Yesterday, someone suddenly asked me in a private letter, and he said, "Why is Yang Jian called Emperor Wen of Sui?" Shouldn't the founding emperor be called Taizu? For example, Ming Taizu, Song Taizu, Yuan Taizu, Qing Taizu and other founding emperors were not all called Taizu? Why didn't Yang Jian have it? Isn't he qualified? First of all, we can be sure that Yang Jian's identity as the founding emperor of the Sui Dynasty is absolutely unquestionable, so why is he called Emperor Wen of Sui? And not Taizu? First of all, before answering this question,
We must understand the words twice, that is, "tantric number" and "temple number".
In ancient times, people of high status such as dead royalty, princes, ministers, etc., summarized the deeds of their lives, and then gave the title of praise or derogatory or evil or sympathetic, which is simply to say that it is a conclusive conclusion.
The system of titles originated in the Shang Dynasty, but became the Zhou Dynasty, and what everyone now recognizes is that the system of titles was institutionalized during the reign of King Gong or King Yi of the Western Zhou Dynasty, and later in the Qin Shi Huang period, because the First Emperor believed that the title had the following meaning of "son and father, subject and king", it was abolished, and then in the Western Han Dynasty, it was revived, until the fall of the Qing Dynasty. Nicknames often consist of one or two words
(Of course, only before the Tang Dynasty, after the Tang Dynasty, the emperor's nickname became longer and longer, for example, the qing emperor's title was as many as twenty-two characters)
There are praises and evil points, such as Wen, Wu, Ming, Rui and Zhuang, etc. These are praises, Hui, Xian, etc. These are ping, and These are bad names, and the emperors of the Chinese dynasties are basically inseparable from these, of course, there is only one exception, that is, Sun Quan, the founding monarch of the State of Wu during the Three Kingdoms period, his title is big, for the emperor, and this title is also unique, except for Sun Quan.
And the temple number is different from the name, in ancient times the name is a high status of people can be used,
However, the temple number can only be used for the emperor, it is used for the name of the emperor when he is enshrined in the imperial family temple,
And once the emperor has a temple number, it means that the emperor has his own family temple, which will be enshrined in the temple alone, but if the emperor does not have a temple number, although the family temple will be established, but after several generations will be destroyed, and then the emperor's spiritual seat will be moved to the temple and other ancestors to be enshrined by posterity, of course, this practice only prevailed in the two Han Dynasties, and later with the abuse of the temple number, basically all the emperors were sacrificed in one place, leaving only the founding monarch to be sacrificed alone. Temple names and nicknames are both originated from the Shang Dynasty, but during the Zhou Dynasty, the Zhou royal family only retained the title, but abandoned the temple number, so when looking at the Emperor of the Zhou Dynasty, we will find that the Emperor of the Zhou Dynasty did not have a temple number. And the temple number was also used in the Western Han Dynasty,
However, the use of the temple number of the two Han Dynasties is different from the name of the temple, at that time, the emperors of the two Han Dynasties each had a title, but many emperors did not have a temple number.
In the end, there were only seven emperors with temple numbers in the two Han Dynasties, namely Taizu Liu Bang, Taizong Liu Heng, Sejong Liu Che, Zhongzong Liu Qing, Shizu Liu Xiu, Xianzong Liu Zhuang and Suzong Liu Zhuo, while the remaining nineteen emperors of the two Han Dynasties did not have temple numbers, of course, there were also several emperors who had temple numbers, such as Muzong Liu Zhao, Gongzong Liu Hu and Jingzong Liu Bao, but in the end they were cancelled one after another due to lack of merit.
It is conceivable that in the two Han Dynasties, the emperors who did not have great merit in sheji were basically difficult to have temple numbers, from which we can also see that the Western Han Dynasty was very strict in the use of temple numbers.
At the same time, the use of "zu" and "zong" at that time, the two Han dynasties were also extremely strict, except for the founding emperor who could call the ancestor, such as Taizu, Gaozu, Liezu, etc., other successor kings could only be "Zong"
, such as Taizong, Taizong and Zhongzong. However, in the Three Kingdoms period, as the State of Wei gave temple names to its own emperors, except for those who were deposed, and all used "Zu", since then the temple number and "Ancestor" began to be gradually abused, and by the Sixteen Kingdoms period, even small countries such as Later Zhao, Former Yan and Western Qin began to use temple names for their own emperors, and even called "Zu", such as Later Zhao Gaozu Shile, Western Qin Taizu Qifu Blazing Pan, etc., and since then the temple numbers have begun to be abused on a large scale. In addition, in fact, we have to understand what an emperor is like, in fact, look at his temple number to know, for example, generally called Taizu and Gaozu are the founding emperors, Taizong is generally the emperor who brings the country into the prosperous world, Xingzong, Chengzong, and Xianzong generally refer to the king of Shoucheng, Gaozong generally refers to the country to the bottom of the sea, and The Emperor Of Sorrow and Sizong are generally used for those emperors who should not be the kings of the country. Of course, these are all rough, because the temple numbers are taken by people, so they cannot be generalized, and there are exaggerated meanings, such as the Song Wen Emperor Liu Yilong of the Southern and Northern Dynasties, his temple number is Taizu, but he is not the founding emperor, so the temple number is not all real evaluation.
So having said that, I think everyone understands, and those who have read Yang Jian's introduction must know that Yang Jian's nickname is "Emperor Wen" and the temple number is "Gaozu", so we can see that in fact, Emperor Yang Jianwen's nickname is not excessive, this is a beautiful name. And Gao Zu is indeed worthy of Yang Jian as the founding emperor, so many people do not understand why he is not called Taizu? In fact, it is very simple, because Yang Jian gave Taizu's temple name to his father Yang Zhong, after Yang Jian founded the Sui Dynasty, he posthumously honored his father as Emperor Wuyuan and the temple name Taizu, so naturally he could not be Taizu, and gaozu and Taizu meant the same thing, as mentioned in the Detailed Explanation of the Book of Han
"Gaibang is equipped with heaven and earth for Gaozu, and the honorific title is added to the upper, although the Taizu Temple of Zhaomu is also the temple of Gaozu."
So there is no essential difference between the two temple numbers.
Then some people asked, why is It not popular for Emperor Wen of Sui to call the temple number Gaozu? But is it called Emperor Wen? Doesn't it mean that later generations of historians are accustomed to calling the emperors before the Tang Dynasty the title of the dynasty? And the emperors after the Tang Dynasty are all dynasties plus temple numbers? How did Emperor Wen of Sui get different? Is he called Emperor Wen?
Here I can only say that this is the habit of historians, calling that sounds like a smooth ear to call it, there is not so much Taoism, you can call him whatever you want, but now mainstream historians call him Emperor Wen of Sui, so everyone will follow this title, there is no need to care so much.