Previously, the author posted a video in today's headlines, the content is about Liu Bang, the emperor of Han Gao. After the release of the video, more than one netizen proposed that the title was written incorrectly, saying that Liu Bang was not "Emperor Han Gao", but should be "Han Gaozu". In fact, this is a very common and widely circulated misunderstanding. Not only do many netizens think so, but even some higher textbooks also say so, thinking that Liu Bang's temple name is "Gao Zu", so Liu Bang's title should be "Han Gaozu"; some teaching and auxiliary materials also say that "Gao Zu" is Liu Bang's nickname, in short, Liu Bang is called "Han Gao Zu".
Under the influence of these obvious mistakes, the name "Han Gaozu" has been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people and has almost become a standard name. The author feels that now everyone knows that "Han Gaozu" is Liu Bang, and this name is not harmful as a general common name. However, if the name "Han Gaozu" itself is not Liu Bang's temple number, nor is it Liu Bang's nickname.
"Han Gaozu" is not a canonical term
So, what is Liu Bang's temple number? What are the characteristics of the temple numbers, honorific titles and honorific titles commonly found in ancient books, and what are the differences between them? Today, I will talk to you about the whole interesting topic.
Sima Qian's "Records of History" has "Gao Zu Benji", which is Liu Bang's benji, and just looking at this seems to make it clear, since "Gao Zu" refers to Liu Bang, this "Gao Zu" is at least not a temple number, but also a nickname, and the two must be one of them. But is this really the case? Let's take a look at what is specifically said in the "Takazu Honki".
"Historiography of Takazu Honki":
"Ying Yin, burial." He was the crown prince and the emperor of Taishang. All the courtiers knew: "Gao Zu is small and subtle, he is the opposite of the chaos of the world, he is the one who calms the world, and he is the han taizu, and his merit is the highest." 'The title of Emperor Gao.' The crown prince was given the title of Emperor, And Emperor Xiaohui was also named Emperor Xiaohui. The princes of the county state each erected a high ancestral temple to the temple of the emperor. ”
Here, there are three names in the "Records of History" itself, one is to use "Gao Zu" to refer to Liu Bang, then to clarify that Liu Bangmiao's temple number is "Han Taizu", and finally to say that Liu Bangzun's title is "Emperor Gao". This slightly confusing statement is indeed a bit confusing.
That being the case, let's look again at the records in the Book of Han.
Book of Han and The Chronicle of Emperor Gao:
"May Bingyin, bury Changling." After the fall, the crown prince and the courtiers all went to the Taishang Imperial Temple. Qun Chen: "The emperor is subtle, the chaos of the world is reversed, the world is pacified, and the Han Taizu is the highest merit." "Emperor Gao of Shangzun is known as Emperor Gao. ”
First of all, the Book of Han uses a title such as the GaoDi Ji. In the writing, the name is also relatively unified, showing that the Eastern Han Dynasty was already more standardized in terms of titles. Although the two books differ in time about Liu Ying and his courtiers discussing Liu Bang's temple number and title, comparing the two, we can see that Liu Bang's temple number is actually "Taizu", that is, "Han Taizu", and the honorific title is "Emperor Gao", that is, "Emperor Gao of Han". It should be noted that the meaning of "honorific title" here is different from the "honorific title" of later generations, which is actually the name of "honorific title" in the Han Dynasty. Regarding the "honorific title", we will not expand on it here, and we will discuss it further in the following article.
In the era of Sima Qian, various systems were not yet mature, and the titles were more arbitrary
Therefore, if Liu Bang is called "Han Taizu" if he is called by the temple name, and if he is called by the name of the temple, he should be "Emperor Han Gao". In this regard, Mr. Wang Li, the founder of modern linguistics in China and a linguist, once came to a clear conclusion, and he once said in the book "Common Sense of Ancient Chinese Culture", "For example, the full number of Han Gaozu is Emperor Taizugao, and the full number of Emperor Wen of Han is Emperor Xiaowen of Taizong. Coincidentally, the founder of the Bashu Book Society, the scholar Yuan Tingdong, has a similar view in the "Ancient Titles Of Mantan", "The title of Liu Bang, the founding prince of the Western Han Dynasty, is 'Emperor Gao'"; while the Modern Chinese Dictionary, in the "Table of Dynastic Epochs", refers to Liu Bang as "Emperor Han Gao", which is obviously referred to by his nickname.
"Henkel Ancestor" is actually not standardized, it seems to be a mixed name
Discussing this, in fact, the normative name of Liu Bang should be relatively clear, but many friends here will still have a doubt, that is, since Liu Bang should be called "Emperor Han Gao" or "Han Taizu", why is it that in the "History", there is a name for "Han Gaozu", and even its original era is also called "Gao Zu Benji"? Was Sima Qian wrong?
The answer is of course no, Sima Qian's era was very close to Liu Bang, and Sima Qian used "Gao Zu" to call Liu Bang, which obviously represented the habits of the people of the time. The reason for this situation, the author thinks that there are actually two such.
