In the traditional culture of China, the five elements theory is the most important and far-reaching theory.
The five elements ref
In the traditional culture of China, the five elements theory is the most important and far-reaching theory.
The five elements refer to wood, fire, earth, gold and water. The ancient sages of China used these five substances in their daily life to explain the origin of all things in the world and the unity of diversity, and put forward the principle of "the five elements generate each other and resist each other". According to this principle, "mutual growth" means mutual promotion, such as "wood fire, fire earth, native gold, golden water and aquatic wood". "Mutual victory" means mutual exclusion, such as "water wins fire, fire wins gold, gold wins wood, wood wins soil, and soil wins water".
The theory of five elements contains many natural phenomena and phenomena, such as five colors (blue, red, yellow, white and black), five tones (horn, sign, palace, Shang and feather), five flavors (sour, bitter, sweet, pungent and salty), five internal organs (liver, heart, spleen, lung and kidney) and five permanent members (benevolence).
The theory of five elements has simple materialism and dialectical factors, which played an important role in the development of ancient natural science in China, and also had an important impact on China and folk life.
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Lu Xun's Hometown once involved a naming method based on the theory of five elements. He described in the book:
"There is a golden full moon hanging in the dark blue sky, and this is the beach by the sea. They all planted endless green watermelons. One of them was an eleven or twelve-year-old boy with a silver ring around his neck and a steel fork. He tried his best to stab a horse, but the man wriggled and ran away from him. This boy is a genius. I've heard the name of Runtu for a long time, and I know that he was born in a leap month like me, and the five elements are short of soil, so I call him Runtu. "
The name "moistening soil" comes from the theory of five elements. Named after the Five Elements Theory, it shows that the wisdom of China's ancient theory happened with the name.
This also shows from another side that naming is a very important thing in the minds of China people.
It is too early for the theory of five elements to study phenomena. During the Warring States Period, Mencius shouted loudly that "the king will prosper after 500 years", and his "theory of historical cycle" was influenced by the theory of five elements.
In the Han dynasty, people were more keen on the coexistence of the five elements, so the sequence of the five elements replaced the concept of winning the five elements and was used to mark the ever-changing dynasties in history. It has become a fashion to explain the evolution of history with the order of the five elements.
With the perfection and popularization of the five elements theory and the deep-rooted concept of the five elements in people's minds, people began to name it with the five elements theory in order to seek the theoretical basis for naming it.
At first, when people used the five elements to represent dynasties with historical changes, they found that it was more orderly and reasonable to use the five elements theory to represent the relationship between father and son.
Therefore, in the Tang Dynasty, when someone named them, they adopted the five-line order, and the words named after gold, wood, water, fire and earth were passed down from generation to generation in the order of family members. If you take a name next to the earth character, then your son will take a name next to the gold character, and your grandson will take a name next to the water character. According to the order of the five elements, gold comes from earth and water comes from gold.
Bi Gou, a native of Tang Dynasty, is famous for his erudition. At the age of 6, he can write, and at the age of 20, he was admitted to Jinshi. He also made achievements as an official, so his biographies are in both Tang Shu and Tang Shu. Their family's name is named after the Five Elements Theory. Bi Gou's real name is Fang, his son's name is Bi Kang, and his grandson's name is Bi Zeng.
In the Song Dynasty, people named it after the Five Elements Theory. For example, Zhu, one of the founders of Neo-Confucianism in the Song Dynasty, also named his family with the theory of five elements. The name of Zhu is Zhu Song, and Song is beside the wooden character; The four-point "Xi" in Zhu's name is not water, but fire, because Shuo Wen Jie Zi explains: "Xi, Shao Ye." The original meaning is barbecue. Zhu's son's name is Zhu Zaixiang, which is a local word beside him. A family of three generations, wood fire, fire born soil, orderly.
Another example is Qin Gui, the great traitor in the Southern Song Dynasty. His family is named after the Five Elements Theory. Qin Gui's name is next to the wooden character, and his son's name is Qin Xi, next to the fire character. Qin Gui's grandson is called Qin Yu, and his name is the local character beside him. Wood makes a fire, and fire makes soil, arranged in the order of five elements.
Examples of naming each other with five elements are common in history, and most of them occur in the homes of upper-class people.
Named after Jin Mu's Five Elements of Fire, Water and Earth, the most prominent one is Zhu Yuanzhang's family in Ming Dynasty.
