Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty, was a very fertile emperor. He gave birth to twenty-six sons and sixteen daughters in his lifetime. Zhu Yuanzhang was not only able to give birth to sons, but he also cared about the future of his many sons and stipulated that all his sons and their descendants would always be princes and would not have to work, and their living expenses would be entirely borne by the court.
Because of this, the Ming Dynasty also became the dynasty with the largest number of royal princes at the same time in Chinese history. But what is interesting is that the names of many royal princes in the Ming Dynasty are very rare and uncommon characters, such as Zhu Zhiwen, Zhu Bingju, Zhu Chengyao, Zhu Enquan, Zhu Jianxeng, Zhu Ci, Zhu Chang, etc. What is going on?
It turns out that Zhu Yuanzhang created a "shortcut" for naming his sons. Zhu Yuanzhang set a seniority code for each of his sons. For example, the descendants of Zhu Di, the founder of the Ming Dynasty, were "Gao Zhan Qi Jianyou, Hou Zai Yi Chang You, Ci He Yi Bo Zhong, Jian Jing Di Xian You", and Zhu Biao's descendants were "Yun" Wen followed the instructions of his ancestors, and the great king of Qinwu won. It's good to follow the road, and it's good to have a good teacher and make good use of it.
In addition, Zhu Yuanzhang also stipulated that the names of the descendants of the Ming Dynasty clan must contain the Chinese characters of the five elements, and the order of seniority is "wood, fire, earth, gold, water". The son of Zhu Di, the founder of the Ming Dynasty, was Zhu Gaochi, the son of Zhu Gaochi was Zhu Zhanji, the son of Zhu Zhanji was Zhu Qizhen, the son of Zhu Qizhen was Zhu Jianshen, and the son of Zhu Jianshen was Zhu Youtang?
But the problem is the continuation of the Ming Dynasty For nearly three hundred years, as time went by, the number of descendants of the Ming Dynasty clan was increasing, but there were not many Chinese characters with the five elements radical, and Zhu Yuanzhang did not dare to change the naming rules set by him. This stumped the officials responsible for naming the royal family, so that later many Ming Dynasty clans did not have a name by the time they were teenagers.
Due to their distinguished status, the more common five-element radical Chinese characters were reserved for the direct descendants of the emperor. The officials responsible for naming the royal family later randomly added the radical of "wood, fire, earth, metal, water" to names of the Ming Dynasty clans with distant blood relatives. Therefore, many clan princes in the Ming Dynasty had extremely rare and unusual names. Character.