Zeng Ginseng, Cao Ginseng, Cen Ginseng - these three famous cattle names in Chinese history are all "ginseng", and this and its common words are placed in personal names but not everyone can read it correctly. In fact, this is not surprising, the more common the word, the easier it is to induce us to make mistakes, such as the Southern Song Dynasty framed Yue Fei's traitorous minister "Wan Qianbi", often read as "Wan Aigao", and even a certain cross-talk actor who often attended the Spring Festival Gala (later hired as a part-time professor at a university in the northwest) could not read it correctly (read as Wan Moqi).
"Ginseng", a fairly commonly used Chinese character, has 4 pronunciations, and the more used one is 3: ginseng (can) plus, ginseng (shen) and ginseng (cen) difference (ci) are not aligned, so how should it be pronounced in these three names?
1, Zeng San (505 BC - 435 BC)
Zeng San is the famous "ZengZi", a Confucian master born in the late Spring and Autumn Period, who is revered by The Confucian descendants as "Zongsheng", and together with "Fusheng" Yan Hui, "Shusheng" Zisi, and "Yasheng" Mencius, they are collectively known as the "Four Pairs of Confucius", and deserve to enjoy the Confucius Temple and thus become famous throughout the ages. So which sound should his name pronounce?
First exclude the cēn in the jagged, how to choose one of the remaining shēn and cān?
First of all, the history books record that Zengzi had three sons, namely the eldest son Zeng Yuan, the second son Zeng Shen and the younger son Zeng Hua, since the second son of his old man was called Zeng Shen, this is "Shen" only one pronunciation shēn, so according to the ancient chinese culture of the son must avoid the father's name to deduce, Zeng Ginseng should read "zēng cān";
Secondly, clues can also be found from the words of Zengsan, Zengzi surname Zeng, name ginseng, character Zi you, the words and names of the ancients usually have relevant meanings, such as Zhuge Liang character Kong Ming, where "Bright" and "Ming" are related, as well as Cao Cao (Jie Cao), the character Mengde (Character), the same name and character are closely related. Then since the name of Zeng Ginseng and the word "Ziyu" should naturally be related to the two words. In this way, it is clear that in the pre-Qin period, "ginseng" and "骖cān" homophones were false, basically universal, and 骖 means the horse that drove on both sides of the car in ancient times, and the word "you" is generally the meaning of the carriage, and the two are closely related, so Zeng Ginseng should be read "zēng cān".
In this way, we have determined the pronunciation of mr. Zeng's name, in fact, not only modern us, even in the Tang and Song Dynasties, if we look at the sentences that appear in ancient poems that have the name of Zeng, we will find that most of them read shēn, and people at that time have begun to read it wrong.
2, Cao Ginseng (?) —190 BC)
This Cao Gan was one of the founding generals of the Western Han Dynasty, following Liu Bang, the ancestor of Han Gao, who made many military achievements, and what is even more amazing is that he later abandoned wu to enter politics and succeeded Xiao He as the chancellor of the Han Dynasty, leaving us with a good story of "Xiao Gui Cao Sui".
According to Cao San's name ginseng (參參), the character 敬伯 (敬), which is also related to the meaning of "ginseng" and "respect", it can be judged that Cao Ginseng should be read Cao cān. In addition, evidence can also be found in ancient poems, such as a seven-word poem by the great writer Su Dongpo:
The second rhyme is sent by the inscription Kong Ping Zhongcao'an Song Su Shi
Whenever people want to find a way to be at ease, they first ask for the Sake Temple.
Lu Zi did not have to go from Ruoshi to Gai Gongdang himself to Cao Ginseng.
Envy Junmei Jade through the three fires, laughing at my dry mulberry trapped eight silkworms.
Judas like the same taste of the river, so it should be clear and sweet for thousands of miles.
The rhyming foot of this poem is an (an) ginseng silkworm (can) gan (gan), and from the rhyming point of view, it is known that Cao Ginseng should read Cao cān.
3, Cen Shan (c. 718 - c. 769)
The great Tang Dynasty poet Cen Shan, together with another great poet Gao Shi, called "Gao Cen", was an outstanding representative of the Border Poets of the Tang Dynasty, and he left us with many famous sentences through the ages, such as "The north wind rolls the white grass and folds, and Hu Tian is flying snow in August." Suddenly, like a spring breeze in the night, thousands of trees and pear blossoms bloomed", "the general's golden armor did not come off at night, the army marched in the middle of the night, and the wind was like a knife face like a cut".
It is a pity that such a famous figure not only has an unknown year of birth and death (only about the year), but even the word or number has not been handed down, so today there is no way to judge the pronunciation by the relationship between his name and the word.
However, we can analyze from the reasons why his parents named him, Cen Shan, who came from a large family, his great-grandfather, uncle and uncle have all been prime ministers, high and powerful, so his parents naturally want their children to be able to honor their ancestors in the future, so they named him Cen Shan, and the "ginseng" (participation) here takes the meaning of "sam (cān) list three dukes", from which we can infer that Cen shan should read Cen cān.
There is also evidence for poetry, such as a seven-word poem from the Yuan Dynasty:
Bitter rain in early autumn Yuan Song
Bai Luan Xuanyun net shadow Han, leaking heaven Xi Xi stopped talking southwest.
The ruins are everywhere, and the branches are big and wooden.
He did not have to be sad about Song Yu, and he mourned Man Er's memories of Cen Ginseng.
The infinite worldly spirit platform is small, and Hua Fa Xiao is dissatisfied with the hairpin.
The third couplet of this poem appears cen ginseng, and the rhymes are nan (nan) kan (kan) sam (zan), which clearly shows that the ancients also read cen ginseng as Cen cān.
It can be seen from this that these three great celebrities named "Ginseng" in Chinese history should actually be pronounced as "cān", and none of them can be read as "shēn", let alone "cēn". The Internet and the reading method marked in many textbooks are actually problematic, and it is no wonder that many foreigners who are new to Learning Chinese will be mad: Chinese is really the most difficult language in the world to learn, there is no one!