China has a long history, including the Spring and Autumn Warring States, the successive dynasties have emerged 422 emperors, this is not counting the grass-headed tianzi such as Shangcheng Sheng Wu Guangzhang Xianzhong, later generations also have their own names, such as the Spring and Autumn Chu Zhuang Wang, Jin Huigong, Tang Taizong of the Tang Dynasty, these titles to the monarch are actually strictly distributed according to the temple number, the year number, and the title of the tang.
Let's first talk about the nickname, which is the ancient monarch or prince of East Asia, after the death, according to their life deeds and moral cultivation and coffin theory, the title given, the Sui Emperor's nickname "炀", there is the meaning of "brutal and no way" in it, and "You", "Li", "false", "ugly" and other words are all nicknames, expressing the meaning of this monarch's fainting and incompetent, such as the Zhou Youwang we are most familiar with, but after the Tang Dynasty, the nickname was a bit chaotic, and many royal families blindly raised their titles in order to show their ancestors, and said " Why not eat meat paste" This timeless saying of the Jin Huigong was still awarded a hui character representing the meritocracy by the imperial family, and the Empress Dowager Cixi of the Qing Dynasty was posthumously awarded the title of "Filial Piety Cixi Duanyou Kang Yi Zhao Yu Zhuang Chengshou Gong Qin Present Chongxi with Tianxing Shengxian Empress", anyway, the exaggeration is finished.
Historians have begun to use temple numbers to describe the emperor, the so-called temple number, refers to the emperor in the temple to be enshrined in the emperor's name, originated from the Shang Dynasty that attached importance to sacrifice and worship, before the Sui, not every emperor had a temple number, but after the Sui, each king was equipped with a special temple to enjoy the offering. The temple number is also very recognizable. Nowadays, the emperors of the Tang Dynasty, the Song Dynasty, and the Ming Dynasty are called by temple names. The temple number is a little less than the rules of the name, but there are also strict divisions, such as the founding king in history can be called "ancestor", and the rest are called zong, such as Tang Gaozu, Han Gaozu, and Song Taizu. The sect is one level lower than the ancestor.
But the surprising thing is, why did the Qing Dynasty have three emperors called Zu? They are Qing Shengzu Nur Hachi, Qing Shi Zu Fu Lin (Shunzhi), Qing Sheng Zu Xuan Ye (Kangxi), about the use of zu, there are more special sources, during the reign can revitalize the regime, or another bloodline, can also be called zu, Han Dynasty Guangwu Emperor Liu Xiu, the establishment of the Eastern Han, he was also called Shizu, after the death of the Ming Emperor Zhu Di, his son Jiajing Emperor wanted to let his father enter the Taimiao Temple, so he also forcibly raised the number of Zhu Di Temple to Ming Chengzu, for which the ministers also had a fierce debate, Many people think that this is not in line with etiquette.
As a result, in the Qing Dynasty, Nurhaci is the ancestor of the Qing Dynasty, he was named zu without words, and the Shunzhi Emperor was the first emperor after the Qing Dynasty entered the Customs, although his father Emperor Taiji was only Qing Taizong, but Shunzhi was still called Qing Shizu, considering that he was the founder of the Qing Dynasty territory, it was also reasonable to do so, but Kangxi was named Qing Shengzu, this is Shunzhi's son, that generation is not chaotic?
This may be the same as the Qing Dynasty imperial family originated from the nomadic people, the temple number is not very familiar, perhaps they think that Kangxi during the reign of the indeed very great, this set it up as the Qing Shengzu, considering the chaos of the Qing Dynasty temple number, and the number is too long to reflect the true merits of the emperor, so today's historians all use the era name to call them. Qianlong, Shunzhi, Kangxi, and Jiaqing were all era names that the emperor executed during his reign.