The Ancient Chinese people's "heavy death is like rebirth", paying special attention to the mourning of people after death. And this custom is also extended to people's attention to the "'nickname'", and the top title of the civil servant ''Wenzheng'' has become the object of the civil officials' competition.
The ancients showed respect for their ancestors, and often called them words or nicknames
Chinese since ancient times, there have been sayings of 'the dead are great'', which have also penetrated into all aspects of Chinese national culture. For example, in order to show respect for the deceased, when calling them, they are generally not called by their first name, but more by their words, and if they are officials, the nickname will also become a person's pronoun. For example, the famous literary hero Fan Zhongyun, because his nickname was ''Wenzheng''', most of his titles in later generations were Fan Wenzhenggong; Yue Fei was also called Yue Wumu in ancient times because his nickname was ''Wumu''.
A nickname is a summary of a person's life's merits and virtues
The nickname is related to the saying that "the coffin is conclusive" that has existed in China since ancient times, and it is common to summarize a person's merits through inscriptions and epithets. The general inscriptions are mostly praise for the master, or summarize the main deeds of his life. However, the title was given by the imperial court, which is an evaluation of the official's lifelong contribution. The Book of Tang has: "The one who is a man of the word, the trace of the deed; the one who is called, the merit of the table; the one who receives the great name with the big line, and the fine line receives the fine name." Walk out of yourself, and be born of man. It means that a person's nickname is directly related to his words and deeds. Those who have great virtue are subjected to the superior, and those who have small virtue are subjected to the inferiority.
However, the name of the person is also classified, and when people draw up the name for a person (politician), they generally follow three principles: first, the positive meaning, called the upper word; second, the pejorative meaning, called the lower name; third, the expression of sympathy, called the flat word. Take the names of several emperors of Confucius's homeland of Luguo as an example: Yin, Huan, Zhuang, Min, 僖, Wen, Xuan, Cheng, Zhao, Xiang, Ding, and Lai, respectively, the titles of the twelve monarchs of the Lu Kingdom, of which the representatives of praise and righteousness are: Wen, the representative of the pejorative meaning is: Yin, and the representative of sympathy is: mourning. Through these titles, it can basically be summarized that the above-mentioned emperor's actions for government and the virtue of the king are, which contains the meaning of evaluation. The nicknames of ordinary people are actually called private rumors, which are mostly privately drawn up by relatives and friends, which is different from the official nicknames.
As mentioned above, the official's title was drawn up by the imperial court, but not all of them were eligible to be given the title. During the Zhou Dynasty, only Tianzi, princes, Qing Dafu and their wives were eligible, the Han Dynasty required that this person be a marquis before death, and the Tang Dynasty stipulated that more than three pins were required to qualify. The official titles are also hierarchical, and after the Song Dynasty, the top one is the above-mentioned "Wenzheng".
''WenZheng'' became a top-level nickname
The meaning of the words "'Wen'" and '''Zheng'' as a mantra is explained in the Yizhou Shu Yu Fa Xie as follows:
Text: Jingwei Heaven and Earth Yue Wen; Moral Erudite Yue Wen; Loving Kindness and Love People Yue Wen; And Xian Tong Sheng Yue Wen.
Zheng: The internal and external guests serve the right; the internal and external use of emotion is correct; the country forgets death and is right; the way is not moved.
(Just an excerpt, if you are interested, you can check all the explanations)
It can be seen that ''Wen'' and 'Zheng'' are all well-meaning words, so they can be regarded as the best names. But it went through some process to become a top-level nickname.
Because, in addition to being used on ministers, the word "Wen" was often used as the temple number of the emperor, such as Emperor Wen of Han. At the beginning, the title used as a minister was also the same as the emperor's temple number, which was a single character, for example, Sima Zhao's title was a single ''Wen'' character. The word "Wen"" matches the other characters, as a courtesy name, starting from Wang Dao of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, whose nickname is ''Literature''.' Since then, the word "Wen"" has begun the historical process of its being contested by civilian officials.
In the Tang Dynasty, the nickname that matched the word "Wen" was headed by "Wen Zhen". Wei Zheng was the first courtier to receive this honor. It is worth noting that during the Tang Dynasty, there was already a scramble for the "title", such as a prime minister named Zhang Shu during the Tang Xuanzong period, when he died, he was called "Wen Zhen", which caused heated discussion and dissatisfaction among the ministers in the court, and finally it was Tang Xuanzong himself who made the decision to stop the hot discussion.
In the Song Dynasty, in the early days, "Wenzhen" was still used as a top title, such as Wenzhen. However, unfortunately, because China has had a rule to avoid the emperor's name since ancient times, after Song Renzong ascended the throne, because his name had a "Zhen" character, "Wen Zhen" violated the emperor's name and was not suitable for use by the minister as a title, and from then on, "Wen Zhen" was no longer used by the minister as a title. This is one reason why the top names are abandoned.
In addition, there is another reason, the previous good names were used by some people with bad reputations, and people did not want to get the same titles again, because they were afraid that future generations would stand side by side with the traitors and their reputations would be affected. The typical representative is Qin Juniper, in addition to ''Wenzhen'' in the Song Dynasty, there is also ''Zhongxian'' which is also a title that all the courtiers want to get, and later after Qin Juniper's death, he was called ''Zhongxian'', and everyone was no longer willing to be involved with this title, because they did not want to be with the traitors.
And "Wenzheng" was really contested by civilian officials, even until the Qing Dynasty. Or because of Sima Qian's words: "The text is the most beautiful thing to repeat." He believed that "Wenzheng" contained both moral and intellectual requirements for the courtiers, and was the top of the title, and there was no title comparable to it. Coupled with Sima Guang's position as a leader in the literary and political circles, he had great influence at that time, and his words were quickly recognized by everyone with political power and cultural appeal.
In the Qing Dynasty, "Wenzheng" was the highest title for the courtiers, for example, Zeng Guofan was considered to have made great contributions to the national society from the perspective of the Qing government because of the Pacification of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement, so his nickname was set as "Wenzheng". The Qing Dynasty received this title not only as an imperial master, but also from a scholar, such as Tang Bin, the editor-in-chief of the History of Ming, and the Draft History of the Qing Dynasty said that he was "Junming and Chenliang," and after the Han and Tang Dynasties, Gai Yihan was rare. There was also Guangxu's teacher Sun Jianai and so on. It is not an important contribution to the country, or it is an outstanding academic status that can obtain this nickname, which also reflects the value of "Wenzheng" as a nickname.
It is also worth noting that the addition of the title of "Wenzheng" was not only a change of deliberators, but also the deepening of the centralization of power in Chinese society, from the agreement of officials in the court to the administration of the special department of etiquette in the Ming Dynasty, and then to the emperor alone in the Qing Dynasty. Behind the nickname is not only the rise and fall of a person's honor and disgrace, but also the epitome of the times, you can see the contribution of a very popular subject, but also see the contribution behind his nickname and the changes in society at that time.