In ancient times, it was inconvenient to call a 20-year-old man and a 15-year-old woman by their first names. Choose another alias related to the meaning of the original name and call it a word to express its virtue. When people call each other respectfully, they must call them virtuous words. The latter word is called table word.
In ancient times, due to the special emphasis on etiquette, the names and characters were very particular. In interpersonal communication, first names are generally used as modesty, condescension, or as a term of address for superiors versus inferiors, or for seniors versus juniors. Peers only call each other by name when they are familiar with each other. In most cases, it is considered impolite to refer to each other or to be called by his or her first name. It is considered polite among peers to address each other by name. When you are writing or calling someone from a humble position to a superior, you can use names, but you can never use names, especially the names of the monarch or your own parents and elders. You cannot even mention the names of the monarch or your parents or elders. Otherwise, it will be "disrespectful" or "treasonous". ", so the "taboo" system came into being.
Extended information:
A name is a name, and a word is a word
The name people call now refers to a person's name, which is different from the name in ancient times. different. In ancient times, names and characters refer to a person's title. A name is a person's name before adulthood, and a word is a person's name when he enters society as an adult.
China's dual-track system of names and characters has been formed as early as the Zhou Dynasty. The names of the ancients were mainly used to refer to themselves; the characters of the ancients were mainly used to refer to others. In ancient times, babies were named after they were two months old. "Book of Rites" says that "when a man is twenty, he wears his hairpin" and "when a woman is married, she wears her hairpin". This is because in ancient times, when men were twenty years old, they had their hair tied and crowned as a sign of adulthood and began to pick up characters. When a woman is fifteen years old, she wears a hairpin (a hairpin that binds her hair) as a sign of adulthood and can be given a name. When a person reaches adulthood, the name originally given by his elders is no longer convenient for people to call him by name in social situations. He should be called by a new name that can be called by his peers or juniors, otherwise it will be considered rude. Therefore, using words to match each other shows respect.
The character is independent of the name, but also closely related to the name. For example, Zhuge Liang's courtesy name is Kongming, "Liang" and "Ming" can explain each other, and the meanings of the characters are similar. Zhou Yu's courtesy name is Gongjin, and "Yu" and "Jin" are both beautiful jade, with similar meanings. There are also names and characters that complement each other and can be inferred by connecting the meanings. For example, Yue Fei's character is Pengju. "Pengju" means a big roc fluttering its wings and flying high, and "fly" complements each other. There are also words with opposite meanings, such as the character "Hui" of Song Dynasty scholar Zhu Xi, where "Xi" and "Hui" have opposite meanings.
Reference materials: People's Daily Online - Ancient names and characters refer to names in the Song Dynasty, with old age being the most beautiful