"Only the governors are allowed to set fires, and the people are not allowed to light lamps" is a satire on the social situation in which powerful people can do whatever they want, while ordinary people are restricted everywhere, which comes from a small story recorded in Lu You's "Notes on the Old School".
During the Northern Song Dynasty, there was a Taishou named Tian Deng, who was arrogant and domineering, because he had the word "Deng" in his name, so he did not allow any words that were homophonous with "Deng" in the areas under his jurisdiction. As long as there is a homophonic word, he will punish others for offending the chief.
However, when the Lantern Festival came, it was a local custom for the government to put up flower lanterns for three days for the people to come and see. In order not to violate Tian Deng's taboo, the notice posted reads "Honshu set fire to the fire as usual for three days." When the people saw it, they indignantly said the words "only the governor is allowed to set fires, and the people are not allowed to light lamps", which has been passed down to this day. In fact, this saying is related to the ancient system of avoidance on the mainland.
The ancients followed a system of avoidance of secrecy when taking names, which has been the consensus of thousands of years. The ancients will be taboo to take a word, this word can now be casually put into their own name, but in the mainland's more than two thousand years of feudal history, only 3 people have used, what is the word?
The ancient system of avoidance
The mainland's system of avoidance is a product of the feudal era. At that time, the hierarchy was strict, and in order to express respect for kings, sages, elders, and superiors, whether they were speaking or writing, they could not be called by their first names. So it can be replaced by other words, which is called the avoidance system.
Avoidance is mainly reflected in oral names and written records, which are mainly divided into four types, namely "national secrets", "holy secrets", "family secrets" and "constitutional secrets". As the name suggests, "national secret" is to avoid the name of the royal family, "family secret" to avoid the elder within three generations of the same sect, "holy secret" refers to avoid the name of ancient emperors or sages, especially the names of people such as Confucius, "constitutional" is the name of subordinates to avoid the official, the allusion at the beginning of the article belongs to this kind of avoidance.
In order to cope with avoidance, the ancients came up with many ways. Later generations take names well, and can be avoided directly, but if a person has been holding the original name for decades, and suddenly there is an emperor or chief with homophones with him, then he has to change the word. This is one of the most common methods used by the ancients to avoid secrecy, "changing the word method". For example, Beiyue Hengshan, one of the famous five mountains in the mainland, was called Changshan in the Han Dynasty, which was to avoid the name of Liu Heng, the Emperor of Han Wen.
Word change is only one of them, and the methods of avoiding it include "empty word method" and "missing brushwork". The so-called "empty word method" is to empty the words that should be avoided, and sometimes replace them with "mouth" or "so". In the Tang Dynasty, the Nanhai Guanyin Bodhisattva avoided Li Shimin's name and was called Guanyin Bodhisattva. "Lack of brushwork" is the last stroke of the word that should be avoided when writing, and Confucius's "qiu" character is written as "jin" in some ancient documents.
In order to consolidate their rule, the feudal emperor would strictly implement the system of avoidance. Once committed, it will be regarded as the following offender, rebellious, and will be severely punished. The word "king" will change according to the change of dynasty, but the word "king" is always avoided no matter how the dynasty changes, what is the reason for this?
The word "king" is used to avoid secrecy
The surname "Wang" is unavoidable, but the word "Wang" could not be applied to names in ancient times. Because the word "king" in the eyes of the ancients, symbolizes the emperor, is the nine-five-year-old. Ordinary people using the word "king" will be considered to have a trespassing intention, which may lead to the disaster of killing, so the word "king" should be avoided.
However, even if the "king" does not shy away from it, ordinary people generally do not use it. Because the ancients believed that the king was a heavenly nobleman who bore the will of heaven. Ancient people superstitiously believed that ordinary people could not suppress the luck of the "king", and may destroy the child's life fortune because the name is "big". Therefore, under the double taboo of the imperial court and the people, the word "wang" is a taboo, but there are still three people in history who dare to use the word "king" to take names.
Three daring people whose names have the word "king"
The character "Wang" in their names are Luo Bin Wang, Feng Ye Wang, and Gu Ye Wang.
"Goose goose goose, song to the sky." White hair floats green water, red palms pluck clear waves. "This popular "Wing Goose" is from the hand of Luo Binwang, who is only 7 years old. Luo Binwang was a famous poet of the Tang Dynasty, one of the "Four Masters of the Early Tang Dynasty". King Luo Bin was born in a family of eunuchs, and his name and characters are taken from the phrase "The light of the country is viewed, using bin yu wang" in the I Ching.
"Light" refers to the prosperous scene of the country due to its efforts, and "bin" means obedience, so the extension of this sentence is to watch the glorious prosperity of the country due to the virtue of the king, and it is appropriate to come out to help the king govern the country. It can be seen that Luo Binwang's father had high hopes for him, hoping that he would be loyal to the country.
King Luobin's father was a county commander of the early Tang Dynasty and died in renshou for the state. Therefore, the Luo Bin family was loyal to the imperial court. The "king" in his name mainly expresses the meaning of submission to the emperor, which is popular with the imperial court, and naturally does not ask questions.
Feng Yewang was an official of the Western Han Dynasty, the character Junqing, who was the first person in history to have the character Wang in his name. Feng Yewang's father was the left general Feng Fengshi, who had gone through the four emperors of Emperor Wu of Han, Emperor Zhao of Han, Emperor Xuan of Han, and Emperor Yuan of Han, and had made countless military achievements, and as the son of a general, he was given this domineering name.
But he did not violate the emperor's taboo, which was mainly due to his words. In ancient times, the person who was called a person was called after he became an adult, and when King Feng Ye entered the palace as an official, he had passed the age of weak crown, and everyone would call him "Junqing". And "Junqing" is the meaning of the emperor's courtiers, and the emperor will certainly not sin against him. King Feng Ye was an upright man, deeply valued by the Han Yuan Emperor, and his exploits were also admired by posterity, and King Gu Ye was one of them.
Gu Yewang' original name was Gu Tilun, and he was an official of the Southern Dynasty Chen Jian and a scholar and historian of writing. Gu Yewang was born from a famous and prestigious family, and from an early age he was clever and intelligent, and his literary talent was remarkable, leaving many valuable literary works for future generations. Because he worshipped King Feng Ye, Gu Tilun changed his name to King Gu Ye and looked up to King Feng Ye.
The name contains the parents' expectations of the child, in the absence of force majeure factors, changing the name is tantamount to betraying the parents, but Gu Yewang still changed his name. After changing his name, he studied Feng Yewang and was benevolent and erudite in every life. Gu Yewang's name may sound unfamiliar to us, but the famous qing dynasty thinker Gu Yanwu is his descendant.
summary
The word "king" rarely appeared as a name in ancient times, mainly the reverence of the ancients, but our modern people named it mainly for the sake of good sound. The word "king" is a surname, which is bound to appear, but the king will not appear in the name of modern people, because it is not very good. However, the name is only a title, as long as it is not swearing, it is called whatever.
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