to "dark". Hong Shen, a modern dramatist, is shallow, and "deep" is opposite to "shallow".

Causality: Names and words are mutually causal, revealing the laws of things. Xin Qiji in the Southern Song Dynasty, whose word is Youan, eradicated diseases from childhood and naturally got well-being. In the Yuan Dynasty, Ma Zhiyuan had a word of thousands of miles, and galloping horses could mean thousands of miles.

derivation: infer the word by its name, and vice versa. Such as Zhang Jiuling in Tang Dynasty, the word Zi Shou, "nine years old" belongs to "the life of a boy". Tang Lihe, whose word is long and auspicious, should be celebrated.

echo: names and words echo each other, revealing meaning. For example, Guo Pu in the Eastern Jin Dynasty has pure words, which is the echo of "rough jade" and "tenderness". Qing Kong Shangren, the word weightlifting, "Ren" echoes "Heavy", which means "A long way to go".

imitation: names imitate predecessors and are used for each other. Lu you in the southern song dynasty, the word service concept, its name imitates Qin Guan, a poet in the northern song dynasty, and the word travels less. Sima Xiangru in the Western Han Dynasty changed his nickname "Youzi" to "Xiangru" because he admired Lin Xiangru in the Warring States.

the ancients were famous for their words. It is said that in ancient times, babies were named by their fathers three months after birth. When a man is 2 years old, he takes the characters when he holds the crown ceremony, and when a woman is 15 years old, she takes the characters when she marries. Why do you have to choose words when you have a name? "Yi Li Shi Guan Li": "If you crown it, you should respect its name." Kong Yingda made a note for the "young name, crown word" in the Book of Rites Tan Gong: "If life is nameless, it can't be separated, so it was added in March, so the young name of the cloud is also. Those who are crowned with the word, who are 2 years old, have the way of being a father, and friends and others cannot call their names again, so they are crowned with words. " That is to say, this is out of respect and out of the need to "be embarrassed for the elderly".

The ancients used names before words, so choosing words often followed the principle of "names corresponding", that is, there was a certain connection between words and names. "White Tiger Tongyi Name": "Those who are next to its name will know its character by smelling its name, and they will know its name by smelling its character. If the name is endowed with the word Zi Gong, the name carp is Bo Yu." The relationship between names and characters can be semantic or glyph, which is the influence of Chinese characters on names.

There are many types of semantic relations between names and words. Some words and names are synonyms, such as zai Yu, the word zi I, and "Yu" and "I" are synonymous; Xu Shen, the word uncle heavy, "cautious" and "heavy" synonymous; Zhuge Liang, the word Kongming, "bright" and "bright" are synonymous; Chu Suiliang, the word "good", is synonymous with "good". Some words and names are antonyms, such as Han Yu, the word retreat, and "Yu" and "retreat" are antonyms; Zhao Mengfu, the word Ang, is antonym of "Ao" and "Ang". Some words are associated with names, for example, if you have a word, you must "seek" before you can "have"; Zhao Yun, the word Zilong, "Dragon" is born of "Cloud". Some words are related to the same kind, such as Kong Li, the word Bo Yu, the word Carp, the word Yu Zhong, and Zheng Qiao, the word Qiao Fu and Yu Weng.

Characters and names are also related in terms of their glyphs. In ancient times, there was a so-called method of "making characters from names", that is, isolating the glyphs of "names" to get "characters". For example, Qin Gui, the word Hui, "Hui" is an integral part of "Gui"; Yao Chun, the word "Chunmu", "Chunmu" is the segregation of "Chunmu"; Mao Qiling's words are many, including "Ersheng", "Dake", "Qi Yu", "Yu", "Chu Qing", "Sun Yat Sen" and "Lao Qing".

Because names are linked together, people often choose their names according to their surnames. Some of them are related in semantics. The Biography of Wei Zhi in the Tang Dynasty has the title of "Cloudy Morning Sunrise", The Biography of Lingguan in the Five Dynasties has the title of "New Mirror Grinding", The Biography of Lingguan in Liao Dynasty has the title of "Loving clothes lightly", and now there are such titles as "Jackie Chan", "Niu Decao", "Ma Shitu" and "Ma Bole". Have a plenty of contact in terms of taking glyphs, such as Lao She, whose surname is Shu and whose name is Sheyu; Nie Er, formerly known as Nie Shouxin, has a particularly keen sense of hearing, and his surname is Nie. People affectionately call him Erduo according to the shape of Nie, so he took Nie Er as his pen name and eventually went to the world under his pen name. In addition to the connection of the name's shape and meaning, the ancients also changed their surnames, and they often used the physical connection of Chinese characters. For example, in the Han Dynasty, after Han Xin in Huaiyin, the surname was changed to Wei, and Wei was a part of Han. In the Ming Dynasty, people in Fang Xiaoru changed their surname "Shi" in order to avoid disasters, using the folk custom of dividing "Shi" into "Renye Fang", implying the meaning of "descendants of the Fang family".