Wen Duan Honggang
In China's 5,000-year history, many interesting customs have been formed, and some customs will form a culture that will be passed down from generation to generation through historical precipitation, which will have a good role in enriching people's material and spiritual lives.
For example, the title between husband and wife is not only a formal title, but also a comprehensive embodiment of the cultivation, taste, feelings and other aspects between husband and wife, and it is also a direct expression of the cultural concept of the times.
Next, let's talk about the different names between husband and wife that have appeared in Chinese history.
First, good people
In the pre-Qin period, wives usually called their husbands "good people", with distinct positive colors, and from this title alone, it can be seen that the husband's image in the wife's mind is tall and glorious.
The title "Good Man" comes from the Book of Poetry, Daya Sangrou: Wei This Good Man, as a Shigu. It means how good this good man is, and how noble his deeds are.
Because the status of men and women in the pre-Qin period was relatively equal, some husbands also called their wives "good people", but this indiscriminate title brought many inconveniences to husband and wife, so since the pre-Qin, "good people" have been used less in the folk and have not become popular.
Second, Jun
In ancient times, some women also called their husbands "Jun", indicating the honorific title of their husbands. For example, in the Book of Rites and Internal Rules, it is written: "The king has eaten, thoroughly cooked, made it special, and then entered the imperial court." A famous poet of the Tang Dynasty wrote: "I was not born when I was born, and I was old when I was born." Jun hates me for being born late, and I hate jun for being born early.
"Jun" in the above sentences, all represent the husband in the eyes of the wife, the emotional color is the same as "good person", containing the wife's respect for the husband, mostly in the written language.
In the pre-Qin period, some women also called their husbands "Fu Jun", which evolved from the name "Jun", for example, Qu Yuan wrote in the "Nine Songs of Yunzhong Jun": Sifu Jun Xi Tai Xie.
Three, Lang
Since the Eastern Han Dynasty, in order to distinguish the title between husband and wife, people have used the word "liang" as the root of the word to distinguish between husband and wife. Add "阝" to the right of the word "Liang" to become "Lang", which is used to represent the husband. Add "female" to the left of the word "liang" to become "niang", which is used to represent the wife. These explanations are described in detail in the Eastern Han Dynasty Xu Shen's "Explanation of Words and Characters".
The poem in the great poet Li Bai of the Sheng Tang Dynasty in "Long Gan Xing Qi I": Lang rode a bamboo horse and went around the bed to get green plums. The Tang Dynasty poet Cao Yi's poem "Can't Hope": See the flowers remember lang's face, and often wish that the flowers are new. All are accurate interpretations of this kind of title, reflecting the intimate relationship between husband and wife.
4,Rou-kun
In terms of oral expression, using a single word to call the husband always seems to be a little awkward. Moreover, women in ancient times read very little, and it was unrealistic to expect them to write poems and letters and call their husbands in written language.
With the change of social customs and people's thinking, in the Three Kingdoms and Two Jin Dynasties, a new title for husbands immediately appeared, that is, "Lang Jun".
"Lang Jun" is a combination of the previous titles of "Lang" and "Jun" for the husband, which is much more smooth to call, so that the ancients often used it in spoken and written language, and people will not be unfamiliar with it to this day.
Corresponding to "Lang Jun" is "Niangzi", which is also more smooth to call, adding the word "zi" to the end of the single word "Niang", making it a two-tone word.
However, the word "Niangzi" specifically referred to the young girl of Miaoling during the Three Kingdoms and the Two Jin Dynasties, and by the Tang Dynasty, with the change of people's thinking, it became the title of wife.
Whether it is "Lang Jun" or "Niangzi", it reflects the strong love between husband and wife.
Fifth, officials
The "city culture" of the Song Dynasty was very prosperous, and it can be fully seen from Zhang Zeduan's "Map of the Upper River of the Qingming Dynasty", which not only has a variety of goods, but also a variety of people, which is a witness to the frequent cultural exchanges between the north and the south.
