Talking about the topic of the emperor's temple number, perhaps in our impression, the emperor has a temple number is a matter of course. Many of the emperors we know well, we call them directly by temple names, such as Tang Taizong, Song Taizu, Song Gaozong and so on. Many times we may not even be able to remember the real names of these emperors, but we can blurt out their temple names.
But in fact, in ancient China, the emperor's temple number was not so easy to obtain at the beginning. In the early days of the establishment of China's feudal system, during the powerful Western Han Dynasty, although there were many emperors who could be said to be Ming Jun, in fact, of the total 12 emperors of the Western Han Dynasty, only four actually had official temple names. So why?
To understand the reasons for this we must first be clear about what the temple number is. The temple number, which means the name that the emperor called when he was enshrined in the temple, originated from the Shang Dynasty, which attached great importance to sacrifice and worship. During the Shang Dynasty, the temple number was not available to every emperor, and the Shang Dynasty people, for the convenience of sacrifice, would only catch up with the temple number for those ancestors who had made great contributions to the country and were worthy of eternal sacrifice for their descendants, in order to express the meaning of eternal temple sacrifice.
However, because after Qin Shi Huang established the Qin Dynasty, he believed that the temple number and the title of the ancestor were disrespectful acts of "the son discussing his father and the subject discussing his king", so during the Qin Dynasty, Qin Shi Huang once abolished the temple number and the number system. However, due to the death of Qin Dynasty II, it was overthrown by the peasant revolt in a very short time. The Han Dynasty, which established a unified dynasty after the Qin Dynasty, once again picked up the temple number system and the number system with a long history.
At the time of the Western Han Dynasty, the Han Dynasty still maintained the original intention of the Shang Dynasty for the system of temple numbers, so the giving of temple numbers became a very cautious thing. In addition, in the early western Han Dynasty, advocating the study of Huang Laozhi, they did not attach importance to the seven temple system in the Zhou Li, so many emperors not only built temples for the first emperor but also built temples for themselves, so that there were as many as one hundred and seventy-six imperial temples in the Western Han Dynasty during the Han Yuan Emperor period.
Although there were many imperial temples, because the Chang'an City of the Western Han Dynasty did not set up ancestral temples that were uniformly dedicated to the ancestors, these imperial temples performed the duties of the ancestral temples on their behalf. However, the existence of a large number of imperial temples brought a heavy financial burden to the Western Han Dynasty, and these scattered temples needed to be guarded and taken care of, coupled with the fact that sacrifices were held many times a year, which made the Han Dynasty form a funny situation of "life is like death".
Therefore, in the period of the Han Yuan Emperor, he began to modify the Han Dynasty's zongmiao system according to the Confucian etiquette. After some heated discussion, the officials expressed their opinions on which emperor's temples should be kept and which should be demolished. Wei Xuancheng and others believed that Liu Bang, the founder of Han Gao, was ordained by heaven, so his temple should be designated as the Temple of Taizu; while Sima Xujia and others believed that Emperor Wen of Han both practiced moral government and adhered to frugality and simplicity during his reign, so his temple should be designated as the Temple of Taizong; Yin Zhong and others believed that Emperor Wu of Han's defeat of the Xiongnu to maintain his rule should designate his temple as the Temple of Sejong.
So in the end, Emperor Yuan of Han designated the temples of Han Gaozu, Emperor Wen of Han, and Emperor Wu of Han as the temples of Taizu, Taizong, and Sejong, respectively, while the other imperial temples were all demolished, including the imperial temples established in various counties and states. Therefore, the temple number system of the Han Dynasty actually began to be on the right track until the reign of the Han Yuan Emperor. But this does not mean that the temple number setting in the Western Han Dynasty was finalized.
In fact, the temple numbers of the emperors of the Western Han Dynasty were actually adjusted several times since then. As we mentioned at the beginning, there were only four temple numbers in the Western Han Dynasty. But in fact, in the Western Han Dynasty, there were more than four temple numbers.
Because during the hanping emperor's period, according to Wang Mang's opinion, the temple of emperor Xuan of Han was designated as the temple of Zhongzong, and the temple of emperor Yuan of Han was designated as the temple of Gaozong, and the same sacrifice was carried out, and later Emperor Cheng of Hancheng and Emperor Ping of Han also received the temple titles of "Tongzong" and "Yuanzong". However, in the Eastern Han Dynasty, the temple titles of Emperor Yuan, Emperor Cheng, and Emperor Ping were all cancelled (because these emperors really did not have much to compare with the previous four from the perspective of later generations), so in the end, the only emperors who really had temple titles in the Western Han Dynasty were Liu Bang, the founding monarch Taizu Liu Bang, the Emperor Taizong Hanwen who practiced the rule of virtue and created the rule of Wenjing, the Emperor Wu of Sejong Han who defeated the Xiongnu to open up the western regions, and the Emperor Xuan of Zhongzong Han who realized Zhongxing Shoucheng.