(The Woman Who Speaks of History - Issue 1363)
Chinese people have always attached great importance to names. No matter whether they are in rural areas or cities, whether they are high-ranking officials or ordinary people in the countryside, if they are just born When you have a child, naming it takes a lot of thought. Some ask knowledgeable people to name them, some ask Mr. Yin and Yang, and some ask themselves to read ancient books, look up dictionaries, etc. No matter how bad the situation is, for example, if the rural people are illiterate and don't have money to hire a husband, they can't just name it casually. They have to think of something nice, auspicious, and to ward off evil spirits. Of course, there are also names named after "Hu", such as dog baby, dog egg, stone, toad, mosquito, etc., but most of these are nicknames. They are given such names for the sake of intimacy, but later when the children grow up and get used to the name, so If you don't want to change it anymore, if you obey it, you will become more and more friendly.
For the sake of names, China has even developed a science, that is, naming science. It involves the Five Elements, Bagua, I Ching, etc., and is very profound. Until now, you can still see some naming societies on the streets, and there are even many websites about naming on the Internet, such as naming websites. Most of them are based on the theory in Zhouyi, naming people according to their birth date and horoscope.
In the Chinese philosophy, a person's name not only has symbolic meaning, but can even hint and affect a person's destiny and future, and it must not be careless. Even in the new era, many people think that Yin Yang Bagua is superstitious and there is no need to consider the name at all, but they still take it seriously. A good name must meet the following conditions: first, it sounds good. For example, a girl named Meihua will definitely sound better than Meihua, so there are many people named Dongmei and Hongmei; secondly, it must be meaningful, sound more grand, and can be relied upon by parents. The good wishes of others, such as Zhiqiang, Jianguo, etc., used to be very fashionable and awesome names; the third is to have a provenance, so as not to become a tree without roots or water without a source, and even appear to be knowledgeable, such as once being promised Gao Xingjian, who won the Bell Prize for Literature, was named after the Book of Changes: "Heaven moves vigorously, and a gentleman should constantly strive for self-improvement."
Of course there are other conditions, but these three conditions are basic and must be considered. In particular, a cultured person who is more particular about naming himself (such as a nickname, a pen name, etc.) or naming his children is very serious about it. He will never choose one casually and make others laugh at his lack of knowledge.
But there are exceptions. For example, there is a master of linguistics in our country, Mr. Zhao Yuanren, who is known as the first generalist and the most genius in the Republic of China, and is known as the father of modern Chinese language. He has four beautiful daughters. , but he named his daughter very casually. Not only did it not sound good at all, it even seemed to have no meaning. It seemed very mediocre and stingy.
Also, the names of the four biological daughters are very different from each other. Among the four sisters’ names, except for the surname "Zhao", none of them has a special character. In the traditional Chinese sense, this is very particular. Like Da Mao, Er Mao, San Mao, and Si Mao, since they are brothers and sisters, their names will have the same character in each other. This makes them appear cordial and like a family. But Zhao Yuanren is not like this. So, as a master of linguistics and a master of Chinese studies, why is Mr. Zhao Yuanren so careless in naming his daughter? What did he name his four daughters? Will it have any impact on their future and destiny? Let’s talk about this topic today.
(1) The Master and His Daughters
Zhao Yuanren (1892-1982) was born in Changzhou, Jiangsu Province. This man is definitely a talent. He is known as the first generalist and ghost genius in the Republic of China. He is extremely smart and erudite. He is proficient in mathematics, physics, philosophy, music and other subjects. He is proficient in 7 languages ????and 33 dialects. He is a standard language master. He graduated from the Department of Mathematics at Cornell University in the United States and received a doctorate in philosophy from Harvard University. He has taught at Cornell University, Harvard University, University of Hawaii, Yale University, University of Michigan, Tsinghua University and Academia Sinica in China. The language is waiting. When he taught at Tsinghua University, he was known as the "Four Great Mentors" of Tsinghua University together with Liang Qichao, Wang Guowei and Chen Yinke.
