Friends who are more familiar with Chinese history may know that due to the excessive number of words and the frequent change of the era number, the emperors mentioned in later generations from the Tang Dynasty to the Song Dynasty basically used temple numbers, such as Tang Taizong, Tang Xuanzong, Song Taizu, Song Taizong, Song Renzong and so on. Strangely, Tang Xuanzong Li Longji has been known as "Emperor Ming of Tang" for a long time. Why?
The full title of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang and Li Longji was "Emperor Xiaoxiao of the Great Saint of Tang Zhidao", or "Emperor Ming of Tang" for short. After the death of Tang Xuanzong, although some literati referred to Tang Xuanzong as "Emperor Tang Ming", the mainstream title was "Tang Xuanzong". However, in the fifth year of the Northern Song Dynasty (1012), Emperor Zhenzong of Song suddenly declared his ancestor Zhao Xuanlang posthumously honored as "Emperor Tianzun of the Nine Heavenly Orders of the Shangling High Dao".
Because Zhao Xuanlang was posthumously honored as emperor, "Xuan" has since become a taboo word, and the Song Dynasty people have replaced the word "Xuan" with the word "Yuan", and "Tang Xuanzong" has been written as "Tang Yuanzong". However, during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, the temple name of Li Jing, the lord of the Southern Tang Dynasty, was "Tang Yuanzong", and the Southern Tang was destroyed by the Northern Song Dynasty. Because of this, it was a bit troublesome to mention "Tang Yuanzong" in the Song Dynasty, even if it was Li Longji instead of Li Jing.
In order to avoid trouble and embarrassment, the Song Dynasty basically gave up using the temple name "Xuanzong" and instead used the abbreviation of the nickname "Emperor Ming of Tang" to refer to Li Longji. Because of the great cultural influence of the Song Dynasty, the phenomenon of referring to Li Longji as "Emperor Tang Ming" still existed in the Yuan Dynasty, such as the Yuan miscellaneous drama "Tang Ming Emperor Autumn Night Wutong Rain". However, in the Ming Dynasty, more and more literati used "Tang Xuanzong".
If the use of "Tang Xuanzong" continues to be unrestricted, the users of "Tang Ming Emperor" will naturally become less and less. However, the Kangxi Emperor of the Qing Dynasty, Ai Xinjue Luo Xuanye ascended the throne in the eighteenth year of Shunzhi (1661), and "Xuan" once again became a taboo word. The Qing Dynasty's "literal prison" was far superior to that of the Song Dynasty, leading literati scholars to once again refer to Li Longji as "Emperor Ming of Tang". This usage persisted until the Republic of China and the 1950s and 1960s.