In recent years, the popularity of beautiful Internet celebrities has played a craze for temple photography. They always wear cool clothes that highlight their good figures, holding Buddhist scriptures in their hands, or writing calligraphy while sipping tea. The quiet architectural background with ancient meaning, combined with the beautiful woman who scratches her head and poses, the sense of conflict of the picture, quickly attracted the attention of a large number of netizens, and even gave these Internet celebrities the title of "Buddha Yuan", which means "famous lady in Buddhism".
However, the public found that these "Buddhas" carried the banner of Buddhism and created false "Qinggao people" for themselves, but on the other hand, they sold "Buddhist peripheral goods" such as bead strings and peace locks at high prices to make profits. Because their clothes are less and less, they are exposed to their waists, in addition to triggering protests in monasteries, they have also been officially named a few days ago, asking various online platforms to improve the vices of "Buddha Yuan".
Compared with the "Buddha Yuan" who have no in-depth understanding of Buddhism and only want to sell people and make profits from high prices in this package, the women from the imperial family, eunuchs and merchants of the Ming Dynasty are not only spiritual sustenance, but also part of daily life and leisure activities, and their names also have a strong Zen meaning.
Regarding the names of the ming dynasty royal families, all the emperors, princes and male clan members are quite regular, such as Ming Chengzu (1360-1424) whose descendants were named in the order of "Gao Zhan Qi See You, Hou Zai Yi Chang Yu", while the names were taken from the five elements of "Jinmu Water, Fire and Earth". In contrast, there is no certain standard for the naming of female members of the royal family and clans.
From the beginning of the Ming Dynasty to the middle of the Ming Dynasty, the maiden name of the princess could only rely on the excavation of archaeological epitaphs due to the lack of historical records. Of the dozen daughters of Ming Taizu (1328-1398), only the eldest daughter, Princess Lin'an, is known to be zhu Yufeng (?) – 1421), and the eighth daughter of Princess Nankang named Zhu Yuhua (?) - 1438). Ming Chengzu's daughters were given more casual names, such as the eldest daughter Zhu Yuying (1377-1417) of Yong'an Princess, and the second daughter, Princess Yongping, Zhu Yuegui (1379-1444).
However, Zhu Di's granddaughter's maiden name can provide a glimpse of women's naming preferences in the early Ming Dynasty. For example, the three daughters of Princess Zhu Yuying of Yong'an can be known from the princess's epitaph: Yuan Ningning, Yuan Yaoying, and Yuan Shou'en. Princess Zhu Yuegui of Yongping's three daughters were named Li Shanzhu, Li Zhiyuan, and Li Guangqing. The third daughter, Princess Ancheng (1384-1443), had four daughters: Song Shanxiang, Song Shancai, Song Funu, and Song Haifu. The fourth daughter, Princess Zhu Zhiming of Xianning (1385-1440), had two daughters named Song Shude and Song Shuqing.
From the name of Ming Chengzu's granddaughter, it can be found that not only does it have the naming style of Women in the Song Dynasty, such as "De", "Shu", "Qing" and so on, which are still named after the characters of women's moral norms, but also begin to use "grace", "goodness", "fu", etc., with religious characteristics, to name their daughters.
This trend of naming buddhist scriptures and Buddhist characters is also popular among the people. Through the epitaphs of the late Yuan and early Ming dynasties excavated by archaeology, it can be found that women from the families of officials and eunuchs and merchants have more Buddhist names, such as the word "Miao" in their names.
For example, the nursing mother of Zhu Shu (1379-1428), the king of Gu, was named Zhang Miaoshou; there were even generations of female names with the character "Miao", such as the grandmother and mother of Wang Jun (1450-1524), a former official who worshiped Hubu Shangshu and Wuyingdian University scholar, all had "Miao", named Ye Miaoxian and Ye Miaocheng respectively. And Wang Jun himself named his three daughters: Wang Miaoqing, Wang Miaolong, and Wang Miaoyuan.
Scholars further count that women in the Ming Dynasty preferred names: Miaoyin, Miao'an, Miaozhen, Miaolian, Miaolan, Miaoqing and other names with strong Buddhist overtones. In Buddhism, the word "miao" has "an infinite sense of infinity, ineffable, endless and incomplete", and can be said to be the most commonly seen word in buddhist scriptures. Perhaps because it is next to the female character, and the word "miao" has the meaning of "beautiful", the Ming people who believe in Buddhism choose to use this word to name their daughter.
In addition to the characters "Miao", the characters "Xiang", "Shou", "Shun", "An", "Xian" and other characters are common female name combinations in the Ming Dynasty. From the perspective of modern people, compared with the names of women in the Song Dynasty, the names of women in the Ming Dynasty, whether they were from the clan or from official eunuchs, had a smell of monks' legal names and legal names, but they also reflected that Buddhism had a certain influence in the spiritual society of the Ming Dynasty