Zhao Yuanren is a prolific writer with unparalleled talents, but he is very casual in naming his daughter. Is it possible that his wife is a rough man and he is a "hep-controller" who dare not give his daughter a good name? ? On the contrary, Zhao Yuanren's wife is the famous and talented Yang Buwei, who is also ambitious and generous.
Whether it is Zhao Yuanren or Yang Buwei, the couple's names are very grand, especially Yang Buwei's name is simply grand and heroic, with the artistic conception of high aspirations. But what are the names of their four daughters?
The names of the four daughters of Zhao Yuanren and Yang Buwei from oldest to youngest are: Zhao Rulan, Zhao Xina, Zhao Laisi, and Zhao Xiaozhong.
At first glance, these four names are not too bad, and even the eldest name "Rulan" is quite elegant. But don't forget, the parents of these four sisters are all masters, and they were great talents and talented women when they were young. Isn't it too common to name their children like this? Moreover, these four sisters are all beautiful and standard beauties. These names are simply not suitable!
Let’s take a look at the names of beauties in history: Xi Shi, Zhaojun, Diao Chan, and the least qualified one is named Yang Yuhuan, and this “Yang Yuhuan” is the prettiest name among the four sisters. Zhao Rulan “isn’t bad either. The problem is that the best-sounding name for Zhao Yuanren's eldest daughter, "Rulan", was given by him by "cutting corners" because his wife Yang Buwei's nickname was Yang Lanxian with the character "lan" in it. Zhao Yuanren named his eldest daughter Rulan, which not only messed up ethics (in the traditional sense, children's names cannot be the same as their parents' names, not even a single word); even if Zhao Yuanren's thoughts are trendy and he doesn't care about these things, his name is worthy of the name. It also seems perfunctory. Besides, although the word "Ru Lan" sounds okay, it is still very ordinary and mediocre.
Looking at the names of Zhao Yuanren’s second daughter, third daughter and youngest daughter, “Xina” and “Laisi” sound weird, and there is nothing new or poetic about them. Xin Na, if the word "Na" is changed to "Na", it would make sense. After all, she is a girl; when the word "Si" is changed to "Si", it might be a bit poetic. Especially "Xiao Zhong", which is both small and medium-sized. This name is simply too unattractive and mediocre, haha. So why did Zhao Yuanren, a language master, name his daughter so hastily?
(2) The process of naming his daughter by Zhao Yuanren
Zhao Yuanren got married in 1921, and his eldest daughter was born on April 20 of the following year. Zhao Yuanren and his wife Yang Buwei were both in the United States at that time, so the eldest daughter was born in the United States. After Zhao Yuanren had a daughter, he was so excited that he immediately told the great British philosopher Russell about the good news. Russell once lectured in China, and Zhao Yuanren worked as a translator for Russell at that time, and the two became close friends. So when he had a good thing, he quickly shared it with Russell and exaggeratedly said, "The 401st member of the Chinese people has been born in our family!" The Chinese population at that time was said to be 400 million, and his statement was quite logical. .
Zhao Yuanren named his daughter Zhao Rulan, probably to save trouble. His wife's nickname was Lanxian, which seemed to make the mother and daughter closer to each other. So what impact does this common name have on a daughter's future?
Zhao Rulan later lived in the United States and studied music and phonetics at Harvard University. Later, she taught at Harvard and was the first Chinese female professor in the history of Harvard University; she was also a musicologist. Zhao Rulan’s husband, Bian Xuechu, is a well-known aerospace expert and a tenured professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Bian is also an internationally renowned authority on computational mechanics, an academician of the National Academy of Sciences, and a foreign academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Harvard University is ranked first in the world, and MIT is ranked second. Being able to teach at these two universities, this couple is definitely a successful person.
