Grandma’s name is Li Zihao, and my granddaughter’s name is Li Zhihan. “Zhi” and “Zhi” are pronounced the same in Sichuan dialect. Is there any influence?

There is no numerology conflict or superstition problem here, because the words are different.

It’s just a taboo that the younger generation’s name cannot have the same characters as the names of their close relatives and elders.

Taboo is a phenomenon unique to China's feudal society. It began 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 taboo 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 most sage teacher 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. They carefully summarized various ways to avoid taboos:

Change the glyph. 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 characters. 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.

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 Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty was named Liu Heng, so he changed the name of [Nü Genchang]'e to "Chang'e" and Hengshan to "Changshan".

Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty was named Liu Che. In the feudal society of the Han Dynasty, Emperor Qin Shihuang, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty and Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty had a famous debater 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".

Emperor Ming of the Han Dynasty was called Liu Zhuang, but 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".

What’s more, Emperor Gaozong of the Song Dynasty had more than fifty taboo words in his name Gou to avoid “Go”!

Methods to avoid taboos

Changing characters

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.

Missing strokes

When you encounter a word that you want to avoid, write one less stroke on that word.