Those who served in the court were called "officials", and ordinary people were referred to as "officials". Later, as the meaning of "official" continued to expand, some people began to use "official" in the title between husband and wife, and some wives directly called their husbands "officials", containing the wife's expectation that her husband would become an "official person".
Sixth, the outer son
After the Tang Dynasty, the literati and scholars often called their wives "insiders", the meaning of which is quite clear, referring to the people who teach their husbands and children in the house, such people, of course, are wives.
Corresponding to "insider", it is "outsider" or "outer son", which is the wife's name for her husband.
Because calling their husbands "outsiders" sounds vulgar and easy to cause misunderstanding by others, most women in the folk prefer to call their husbands "foreigners", which sounds much more elegant than "outsiders".
Seventh, Xiang Gong
In the drama, people can often hear women refer to their husbands as "Xianggong", in fact, the name of "Xianggong" is precisely because of the lyrics in the drama, from the fourth fold of the Yuan Dynasty's anonymous "Raising The Case and Raising eyebrows": Liang Hongyun: Lady please wear it. Zheng Danyun: Xianggong, I don't dare to wear it.
The original meaning of "Xianggong" was to honor the prime minister, and later became a woman's title for her husband in the folk, so that people can feel that when a woman calls "Xianggong" out, it is full of women's ardent expectations for her husband, hoping that her husband will have a high-ranking official Houlu like the prime minister.
VIII. Sir
The word "sir" was born as early as the pre-Qin period, and the earliest term was used to refer to those elderly who were cultivated and learned, for example, the Mencius Confession of The Next Wrote: Song Mengzi will be Chu, Mencius met in the stone hill, that is: What will Mr. Be?
Later, the word "sir" became the ancient name for teachers or literati. Later, people with a skill in the jianghu, such as those who look at the picture, calculate the gua, and watch the feng shui, are called "sir".
It was not until modern times that "sir" became a synonym for husbands, which contains the meaning of respect and admiration for husbands. Because the status of men is still very high in modern times, the word "sir" can highlight the dignity of men.
Nine, lover
"Lover" refers to a person who loves, and both men and women who love each other can call each other "lovers". This word appears very frequently in new literature, for example, Mao Dun wrote in "The Story of The Motor": I have never heard that the motor has a lover, and no one has ever found that the motor is looking for a lover.
After liberation, equality between men and women was advocated, and because the words "sir", "wife", "boss", "treasurer" and other words used before liberation had bourgeois overtones, the title of "lover" gradually became popular.
According to expert research, "lover" borrows the Japanese word, and the Japanese word "lover" comes from the English translation of lover, if translated literally, it means "lover".
Obviously, the use of "lover" to refer to husband or wife is easy to cause misunderstanding, and today, people rarely use this term.
Ten, husband
The term "husband" originally referred to eunuchs, but how it later became a pronoun for husbands is still not a convincing statement, only a folk story describes it vividly.
According to legend, in the Tang Dynasty, there was a reader named Mai Aixin, who one day wrote a pair of shanglian and put it on the desk: The lotus is broken, and the fallen leaves are rooted into old roots. Coincidentally, this couplet was seen by his wife, who understood her husband's thoughts and wrote out the next couplet: he was ripe with yellow rice, and he saw the rice and new grain when he blew the chaff.
Mai Aixin saw the lower link written by his wife, was touched by his wife's talent and heart, and immediately gave up the plan to divorce his wife. The wife was also touched to see her husband's change of heart, and wrote with a stroke of her pen: The husband is very fair. Mai Aixin also quickly continued to write the next link: the wife is a mother-in-law.
After this story spread, there was a custom between husbands and wives in the folk to call each other "husband" and "wife".
It can be seen that the ancient woman's title of her husband was mainly elegant and subtle, full of respect for her husband. Modern women's names for their husbands are very straightforward, embodying the idea of equality between men and women.