The first important thing for the founders of the past dynasties was to establish a country name, which is the title of a country. For example, during the Three Kingdoms period, the Duke of Wei, King Wei's Cao Wei, the Jin Dynasty of Jin King Sima Yan, and the Sui Dynasty of Sui Dynasty Emperor Wen Yang Jian. So the question is, the emperor of the Tang Dynasty was named Li, why was he called Tang Dynasty instead of Li Dynasty?
The origin of the country names of the past dynasties
The three dynasties of Xia, Shang and Zhou were all named after tribes, such as Dayu, the surname of the Queen of Xia, with the surname of Huo; the ancestors of merchants, He worked with Dayu in controlling floods and was sealed in Shang, so he took the name Shang. Later Shang moved his capital to Yin, so he was also called Yin Shang; Zhou originated from Zhou Yuan at the foot of Qishan Mountain, so he named himself Zhou.
Qin: The ancestor of Qin had meritorious service in herding horses for the Emperor of Zhou, and was granted the title of Qin Valley. After the unification of Qin Shihuang, he continued to use the title of Qin; Han: Liu Bang is more interesting here. He was from Peijun, so he was the king of Qin in the early days. He was called Pei Gong, and later he was named King of Han. After becoming emperor, he continued this country name; Wei, Shu, and Wu: Cao Cao established himself as King of Wei, and Cao Pi continued to use it after usurping Han; the country name of Shu Han was Han, not Shu, and was a continuation of the two Han Dynasties, with the prefix Shu is just to distinguish the two Han Dynasties, so it is called Shu Han or Ji Han; the Kingdom of Wu... King Wu of the Wei Dynasty.
Jin: Sima Zhao was granted the title of King of Wei, and Sima Yan continued to use this name after the founding of the country; the Southern and Northern Dynasties are too confusing to talk about, especially Nan Chen, because the king's surname is Chen, some people think that the surname is used as the title , Actually that’s not true, Chen Baxian was named King Chen before, so he also used the title as his title, and the surname was just a coincidence. Sui: Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty, Yang Jian, inherited the title of "Sui Guogong" from his father, and later became Sui Wang, but the word Sui was unlucky, so he replaced it with Sui as the country title; Tang: Li Yuan was the Duke of Tang before usurping the throne; Tai of the Ten Kingdoms of the Five Dynasties Not to mention chaos.
Using the title granted by the founding emperor in the previous dynasty as the name of the new dynasty
In the change of dynasties in ancient China, the channel of abdication was popular, which could make the new dynasty's political power Legitimacy is greatly enhanced. Generally, after a change of dynasty, the founding emperor of the new dynasty will often use the title granted by the previous dynasty as the title of the new dynasty; for example, the founding emperor of the Jin Dynasty, Sima Yan, was the king of the Cao Wei regime, so he forced the Wei Yuan Emperor Cao Huan to abdicate. , the country was named Jin.
Like the Tang Dynasty mentioned in the title, the founding emperor Li Yuan was the Duke of Tang in the Sui Dynasty. Therefore, after forcing Emperor Gong of the Sui Dynasty Yang You to abdicate the throne, he took Tang as the country's name. This is also the case with the Chen Dynasty in the Southern Dynasty mentioned above. The founding emperor Chen Ba was first the king of Chen in Nanliang. Therefore, after forcing Emperor Jing of Liang to abdicate to the throne, it was logical that the country be named Chen.
Use the place of origin or prosperity as the country name
For example, the country name of the Qin Dynasty. The earliest Qin people were granted the title of Qin by King Zhou Xiao because of their merit in raising horses for the Zhou royal family. During the period of Qin Xianggong, because of his meritorious service in defending the Zhou royal family, he was officially named a vassal state, so Qin became the country's title.
There is also the Song Dynasty mentioned in the title, because Zhao Kuangyin, the founder of the Song Dynasty, served as the governor of the Guide Army during his tenure as the general of the Later Zhou Dynasty. Guide was in Shangqiu, Henan today, and was also called Songzhou in ancient times. When Zhao Kuangyin After the founding of the People's Republic of China, it can be said that Songzhou was his "Longqian Land", so "Song" was established as the country's name.
The Theory of Five Elements
About the Theory of Five Elements, it is actually a relatively mysterious thing. It can be said to be simple, but it can also be said to be complex. In the case of the Song Dynasty, although the country was named after its place of prosperity, it also had the theory of the Five Elements.
For example, it is recorded in the "History of the Song Dynasty": "There is a minister who said: The country accepts Zhou Zen, Zhou Mude, and wood makes fire. It should be the king of fire virtue, and the color should be red, and follow it." It means that the Later Zhou Dynasty was the virtue of wood, as the saying goes, wood makes fire, so the Song Dynasty should be the virtue of fire. Shangqiu was the first place to worship the God of Fire, and Song Taizu Zhao Kuangyin started his family here. Therefore, it is most appropriate to use Song as the country's name. Regarding the origin of the country names of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, there is also a theory of the Five Elements.
The name of the country is named in a forced relational manner
For example, Liu Yuan, the founding emperor of Han and Zhao during the Sixteen Kingdoms period, claimed to be related to the Han Dynasty, so the country was named Han. This can also be seen as the case with Nurhaci, Taizu of the Qing Dynasty. He claimed to be a descendant of the Jin Dynasty. In order to show that he inherited the Jin Dynasty from the Wanyan family, when he established the post-Jin regime, Jin was used as the country's title. This situation is more common in dynasties established by nomadic peoples.
Named with words with special meanings
For example, the Jurchens established the Jin Dynasty. There is a saying that the Jurchens believed that gold was the best metal, and the name of the Liao Kingdom was in Khitan. Zhong means iron, so using gold as the name of the country will definitely defeat the Liao Kingdom. There is also the founder of the Yuan Dynasty, Kublai Khan, who established the Yuan Dynasty. The name of the country was taken from the meaning of "Great Qianyuan" in the "Book of Changes".
Use the names of ancient countries as the names of dynasties
For example, Zhou, Qin, Jin, Qi, Chu, Yan, etc., use these ancient powerful regimes as the names of the new dynasties. This situation often occurs in troubled times, such as during the troubled times of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, when Guo Wei, Taizu of the later Zhou Dynasty, took "Zhou" as his country name. Because there were too many countries with "Zhou" as their country name, in order to distinguish them, they were called Later Zhou by later generations.
There are also the turbulent periods of the Sixteen Kingdoms, such as the former Yan, the later Yan, the southern Yan, the northern Yan, the former Qin, the western Qin, the later Qin and other regimes. Because the country names are repeated, the former, the latter and so on distinguish.
Although these regimes are not 100% named after ancient countries, there are other reasons. But most of them are named directly after ancient countries, so "Zhou", "Qin", "Yan", etc. appear very frequently.