Chinese pay attention to the "coffin conclusive conclusion", and the "nickname" represents this tradition very well, whether a person can have a nickname, whether the number is good or bad, can affect the judgment of this person. The emperor's title is the best representative, and an emperor's title can basically summarize the emperor's actions for the government and how virtuous the emperor is, containing the meaning of evaluation.
Stills of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty
What is a courtesy name?
In ancient times, for those emperors and generals and high-ranking officials and ministers, after their deaths, the official would give a final evaluation according to their life deeds, but the merits of a person's life cannot be clearly stated in three words and two words, so, for convenience,
The ancients chose some words with evaluative significance to highly summarize a person's life, and these official titles with evaluative significance are "nicknames".
The earliest origin of the name is from the Western Zhou Dynasty, according to the "Yi Zhou Shu Tan Fa Xie" said:
"The one who does it, the traces of the deeds also." The trumpeter, the table of merit also"
The title of the emperor is generally determined by the official, announced by the successor emperor, and the title of the minister is given by the imperial court.
Yi Zhou Shu
From the beginning of the Zhou Dynasty, with the exception of Emperor Qin Shi Huang and Emperor Qin II, almost all orthodox emperors had nicknames. Because Qin Shi Huang was more disgusted with the title of Emperor Qin, believing that the title of Emperor Qin was suspected of being "a subject and a father", which violated the Three Principles and Five Constants, he ordered the cancellation of the act of evaluating the title, but after the fall of the Qin Dynasty, this system was revived, so since the birth of the title, it was only briefly interrupted during the qin shi huang period, and in other dynasties, although the title has improved and changed, it has never stopped.
How are nicknames rated?
The evaluation of the name is mainly to objectively evaluate and summarize a person's merits and demerits and moral conduct, etc., and there is a special "law of the word" for reference, the law of the law of the word strictly stipulates a number of words with a general meaning as the name, the character has merit, the virtue is good and bad, so the words stipulated in the law are also divided into praise and depreciation, which are roughly divided into three categories according to the different situations:
The ones used for praise are: Wen, Wu, Jing, Lie, Zhao, Mu, etc.;
Those used for derogatory purposes are: chi, calendar, spirit, etc.;
Those used for peacetime are: mourning, nostalgia, mourning, mourning, etc.
posthumous name
According to the rules of the Tan Fa, it can be seen from the titles alone what happened to the lives of historical figures, such as King Wen of Zhou, who was knowledgeable, diligent in government and loved the people, according to the "Jingwei Heaven and Earth Yue Wen, Moral Knowledge, And Kindness and Love for the People" in the Tan Fa, so after his death, the title given to him by future generations was "Wen", which was the best affirmation of his life's achievements; the Sui Emperor was poor and militaristic, sexually abusive, and according to the "Good Inner Far Away Ritual Yue, Go to li yuan and the crowd yue Yue", posterity gave him the nickname of "Qiu", It is to criticize him for his absurdity and wanton conquest.
The emperor's title before the Tang Dynasty was very concise, one or two words can be summarized, and the scope of application of the same title is not distinguished between the emperor and the courtier, mainly according to the merits and demerits of the characters, virtue and integrity to evaluate, such as the Han Wu Emperor's nickname "Wu", the Western Han Dynasty founding hero Zhou Bo's nickname is also "Wu". However, after the Tang Dynasty, with the strengthening of imperial power, in order to compliment the emperor, the number of words of the emperors has also increased again and again, for example, the title of the emperor of the Ming Dynasty has developed to seventeen characters (the Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang has twenty-one characters), and the title of the emperor of the Qing Dynasty is as high as twenty-one words.
Emperor of the Qing Dynasty
What is the significance of Emperor Wu of Han being called "Filial Piety"?
Clarifying the meaning and evaluation method of the title, and then looking at the title of Emperor Wudi of Han, it is easy to understand, the title of Emperor Wudi of Han is "Wu", which belongs to the praise and beauty of the name, and the definition of "Wu" in the Law of Han is:
Gang Yi Zhi Zhi Wu (Gang Wu, strong and unyielding. Huai Zhongshu, Zhengqu Straight)
Wei Yi Enemy De Yue Wu (enemy with the virtuous)
Keding Disaster Chaos Wu (conscription, so can be determined)
Criminals overcome the martial arts (the law is righteous and can be obeyed)
Kwa zhi duo poor wu (dazhi marching soldiers, many poor poles)
Compared with the life of Emperor Wu of Han, although he had meritorious deeds, on the whole his merits far outweighed his faults; during his reign, he improved the laws and regulations, vigorously recruited talents, appointed talents, reformed internal affairs, and especially used force to solve the problem of the Xiongnu border troubles that had long plagued the Central Plains.
Emperor of the Han Dynasty
In addition, the Han Dynasty ruled the world with filial piety, and after Liu Bang established the Han Dynasty, he vigorously promoted filial piety, and regarded filial piety as the basic national policy for governing the country and the people, so from the emperor of the Han Dynasty to practice filial piety and set an example for the world, this concept is also obviously manifested in the "nicknames" of the emperors of the Han Dynasty, the emperors of the Han Dynasty, except for the two founding emperors (Liu Bang of the Western Han Dynasty and Liu Xiu, the Guangwu Emperor of the Eastern Han Dynasty), the titles of other emperors will be added with a "filial piety" character.
Therefore, the nickname of Emperor Wu of Han is actually "Xiao Wu", that is, Emperor Xiaowu of Han, but in the popular name, the word "filial piety" is omitted, referred to as Emperor Wu of Han.