Ancient China was a feudal society with distinct hierarchies, in order to maintain the dignity of the hierarchical system, usually up to the minister of culture and military affairs, down to the common people, when encountering the name of the monarch or a respected relative, the name and era can not be directly written or said, if the monarch's words are relatively remote, but if it is very common, it will be bitter to the people of the whole country.
Therefore, avoidance has become a delicate knowledge. The Ram Biography of Min A.D. says: "Spring and Autumn are kept secret for His Holiness, for those who are relatives, and for the sages." "This is a general principle of ancient avoidance.
For example, in the Song Dynasty, to avoid the name of Zhao Kuangyin, the grandfather of the Song Dynasty, his younger brother Zhao Kuangyi could only change his name to Zhao Guangyi, and the minister of the clan zhao Kuangmei could only change his name to Zhao Guangmei, even the princes and nobles were no exception.
After Liu Xiu, who was the Emperor Guangwu of Han, established the Eastern Han Dynasty, in order to avoid Liu Xiu's name, Xiucai was changed to "Maocai" all over the country, which could not help but make people feel ridiculous. Lü Hou of the Han Dynasty was very powerful, her original name was Lü Yan, at that time the pheasant was called pheasant, in order to avoid secrecy, so she could only call it pheasant.
Of course, there are also emperors who are more enlightened in this matter, the first emperor of the Qing Dynasty is called Fu Lin, in order to alleviate ethnic contradictions, special edicts are issued to allow subjects not to avoid the word "Fu", he said: "Do not be a person, so that the people of the world are not blessed." ”
During the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang started from scratch and opened a national business, zhu this surname is consonant "pig", in the Ming Dynasty, how did the people call it in order to avoid secrecy?
At that time, pork was popularized through the Southern Song Dynasty and had become a staple dish of the Ming Dynasty. During Zhu Yuanzhang's time, he was still relatively enlightened, after all, he was also from a poor people' background, and there was no need to cause national trouble for a title. However, the whole country still has a very afraid attitude towards Zhu Yuanzhang.
After all, if you usually shout "kill pigs and kill pigs", you can't get a crime of rebellion on your head. In order to express his enlightenment, Zhu Yuanzhang gave a couplet to a family of pigmen: his hands split the road of life and death, and a knife cut off the root of non-existence.
However, compared with Zhu Yuanzhang's open-mindedness, his descendants are slightly more childish, and his descendants Zhu Houzhao became the tenth emperor of the Ming Dynasty in 1505, that is, Ming Wuzong, and Zhu Houzhao was a very interesting person in history.
He usually likes to drink and have fun, ignoring the government, but he is never confused in major matters, Zhengde December, the Tatar invasion, Zhu Houzhao is very excited, the royal car personally conscripted to repel the Tatars. But it was such an emperor who was so absurd that he not only ordered to avoid it, but also forbade the slaughter of pigs throughout the country.
The Records of Emperor Wuzong records that "in december of the fourteenth year of Zhengde, Yi Zi died, up to Yi Zhen. When the patrol arrived, the people were forbidden to store pigs, and the slaughter was exhausted from near and far; the farmers of the Tian family were thrown into the water. It is the age, Yi Zhen Ding Qi, there is a division to replace it with sheep."
Zhu Houzhao not only had the surname Zhu, he was also a pig, and when he saw such a large pig's head placed on the copywriter when he sacrificed his ancestors, he couldn't help but be very unhappy, so he ordered that sheep be used instead of pigs from now on. To avoid embarrassment, he also ordered the adoption of 彘 (zhi) and 豕 (shi) instead of the title of live pig. These two words are very strange, readers can't think of it, right?
Although it is a bit difficult to read, after all, avoidance has always been a tradition, and the people have become accustomed to it over time, and it is difficult to bear Zhu Houzhao's next order prohibiting the killing of pigs. This caused an uproar, and the people took food as the sky. Not only did the people object, but the civil and military officials also wrote to request the withdrawal of the order.
Because the pressure of opposition was too great, after insisting on it for three months, Zhu Houzhao had to withdraw it.