Let’s talk about Zhao Yuanren’s second daughter. She was also born in the United States on May 14, 1923. His eldest daughter, Zhao Rulan, was born on April 20, 1922. The birth rhythm of Zhao Yuanren and his wife is really impressive. Two daughters were born within two years of each other. The daughter's name "Xina" is not pleasant, but the name Zhao Yuanren gave her is not without meaning. What does it mean?
China at that time was called "zhina" internationally, and "Xinna" meant New China. This is still entrusted with some good wishes of him and his wife. They hope that the old world will end and a new China will be born. At that time, the word "zhina" did not have any derogatory connotation. Later, after the Japanese invaded China, they called the Chinese "zhina" people. It seems that the word began to have a derogatory name for the Chinese.
Mr. Wen Yiduo once declared in "I Am Chinese" published in 1925: "I am Chinese, I am a Chinese, a great nation! A great nation! I am the originator of Eastern culture, and my life is the world life. I am Chinese, I am from Zhina!”
There is another interesting topic about this woman’s birth. At that time, Zhao Yuanren's wife Yang Buwei said that she gave birth to her accidentally because she did not use contraception. At that time, the couple was having a hard time living in the United States. They had just given birth to a child a year ago, and now they have another child. It was really torturous. But later, Yang Buwei was glad that the birth control failed, because his beloved daughter was so beautiful, and the couple was overjoyed.
It’s okay for Zhao Xina, who was born abroad, to have French as his first language. His father, Zhao Yuanren, is a language genius and is proficient in 7 languages. Later, of course she learned Chinese easily. Zhao Xina studied at Radcliffe University in Cambridge, USA, majoring in chemistry, and later graduated from Harvard. Not only was she outstanding in appearance, she was also excellent in studies and became a school belle. She had so many suitors that she couldn't even study. It seemed that being too beautiful was troublesome. In the end, she made many choices and married Dr. Huang Peiyun, who was known to please her mother-in-law.
Zhao Xina and her husband returned to China in 1946. After returning to China, the couple has been teaching at Changsha Institute of Mining and Metallurgy. Both of them are university professors and can be considered successful in their careers.
Zhao Yuanren’s third daughter is named Zhao Laisi, who was born in Beijing on June 14, 1929. Just like the second daughter Zhao Xina was born because of contraceptive failure, this daughter came into the world quite by chance. Because Zhao Yuanren's wife Yang Buwei did not plan to have so many children. The first two children were born at the beginning of their marriage, which made her and her husband very busy and put a lot of pressure on the family. Later, Yang Buwei opened a clinic in Beijing and engaged in birth control examinations. Some people ridiculed her, saying that Yang Buwei encouraged others to have family planning because he could not have any more children. She was very angry, so she got pregnant and gave birth to another child, so the birth of her third daughter was lucky.
Zhao Laisi didn’t call her by this name at first. At that time, Zhao Yuanren, in order to be new and different, gave his daughter a very unusual name called Zhao Laihen Simei, and also gave her an English name Lensey. Zhao Yuanren later recalled that he was really "joking" when he named the child. At that time, the master of linguistics and his assistant actually brought out the Chinese syllable table to study. It turned out that the two syllables Len and sei in Chinese pinyin did not have corresponding Chinese characters, so I decided to name my daughter Lensey for the first time.
What should I do if my daughter has to use a Chinese character name when she goes to elementary school? Yang Buwei was anxious. But for Zhao Yuanren, a linguist known as a genius, changing his name is not a piece of cake? This time he got even more excited and used all the phonetic "fanqie" sounds: the antiphone sound of Len is "Laihen", and the antiphone sound of sei is "Simei". Together they are called Laihen Simei, Adding the last name and five characters, the daughter was called Zhao Laihen Simei. This name is quite avant-garde. Moreover, "Lai" is the first character in Zhao Yuanren's mother's name "Laisun". Zhao Yuanren boasted to others that "Lai Hen Si Mei" means that the child has the thoughts and beauty of his grandmother. It is really wonderful!
