The names and homophones of ancient Chinese emperors could not be used casually at that time. What was this rule called in history?

Taboo avoidance is a unique phenomenon in China’s feudal society. It originated in the Zhou Dynasty, developed in the Qin Dynasty, flourished in the Tang and Song Dynasties, and became more complete in the Qing Dynasty. At that time, people were not allowed to address the emperor or their elders by their first names, otherwise they would be in danger of being imprisoned or even losing their heads for violating taboos. A common way to avoid taboos is to replace the taboo word with another word that has the same or similar meaning. As a result, there have been many strange phenomena in Chinese history where the names of people, places or things were changed into different names.

There are four categories of taboo objects:

The first is the emperor, who avoids the names of contemporary emperors and previous emperors of this dynasty. For example, during Liu Xiu's period, Xiucai was changed to Maocai; Qianlong once issued an edict not to include the four characters Wufulinmen in the couplets in order to avoid the taboo of the name of Emperor Shunzhi Fulin. Sometimes the queen's name is even taboo. For example, Empress Lu was named a pheasant, and the courtiers had to change their name to a pheasant when they encountered a pheasant.

The second is to avoid tabooing the name of the superior, that is, the subordinates must conceal the names of the superior himself and his fathers and ancestors. Even some arrogant officials strictly ordered their subordinates and people to avoid their names. There is a story in "Notes of Laoxue'an" compiled by Lu You: A state official named Tian Deng did not allow his subordinates and the people in the state to call him by his name or write his name. On the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, lanterns were lit for three days as usual. . The clerk who wrote the notice did not dare to write the word "lamp", so he changed it to "set fire in this state for three days according to regulations." Hence the joke that "only state officials are allowed to set fires, but common people are not allowed to light lamps."

The third is to avoid sages, which mainly refers to avoiding the names of the sage Confucius and the sub-sage Mencius. Some dynasties also avoid the name of the Yellow Emperor, the ancestor of the Chinese nation, and some even avoid the name of Zhou Gong. Avoid the name of Lao Tzu.

The fourth is to avoid elders, that is, avoid the names of parents and grandparents. When interacting with others, you should avoid the other party's elders, otherwise it will be extremely rude. The father of Li He, a poet of the Tang Dynasty, was named Jin, and "Jin" and "Jin" have the same pronunciation, so Li He could not be promoted to Jinshi in his life. In "A Dream of Red Mansions", Lin Daiyu's mother is named Jia Min, so whenever Lin Daiyu encounters the word "min", she pronounces it as "mi" or "mi".

The ancients often needed to avoid taboos, and they carefully summarized various ways to avoid taboos:

Change the glyphs. Some use words with the same (near) synonyms to replace the words that need to be avoided. For example, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty was named Che, and the famous debater Kuai Che changed his name to Tong. Emperor Gaozong of the Tang Dynasty was famous for his rule, and people all over the world used the word "li" instead of the word "zhi". Sometimes taboos can also be avoided by adding or subtracting strokes. For example, the ancestor surnamed Qiu was originally named Qiu, but Confucius was named Qiu, so he added an ear to avoid taboos. Since the Song Dynasty, the word Qiu has been avoided. When writing, one stroke is often omitted, and some are written with □ or without spaces.

Change the pronunciation of the word. For example, the first emperor of Qin was famous for his political power, so the first month of the lunar month should be read as life. Some people read it with a certain character, and when they read a word that should be avoided, they read it with a certain character instead.