Historical Interesting Stories

Jokes about taboo avoidance in ancient times

People in ancient times talked about "taboo avoidance", that is, children avoid tabooing the names of their ancestors and fathers, and subjects avoid tabooing the names of their kings. Generally speaking, it is to avoid taboo words when writing articles or talking, and usually replace them with other words. Ordinary people's taboos are easy to deal with, but the emperor's taboos are non-negotiable. They are coercive, and if you don't handle them well, you will be beheaded.

Because the emperor's taboo was so sacred and inviolable, it resulted in a lot of laughs

that made people laugh.

Emperor Wen of Jin was named Sima Zhao, so no one else was allowed to use the word "Zhao". Therefore, even the ancient king

Zhaojun had to change his name to "Wang Mingjun".

Emperor Jin Min was named Sima Ye, so the word "ye" was monopolized by the emperor, and even the place name "Jianye" (today's Nanjing) was renamed "Jiankang" .

Tang Gaozong's name was Li Zhi, so the word "zhi" became a word unique to the emperor, and the word "zhi" with the same sound as "zhi" also had to be changed.

In the writing, whenever the word "governance" is encountered, it is rewritten into words with synonyms such as "hold" and "reason".

The word "child" has the same pronunciation as "zhi", so wherever "child" is used, it must be replaced by "child".

Fortunately, there are many synonyms in Chinese, otherwise I don’t know what to do.

The prince of Emperor Gaozong of the Tang Dynasty was named Li Zhong, so the word "loyalty" had to be avoided. How many years had the official position in the DPRK been named "Zhonglang General", and he was also ordered to change it to "Lvbenlang General".

The above taboos are the names of emperors or princes, which is easy to understand. Later, even the emperor's

surname and zodiac signs were taboo. This suddenly led to many concessions. Something that is ridiculous.

Because Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty was born in the year of dog, dogs in the world were lucky, and he issued an edict to prohibit the killing of dogs in the world.

Because Yuan Renzong was born in the Year of the Rooster, he issued an edict prohibiting the mention of chickens in metropolitan areas. From then on, when buying or selling chickens, one must hold the chicken while walking to show respect for the word "chicken".