The name of Zhu Yuanzhang, the Ming emperor, is very complicated. On the one hand, he imitated Zhao Kuangyin of Song Taizu to define the word generation for future generations, and stipulated that the name format was: surname+word generation+name. He also stipulated that the words used for naming must be "five-element radicals", that is, words with the radicals of gold, wood, water, fire and earth, and they should be in the order of fire, earth, gold, water and wood, that is, the sequence of five elements circulation. So, some names are really hard to recognize. Take Zhu Yuanzhang's son as an example. Zhu, Zhu Gui, Zhu Gui ... Are you right? Not to mention the name will be taken away after more than two hundred years)
Ming Taizu: Zhu Yuanzhang (according to legend, the word "Zhu Yuanzhang" has the saying of "a sharp weapon to destroy the yuan")
The second generation representatives: Zhu Biao and Judy (next to Woodenhead)
Representative figures of the third generation: Zhu Gaochi and Zhu Yunwen (beside the word fire)
Representative: Zhu Zhanji (next to the rabbit)
Representative figures: Zhu Qizhen, Zhu Qiyu (beside the golden character)
Representative of the sixth generation: Zhu Jianshen (beside the word water)
Seventh Generation Representative: Zhu Youtang (beside the wooden character)
Representative figures of the eighth generation: Zhu Houzun and Zhu Houzong (beside the word fire)
Representative of the Ninth Generation: Zhu Zaihou (next to local figures)
Representative of the Tenth Generation: Zhu Yijun (beside the golden character)
Representatives of the eleventh generation: Zhu (beside the word water)
Representative figures of the first generation 12: Zhu Youjian and Zhu Youxiao (beside the wooden character)
People named it in the way of five elements, which reflected people's concept of existence at that time, and it was also the standard embodiment of China's wisdom.
Named after the theory of five elements, it not only implies endless meaning, but also provides a theoretical basis for China people led by Confucianism. How many names?
Together, it constitutes the operation of the five elements, which not only solves the endless demand of future generations for the concept of existence, but also opens up a channel for the emergence of fatalism concepts such as this life, the afterlife and the afterlife.
For the general public, although they have endless wishes for their children and grandchildren, their humble position makes their desire for the five elements far weaker than those in the upper class who have high status, comfortable life, long life and rich children and grandchildren. They are more troubled by real life, hoping to change their own or future generations' fate.
In naming, they pay less attention to the ranking of the five elements, but pay more attention to their own or future generations' temperament, trying to make up for their own or future generations' lack of temperament with the theory of the five elements.
China's ancient philosophy has always emphasized the unity of heaven and man, emphasizing the unity of heaven and man. Modern people regard this theory as the basis of the relationship between man and nature in eastern culture. Although the mysterious theory of "harmony between man and nature" has been triggered after "harmony between man and nature", it is scientific to pay attention to the relationship between man and nature.
It is with the help of China's neo-Confucian theory that people's endowments are considered with the theory of five elements, and names are given according to the five elements of people's endowments. This is the method of naming birthdays.
Theoretically speaking, a man's talent level and destiny are determined by his five elements. A person's five elements are related to his date of birth.
The so-called "birthday" refers to the year, month, day and hour of a person's birth, which is marked by heavenly stems and earthly branches. This heavenly stems and earthly branches-compatible symbol uses two words for each item, including year, month, day and time, with a total of eight words. For example, the year of Jiazi, the month of 1898, Chen Bingri and Renzi are called "eight characters".
Match heavenly stems and earthly branches with the five elements, so that the birth represents the five elements endowed by human beings. Generally speaking, heavenly stems and five elements are: A and B belong to wood, C and D belong to fire, E and E belong to soil, G and Xin belong to gold, and Ren and Gui belong to water. The earthly branches and the five elements are: Yin, Mao and Chen belong to wood, Si, noon and unfinished, Shen, You and Xu belong to gold, Hai, Zi and Ugly belong to water, and the soil is between Chen, Xu, Ugly and Wei.
In naming, many parents add gold, wood, water, fire and earth in the five elements to their names to remedy the lack of "birth", which is a common phenomenon.
The year, month, day and heavenly stems and earthly branches in the eight characters can be expressed by fire, water and earth in Jin Mu. If something is missing, add something or radical to the name to make up for it. Now there are more and more such names. As mentioned earlier, Jiazi 1898, the year of Chen Bing's childless, indicates that heavenly stems and earthly branches substituted (A, B, C, D, E, G, Xin, N, D). The collocation of earthly branches and five elements is: Yin, Mao and Chen belong to wood, Si, Wu and Chen belong to fire, Shen, You and Xu belong to gold, Hai, Zi and Ugly belong to water, and earth sends Chen, Xu, Ugly and Wei): In the middle of the year, A is water, and in the middle of the month, E is earth. The soil and water are too prosperous without gold, and gold represents the lungs, indicating that the lungs are very weak (spleen, stomach and kidney are too prosperous). So we need to add gold, wood and fire. Some people are named Xin Sanjin, Sen Sanmu and Yan Sanhuo.
Many people who use this name don't believe in star destiny, but it has a traditional root in the family. His parents named him like this when he was young, and he can't change it when he grows up.
The phenomenon that parents consider their children's endowment and then name their children still exists. This naming method reflects parents' love and expectation for their children, and they cherish their parents.
Inject it into the child's name and instill it in the child.
From the perspective of psychological theory, it is not a bad thing to pay attention to the balance of the five elements in your body. As for whether the use of the five elements in one's own name is effective or not, it is still an untested and untested question.
From the perspective of mental stability and psychology, according to the deficiency of a person's five elements (we often hear people say that I have a heavy fire, I have yin deficiency and I am afraid of fire, which is actually a kind of self-suggestion and self-admission), it is helpful to give psychological hints to individuals, so as to achieve psychological balance. This effect is similar to a mild and lasting psychotherapy.
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Note: This article is based on the revision and supplement of Huiyuan's The Study of Names.