We usually ask, "What's your name?" Strictly speaking, this sentence is wrong, because modern Chinese have no name, only a name. If you look at the ID card, the correct format is the name.
In ancient China, when men and women became adults, it was considered impolite to call each other's names directly, so there were table characters, and the daily salutations would call each other's words instead of directly. Table characters appeared in the Shang Dynasty, became popular after the Zhou Dynasty, until modern times, most celebrities will also take words, but in modern times, except for some cultural celebrities, almost no one takes words anymore.
Generally speaking, there are two ways to take words, one is to use words that symbolize virtue and allude to goodness, such as Liu Bei character Xuande and Cao Cao character Mengde; the other word is an interpretation of the name or an extension of the meaning of the name, such as Guan Yu Zi Yunchang, Sun Quan Zi Zhongmou; there are also two combinations, such as Zhang Fei character Yide.
Because there are table words, many names are single word names, and table words are double words. Before the Eastern Han Dynasty, people's names were very arbitrary, although single-character names were very common, but it was not mandatory to take a single word for names, such as Yingqu Liang, Lin Xiangru, Sima Xiangru, Zhou Yafu, Huo Zhiyi, etc., all of which were two-character names. It was not until the appearance of a "crossing emperor" that the one-word name became a mandatory rule, but anyone with a certain status would take a single word to symbolize honor, while the two-word name was considered a lowly name and would be ridiculed.
This "Crossing Emperor" is Wang Mang. After Wang Mang usurped the han dynasty and established a new dynasty, in order to consolidate his rule, he implemented a series of policies, some of which are very advanced in our view today and incompatible with the society at that time, so Wang Mang was given the title of "Emperor Crossing".
Although the new dynasty existed for only 15 years, many of Wang Mang's policies had a profound impact on later generations, among which "forbidding two names", named after a single word, was a small policy among Wang Mang's many edicts, but it affected future generations for hundreds of years.
The Former Book of Han and the Biography of the Xiongnu records: "Shi Mang ordered that there should be no two in China, because the messenger should be singled out by the wind (irony), and it is advisable to write to Muhua, and for one, the Han will be rewarded generously." From it alone. It can be seen that Wang Mang legally determined the single-word name. The reason why Wang Mang banned the use of two-character names was nominally to restore the Zhou rites, but in fact to strengthen the rule and use the ancient rites to bind his subordinates. Wang Mang's so-called restoration of tradition is actually a misinterpretation of the Zhou Li, and the "two names" mentioned earlier in the Western Han Dynasty refer more to two names than to two names.
In Wang Mang's dynasty, taking a single-character name was a mandatory rule, and many previous two-character names were changed to single-word names, and those who committed crimes would also restore the two-character names to the prisoners as punishment. For example, Wang Mang's eldest grandson, originally named Wang Huizong, was later renamed Wang Zong. Wang Zong and his uncle later plotted a rebellion and planned to commit suicide. Wang Mang issued an edict: "Zong's original name is Huizong, so as to make two names, and now it is renamed Huizong." "Stripped of his one-character name and restored to his two-character name Wang Huizong as a sign of honorary punishment."
In the 15 years of the new dynasty, the princes and nobles could not use 2-character names, and the two-character name was considered to be a lowly name used by the low-level people, so the two-character name was immediately extinct. Although the new dynasty existed for only 15 years, this naming habit continued, and throughout the Eastern Han Dynasty, few people took two-character names. Therefore, when you look at the names of people in the Three Kingdoms period, almost all of them are still single-character names, Liu Bei, Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Zhao Yun, Cao Cao, Sun Quan, and Zhuge Liang. And a very small number of two-character names such as Xi Zhicai, Hu Che'er and so on are the object of ridicule, more similar to the current parents, not the compound surname but give the child 4 character names.
It was not until the Jin Dynasty, the world was in chaos, the etiquette system collapsed, and the two-character names began to increase, and after the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the two-character names were even more numerous, and the emperors mostly took two-character names, such as Li Shimin, Zhao Kuangyin, Zhu Yuanzhang, and so on.