Taboos about name taboos

Avoiding taboos is a custom with Chinese characteristics in the history of our country. The names of monarchs and elders cannot be spoken or written directly. Reading" or "changing words" is called "reading Bai". For example, in "A Dream of Red Mansions", Lin Daiyu, in order to avoid her mother Jia Min's taboo, read the word "min" as mi or mi; when she writes the taboo word, she should read it as mi or mi; According to the regulations, the method of "empty characters", "missing pens" or "changing characters" is called "writing white". For example, Confucius' "Qiu" character is sometimes written as "正" in ancient documents. We are accustomed to refer to typos as "white characters" because they are taboo.

When did the name taboo originate?

When was the overbearing clause of avoiding taboos stipulated? Some people say that it started in the Xia and Shang dynasties. The only evidence is that Xia Houqi is written as Xia Houkai in "The Classic of Mountains and Seas", which shows that the Xia Dynasty began to fix these useless things. However, the names of the kings of Xia and Shang are stated directly in the Book of Documents. Why is this? Some people believe that the reason why "Kai" is avoided in "Shan Hai Jing" is because Han Dynasty people avoided Liu Qi's taboo of Emperor Jing of Han Dynasty when copying the book.

The academic community generally believes that taboos originated in the Western Zhou Dynasty. According to historical records, in the Spring and Autumn Period, the officials of the Lu State had opinions on the naming of six taboos. In the "Book of Rites", there are also cases where the sons of officials and scholars did not dare to talk to the prince. The same name, etc., all show that there were many specific requirements for taboo avoidance at that time, but until the Warring States Period, a complete system for taboo avoidance had not yet been formed. The requirements for taboo avoidance are not too strict. Words with the same or similar sounds do not need to be avoided, and even words with the same name do not need to be avoided. Just avoid the country, officials, mountains and rivers, hidden diseases, livestock, utensils and coins.

After the Qin and Han dynasties, a unified political situation was formed and consolidated, and the dignity of the monarch became incomparable. At that time, the imperial power was considered supreme, and the king's name could not be called casually; but in the family In a clan-based society, the names of elders cannot be written easily. Whenever someone has the name of an emperor or an elder, they must find ways to avoid it. In this way, "taboo" has gradually become one of the important etiquette and customs in ancient my country. As early as the pre-Qin ancient book "Book of Rites: Qu Lishang", there is a record of "asking about the customs when entering the country, and asking about taboos when entering the country".

After the Qin and Han Dynasties, with the increasing strengthening of imperial power and patriarchal system, taboos became increasingly strict and were even expressly written into the law. The law of the Tang Dynasty stipulated that calling the emperor by his first name was a crime of "disrespect" and could not be forgiven. Since then, all kinds of "taboos" have been like a snare, capturing all the speech and behavior of the subjects. If they offend even slightly, they will be punished, and in serious cases, they will be in trouble, or even destroy their families and clans. Fu Sheng, the lord of the former Qin Dynasty during the Sixteen Kingdoms period, was a one-eyed dragon, so he used the taboo words "insufficient", "not having", "little", "none", "missing", "injured", "disabled", "ruined" and "partial". , "only" and other words. If any of his subordinates accidentally violated a taboo, they would be subjected to various tortures such as having their legs chopped off, their stomachs broken, their ribs stretched, and their necks sawed.

One time when he asked the imperial doctor to order Cheng Yan to prepare medicine, he asked about the likes and dislikes of ginseng and the amount of ginseng needed. Cheng Yan replied: "Although it is small and does not have it, it can be used." This "not having it" is a crime. After hearing the taboo, Fu Sheng was furious. He first punched out Cheng Yan's eyes and then killed him.

The officials of the Song Dynasty once revised a "Yunlue of the Ministry of Rites", which included the names and temple names of the Song emperors and other words that should be avoided. Among them, the word "Gou" written by Gaozong and Zhao Gou had the most homophones to avoid. , reaching 55, covering all Chinese characters with the same or even similar pronunciation as "construct". Most of the names of other emperors that need to be avoided are around 20 or 30. The general rule is that 325 characters must be avoided, which means that at that time, at least these 325 characters must be prohibited from use: they cannot be written, cannot be read, cannot be used for naming, etc. Fortunately, there was no Qianqiu Dynasty in the Zhao and Song Dynasties, otherwise, maybe all Chinese characters would have been banned and avoided like this.

The avoidance of the emperor's name is backed by mandatory provisions of the law. The Code of the Tang Dynasty, "Tang Lv Shu Yi" stipulates, "If you write a petition and accidentally violate the ancestral temple taboo, you will be punished with eighty sticks; if you make a mistake in the tongue or in other documents, you will be flogged fifty times." "Those who violate the name will be punished with three years in prison." ". That is to say, if you write or speak the emperor's taboo name due to a typo or a slip of the tongue, you will be punished; if you give a wrong name, you will be exiled for three years.