Because this name is so strange, people always have to ask where it comes from, which is a troublesome thing. Later, the great scholar Fu Sinian suggested that Zhao Yuanren give his child a simple name, so he took two words from "Zhao Laihen Simei" and called it "Laisi". But the English name is still retained.
The third daughter, Zhao Laisi, studied at the University of California in the United States, majoring in mathematics, with excellent results and a doctorate. Mrs. Zhao Yang Buwei called her a "genius monster." Zhao Laisi married Japanese Misaku Haoka. Her marriage is an international combination. She is Chinese, her husband and father-in-law are Japanese, and her mother-in-law is French. Zhao Laisi and her husband Boganwei teach at Cornell University in the United States. He is definitely a successful person in career.
Zhao Yuanren’s youngest daughter, whose English name is Bella, was born in Beijing on May 24, 1931. In her mother Yang Buwei's work "Miscellaneous Notes on the Zhao Family", she is said to have been "taken out with pliers". Among Zhao Yuanren's four daughters, the youngest has the stingiest name.
Why did he name his daughter "Little Middle School"?
In fact, this name was not given to his daughter by Zhao Yuanren himself, and the naming this time was even more childish. He actually authorized his third daughter to name her younger sister. That's okay. The problem is that his third daughter, Zhao Silai, was not yet two years old at that time. This is fun. At that time, Zhao Yuanren told the third girl, "This glorious task is entrusted to you. What will you name your little sister?" The third girl tilted her head and looked at a couplet on the wall. She only recognized two words in it. "Small" and "medium", so she pointed to the two words and said: "Small - medium!"
"Medium! Small medium is small medium, that's it!" Lao Zhao immediately Make a decision. So the youngest daughter was named Zhao Xiaozhong.
Zhao Xiaozhong is also very talented. She is not mediocre because of her stingy or mediocre name. Like her father, Zhao Yuanren, she graduated from Cornell University in the United States. Her grades are as good as those of her sisters and she won the He won three Golden Key Awards and received a master's degree in physics. He later worked at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which is second only to Harvard in the world.
There is only one small flaw. Zhao Xiaozhong's marriage is not a happy one. Her husband is Qiu Hongyi, and they later divorced. This is the only regret of Zhao Yuanren's family. However, Zhao Xiaozhong has been living in the United States, and divorce is a common occurrence in the United States. It is nothing to make a fuss about. Maybe she will be happier after remarrying.
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Conclusion: Looking at the process of naming his four daughters by language master Zhao Yuanren, we can see that the so-called name affects a person’s destiny and future is untenable. feet. Zhao Yuanren and Yang Buwei were both knowledgeable and successful; their four daughters and even their son-in-law were also knowledgeable and successful. The four sisters Zhao Rulan, Zhao Xina, Zhao Laisi, and Zhao Xiaozhong are not only as beautiful as flowers and jade, but also as beautiful as flowers. Even if their names are not so pleasant, not so learned, or even mediocre, so what? This in no way affects their excellence! Also, the names of the four of them do not overlap with each other. For example, when Lan Xin came to Si Xiaozhong, the eight characters were independent of each other, but it did not affect the blood connection and deep love between the four sisters.
Mr. Zhao Yuanren once criticized the Latinization of Chinese characters with two strange articles (explained in a special article in issue 1349 of this issue), and again criticized the influence of names by randomly naming his daughter. He is a "revolutionary" of Homo sapiens and traditional culture.
In fact, a name is just a mark, a sign that distinguishes a person from other people. You don’t need to worry about it; at the same time, it is also an expression of a person’s personality. What name do you choose? , to name a few words, is a person's freedom and rights, and others have no right to interfere. This is also the final revelation given to us by Mr. Zhao Yuanren.
(Article/Women who talk about history·Hua Wu Qu)
Reference materials: "The Biography of Zhao Yuanren", "The Autobiography of a Woman", "The Book of Changes", etc.