Cao Cao Images
Why is the "character" of the name the "character" of the Chinese character and not the "son" of Sun Tzu? Presumably this is a question that everyone will be confused about when they are young. And when I first learn to write "name", I will often write it as "name", and then I will remember it after being repeatedly corrected by the teacher. So why?
As we all know, ancient people have both "name" and "word". For example, Zhuge Liang's name is Bright, the character Kong Ming; Liu Bei's name is Bei, the word Xuande; Yue Fei's name is Fei, and the character Pengju is. So why did Cao Cao write Meng De? And why did the ancients have to be so troublesome, they had to have a "name" and a "word" to be able to do it, and what is the difference between the two?
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > Cao Cao's name was taken by his father and represented "Decao"</h1>
In fact, in the minds of the ancients, names are not one concept, but two concepts, and even the chronological order is different. A "name" is given by a child's father or grandfather on the day of a child's 100th birthday. For example, a hundred days after Cao Cao was born, his mother carried him to the study, found his father, and asked him to name Cao Cao.
Cao Cao film and television drama image
Cao Cao's father hugged Cao Cao over, took a closer look, found that the child looked a little ugly, and couldn't help but say, so the child was called Cao Cao. Of course, this is just a joke, in fact, Cao Cao's represents the of moral exercise. The names of the ancients are also the same as modern people, most of them express a good expectation or wish for their children.
The "word" is taken by a person of high moral standing at the time of the child's coming-of-age ceremony. Generally speaking, in ancient times, men could have their own words at the age of 20 and women at the age of 15. Moreover, "name" and "character" are all related, such as Liu Bei's character Xuande, which together is Beide; Yue Fei's character Pengju, when combined, is Fei Peng; Zhang Fei's character Wing De, together, represents flying wings.
As for the Cao Cao character Meng de, and his "name", together they are naturally Decao. And "word" in ancient times can be very important, if a person did not have a "word" at that time, there will be a different vision, what is the matter?
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > "character" in ancient times symbolized social identity and represented honorific titles</h1>
In fact, "characters" in ancient times represented whether a person had a social identity or not. Because at that time, "name" represented a low name, and "word" represented an honorific title. When others call you, they can only call you "word", not your "name". For example, Liu Bei's name Zhuge Liang can only be "Mr. Kong Ming", not "Mr. Liang".
Zhou Yu film and television drama image
In particular, some "names" are not good to be called by others. For example, Zhuge Liang's "Liang", Zhao Yun's "Yun", Guan Yu's "Yu", and Zhou Yu's "Yu" are all OK, but if they are replaced by Liu Bei's "Bei", Sima Yi's "Yi", Sun Ce's "Strategy", especially Cao Cao's "Cao", how can others shout?
Therefore, "word" is actually equivalent to the ancient times, when people interact with a "business card" or a "vest", the emergence of "word" can be described as convenient how to call others, for the peers or elders to call "word", but also highlights the courtesy and respect. If someone suddenly calls someone else "name", it is a bit disrespectful.
Zhuge Liang film and television drama image
When everyone calls themselves, they can only use their own "name" and not "words". "Name" is actually used by people in ancient times to call themselves, to express a humble, humble gesture. But because some people's "names" are even embarrassed to pronounce themselves. Therefore, even if Cao Cao later becomes a minister, he can only say how I am Cao Cao, but I cannot say how Cao Mengde is.
However, it is precisely because Cao Cao's "name" has a hint of embarrassment, so it has also derived a special etiquette for this purpose, and it has also accidentally affected other people, this ritual is "visiting the worship without name", it is specially evolved for those ministers who are not good at calling themselves "names", so what does it mean?
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > the biggest difference between "name", "word" and "number" is that the "number" is self-picked</h1>
When the ancient ministers went to the dynasty, there would always be ceremonial officials shouting official positions plus names, for example, when Zhao Yun visited Liu Bei in the future, the ceremonial officials would shout: General Yijun, Yun Xiaomi. And when Xiao He saw Liu Bang, the ceremonial official would say: Xiang Guo, He Xiao sees. However, with the treatment of "visiting the shrine without a name", the ceremonial officer can only shout "Xiangguo Visit".
As for Cao Cao, it was changed from the ceremonial official's 丞相, and seeing to 丞相觐見. This way, it is indeed more comfortable. Therefore, in ancient times, "name" was a humble title, "word" was an honorific title, and he used "name" to call himself "name", and he called it "word". Moreover, in those days, if you called someone by someone's name, it was basically like cursing.
Now that we have already said this, let's explain the "number" in passing. As long as everyone has carefully observed, it will be found that many people in the ancients had "numbers". For example, Li Bai's Qinglian resident, Du Fu's Shaoling Yelao, Li Shangyin's Yuxisheng, Su Shi's Dongpo resident, Luo Guanzhong's Huhai Sanren, Tang Yin's Liuru resident, and so on.
The most fundamental and biggest difference between "name", "word" and number is that "name" and "word" are determined by the father or elders, while "number" is set by oneself, can be used to claim oneself, mostly used to express a certain interest, or to express a certain emotion. Moreover, the "number" can also be changed freely, which is much more convenient than the "name" and "word".
However, with the passage of time, the "number" gradually disappeared, and in the Republic of China period, there were still people who retained the habit of taking "characters", such as: Mr. Lu Xun, the word Yucai; Mr. Mao Dun, the word Yanbing; Mr. Lao She, the word Sheyu; Mr. Guo Moruo, the character Dingtang; Mr. Shen Congwen, the character Chongwen, etc., but the "number" has completely disappeared, leaving only the "name" and "character".
But in modern times, there is basically no "word", only a simple name that can represent itself. So why do "words" and "numbers" gradually disappear into the long river of time? What does it represent?
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > the disappearance of "characters" and "signs" represents the collapse of the honorific system</h1>
From the Republic of China period, many people still took "characters", and in the modern period, there were almost no "characters" and "numbers", which can basically be concluded that some things happened during this period, so that "characters" and "numbers" have since withdrawn from the stage of history. And this period is the period when Chinese and Western cultures are constantly merging.
Mr. Lao She
Therefore, it is very likely that the disappearance of "characters" and "trumpets" is the result of the collision between Chinese and Western cultures - at that time, "Western learning and Eastern learning" prevailed, the culture of Western countries was continuously transmitted to China, and a group of aspiring literati took the lead in completing their own ideological transformation and innovating their own cultural concepts. Under their influence, everyone began to think that "word" and "number" were actually more cumbersome existences, so they rarely used them anymore, and gradually disappeared.
However, today, although the "word" and "number" have been abolished, but Chinese is still not used to calling other people's names directly, unless it is time to name names, even parents will not easily call the full name of the child, and it is not very common for friends and lovers to call people with names and surnames, most of the time it is still a nickname or a love name.
If one day, your mother suddenly calls you a big name, the eight achievements are that you make your mother angry again. However, it is also because of the abolition of "characters", China's honorific system gradually collapsed, began to generalize, at first we called comrades, later called bosses, and then beautiful women, handsome men, beautiful boys, and in recent years changed to teachers, I don't know which next word to start generalizing is?