When the Manchu and Qing dynasties entered China, Emperor Shunzhi Fulin once said that people in the world could not be blessed just because of the word "Fu" in his name, indicating that people did not need to hide "Fu". "The regulations are similar to those of the Tang Dynasty. Inadvertent violations of taboos will also result in dozens or hundreds of slaps. As mentioned before, during the Manchu Qing Dynasty, if someone compiled a dictionary and violated taboos, he was considered to be a treasonous crime and was punishable by beheading. According to the law, of course there should not be such a severe punishment. However, the laws of an authoritarian society are uncertain. Everything depends on the Holy Will. One 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. 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.

Lack of strokes

When you encounter a word that you want to avoid, write one less stroke on the word. Since the Song Dynasty, the character Qiu has been avoided, and one stroke has often been omitted when writing.

Change the wording

When you encounter a word that you want to avoid, use other words to replace it.

Blank word method

Do not fill in the word when you encounter a word that you want to avoid.

Change the pronunciation of the word.

For example, Qin Shihuang was famous for his political power, so the first month of the year 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.

For example:

The first month of the lunar calendar was originally called "Zhengyue" in ancient times. This is because the ancient emperors had to accept civil and military officials in the first month of the year. perform pilgrimage and decide on political affairs for the year. In the Qin Dynasty, since Qin Shihuang was born in January and was named "Yingzheng", the "Zhengyue" was changed to "the first month". The "正" in "the first month" is no longer read as "Zheng" but as "Zheng".

Qin Shi Huang’s father was named Zi Chu. So the Chu land was changed to "Jing".

Queen Lu’s name was pheasant. Whenever the word pheasant was encountered in documents at that time, it was replaced by the word "pheasant".

The name of Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty was Liu Heng, so he changed the name of Heng'e to "Chang'e" and Hengshan to "Changshan".

Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty was named Liu Che, and Han Xin had a counselor who was a well-known debater in the late Qin Dynasty named Kuai Che. Kuai Che was renamed "Kuai Tong" in the history books.

Emperor Guang of the Han Dynasty was named Liu Xiu, and he once changed the name of the scholar to "Maocai".

The name of Emperor Ming of the Han Dynasty was Liu Zhuang, and at that time he actually changed "Zhuangzi" to "Yanzi".

When Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty called him Li Shimin, he changed the Minbu (Minbu), one of the six central ministries, to "Hubu".

The name of Emperor Renzong of the Song Dynasty was Zhao Zhen, so the word "Zheng" for steamed buns and steamed buns had to be changed to the word "Cui".

A joke caused by avoiding taboos:

In the Five Dynasties, there was Feng Dao, who served as prime minister in successive dynasties. Once, he ordered a disciple to lecture on the "Tao Te Ching". The disciple thought that the first sentence in the book was "The Tao can be said." ", very Tao", which violated Feng Dao's taboo, so he read the first sentence as "I don't dare to say, but I don't dare to say, I don't dare to say".

It is said that there was a man named Jia Liangchen who asked his family to strictly avoid his name. His son was very well-behaved. One day he read "The so-called good ministers today are the so-called thieves of the people in ancient times" in "Mencius", and he recited loudly: "The so-called fathers today are the so-called thieves of the people in ancient times." The old man stared in anger. . There was a student who was studying in a private school. Because his father's name was Gu, whenever he encountered the word "gu", he would read it as "father". For example, in "Guanzi·Herdsmen", "Those who accumulate in a warehouse that never runs dry are devoted to the five grains." The word "five grains" is pronounced as "five fathers". I read "Bai Gu Zhi Yang Yao Yu" in Liu Yuxi's "Book of Shangdu Situ", and "Bai Gu" is pronounced as "Baidi". After hearing this, his classmates teased him and said, "You are now 'Five Dads' and now you are 'Hundred Dads'. How many dads do you have?"

What's even more interesting is that in ancient times, Changzhou held a grand Lantern Festival show every year. Lanterns are used to show singing and dancing. There was a prefect named Tian Deng, whose name was homophonic with the word "lamp". In order to avoid this taboo, he had to write the notice on the eve of the Lantern Festival as "It is customary to set fires in this state for three days." As a result, the common people ridiculed and said: "Only the state officials are allowed to set fires, but the common people are not allowed to light lamps."

Pedantically insisting on avoiding taboos has certainly made a lot of jokes, but cleverly avoiding taboos can also show a person's wit. There is such a joke. An old man named Ajiu went out to go to the market. A man who called himself Uncle Ajiu came to collect debts. His daughter-in-law said to him: "My father-in-law went to the market. What can you do to me?" Tell me." The man said, "Uncle Ajiu owes me nine hundred and ninety-nine taels of silver. Ask him to deliver it to my home on September 9th. My name is Uncle Ajiu and I live in Jiuliwan." Uncle Ajiu came back. Finally, the smart daughter-in-law cleverly avoided the "nine" in her father-in-law's name and said: "Someone came to see you just now. I don't know whether he was the fourth or fifth uncle or the third and sixth uncle. He said that my father-in-law owed him less than a thousand yuan." One tael of silver, I want you to send it to his house on the Double Ninth Festival. He lives in the past at Baliwan and at Shiliwan." The father-in-law understood what his daughter-in-law meant and praised his daughter-in-law for being smart when he met everyone.