I don't know if you have noticed that the names of these emperors seem unremarkable, but in fact, everyone's names are very particular. Today, after reading history books at night, I will talk to you about the names of Ming emperors.
In ancient times, aristocratic families often paid attention to word generation when naming their descendants. After breeding for many generations, people who don't know each other in the same clan can also determine their relationship between their elders and children through word generation. For example, the seventy-sixth grandson of Confucius and Kong Lingyi of Duke Yansheng are "Ling". Kong Linghui, the world champion of table tennis who is also the grandson of Confucius, is also the word "Ling". The age difference between them is more than 1 years, but if they are ranked by seniority, they are peers.
Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty, was a poor peasant in his early years. For generations, he didn't even have enough to eat, and he didn't know a word. Naturally, such a family could not ponder the word generation ranking. In fact, the names of the previous generations of Zhu Yuanzhang's family were all calendars, and his grandfather was born in the first day of junior high school, so he was named Zhu Chuyi. His father was born on the fourth day of May, so he was named Zhu Wusi. He was born on the eighth day of August, so his original name was Zhu Chongba. In ancient times, most poor families chose their children's names easily. After all, for the poor who didn't even have enough to eat, the name was just a sign, so there were so many routines.
after Zhu Yuanzhang became emperor in the Ming dynasty, his family became the No.1 family in Tianzi. Therefore, it is impossible for Zhu Yuanzhang to name his descendants from the calendar like his ancestors. After some in-depth and painstaking research, Zhu Yuanzhang "developed" a set of high-level word generations for his family, which is a model of word generation ranking in China family.
Zhu Yuanzhang * * * has 26 sons, each with a "wooden" name, such as the eldest son Zhu Biao, the second son Zhu Shang, the third son Zhu and the fourth son Zhu Di. Zhu Yuanzhang did not apply the word generation ranking to his sons, because these princes originated from a vein, and their fathers were all Zhu Yuanzhang. However, from the grandchildren, all the Zhujiajian children and grandchildren have their own word generation.
Zhu Yuanzhang gave each of his sons and nephews a five-character quatrain as their word generation ranking. For example, the word generation of the eldest son, Zhu Biao's lineage, is "Allow Wen to follow Zuxun, Qin Wu Da Jun wins. Zhu Biao's son is the word "Yun", such as Zhu Yunwen, the King of Wu Mourning, and Zhu Yunxuan, the King of Heng Kui. The word generation of the fourth son Zhu Di's lineage is "Gao Zhan Qi Jian You, Hou Zai Yi Chang You". Kindness and grace are equal, and Jian Jingdi is the first to care about Zhu Di's son, such as Zhu Gaochi and Zhu Gaoxu. Zhu Di's grandson is the generation of Zhan, such as Zhu Zhanji and Zhu Zhanyong, and Zhu Di's great-grandson is the generation of Qi, such as Zhu Qizhen and Zhu Qiyu.
It's not a big deal if you just take the five-character quatrains as the word generation, which is similar to the word generation system of other families. The best thing about the imperial clan of Ming Dynasty is that the third word of each generation is arranged in the order of five elements (wood fire, fire earth, native gold, gold water and aquatic wood). For example, the names of the second generation Zhu Biao and Zhu Di are all five elements of wood, the third generation Zhu Yunwen, Zhu Gaochi and Zhu Gaoxu are all five elements of fire, the fourth generation Zhu Zhanji and Zhu Zhanyong are all five elements of soil, and the fifth generation Zhu Qizhen and Zhu Qiyu are all five elements of gold, and so on.
Therefore, according to the word generation ranking of imperial families in the Ming Dynasty, it is easy to see who is Zhu Yuanzhang's descendant and their seniority in the family. After the demise of the Ming Dynasty, the royal family in Zhu Ming was massacred by the rebels and Manchu, but many descendants of Zhu Yuanzhang survived, and most of them lived in anonymity. Later, with the peace of the world, these people resumed their original surnames and family word generation rankings. Today, there are still many descendants of Zhu Yuanzhang who are active in all walks of life in society, including many famous people who are well-known and respected by everyone.