The first is the word "Gaozu", which itself has the meaning of the founding king. The "Pan Geng" chapter in the "Book of Shang" has a high historical value, including the saying that "God will restore the virtue of my high ancestors and cross my house in a disorderly manner". Here, The Shang Dynasty's king Pan Geng refers to his ancestor Shang Tang as "Gao Zu"; similarly, the "Gu Ming" chapter in the "Book of Shang" also has: "Zhang Huang's sixth division, there is no harm to my high ancestor and widowhood." According to the Qing Dynasty scholar Sun Xingyan, the "Gaozu" here is interpreted as the Zhou Wen King Jichang; and Zhuge Liang's statement in "Longzhong Pair" that "Gaozu became an emperor because of it" actually took this meaning. And the reason why "Gao zu" will have the meaning of the founding emperor, in fact, in the "Book of Han" we mentioned earlier, it has been explained that the founding emperor often has the merit of "pioneering", "the highest merit", and "creating the ancestor", so the founding monarch naturally has the meaning of "gaozu".
Second, calling Liu Bang "Han Gaozu" actually has the taste of "Gao Di" and "Taizu" mixed titles, which is a kind of mixed use of the name of the temple and the temple number. In the "Records of History", the names "Han Gaozu" and "Han Gao Emperor" often appear at the same time, which shows that people at that time understood that both titles were actually Liu Bang, and they did not use the habit of strict distinction.
This habit actually reflects the fact that ancient temple numbers were not strictly institutionalized.
Liu Zhiji, a historian of the Tang Dynasty, once mentioned in the "Titles" volume of "Stone" that "the titles of the calendar have been different since ancient times, and the circumstances are made, and there is no definite accuracy", which actually reflects the normal state of temple numbers in the Middle Ages, that is, the temple numbers of the past dynasties have not been strictly standardized, let alone formed a system, and the so-called "works by circumstances" often have the characteristics of being determined by the situation.
Cao Wei is the beginning of the flood of "ancestors"
Relatively speaking, the temple number is the most stringent. Although the Qing Dynasty scholar Fang Bao said that "the ancestors are also the first, so the ancestors have no definite number, the ancestors are only one", indicating that there will only be one "ancestor" in a dynasty. However, in practice, the situation of multiple ancestors in one dynasty occurred in the Han Dynasty. Liu Bang was the Taizu of Han, and Liu Xiumiao, the Emperor of Han Guangwu, was given the title of "Shizu". However, Emperor Guangwu of Han did have "pioneering merits" after all, and calling the ancestors could still be justified. In the Three Kingdoms period, Cao Wei was called "Zu" for three consecutive generations, and surprising "Three Ancestors" appeared, with Emperor Cao Cao of Wei wu as Taizu, Emperor Cao Pi of Wei as The Ancestor, and Emperor Cao Rui of Wei Ming as The Ancestor of Liezu. Liu Zhiji compared Cao Wei's situation with the Han Dynasty and concluded, "The names of the two Han Dynasties are actually compatible, and they are passed down together in ancient times." Descended to the Cao clan, the ancestral name is many indiscriminate. The same view as Liu Zhiji is the Qing Dynasty scholar Gu Yanwu, who also mentioned in the Rizhilu, "The abuse of the ancestors began with the three ancestors of Cao Wei." ”
In addition, during the Two Han Dynasties, the temple title was not easily awarded to the emperor, and it was necessary to have excellent merit to be able to do so. In the entire two-hundred-year Western Han Dynasty, there were only four temples, Named Emperor Liu Bang of Taizu Gao, Emperor Xiaowen of Taizong, Liu Heng of Emperor Xiaowu of Emperor Shizong, Liu Che of Emperor Xiaowu of Sejong, and Emperor Xiaoxuan of Zhongzong, and these four were well-known great emperors who were known to be in the annals of history with wenzhi martial arts. In addition, Emperor Zhao of Han, Emperor Yuan of Han, and Emperor Cheng of Han originally had temple numbers in the era of Wang Mang, but when Emperor Guangwu of the Eastern Han Dynasty was re-examined, he was deemed to be unworthy of merit, and he actually removed the temple numbers of these three, although this move had the intention of denying Wang Mang, but the difficulty of the two Han emperors getting the "temple number" was also evident from this.
It was not an easy task for the emperors of the two Han Dynasties to obtain temple titles
In the Tang Dynasty, temple numbers began to flood, except for a few for special reasons, there were no temple numbers, almost every one of them had temple numbers, which showed that the temple numbers were flooded, and the significance of glorifying the emperor's deeds had been greatly weakened.
In general, the temple number between the Han and Tang Dynasties was not standardized by the strict system, which is actually one of the reasons why Liu Bang's title in the "History" appeared to be mixed with the temple number and the title of the temple number, and Liu Bang's "Emperor Han Gao" was written as "Honorific Title" in the "History", which is actually a name for the "Honorable Title" of the Han Dynasty, and the real sense of "Honorific Title" was only raised in the Tang Dynasty.
The emergence of "honorific titles" can be traced back to the Qin Dynasty, the Qin king Yingzheng swept away Liuhe, Hai Nei Guiyi, Li Si and others gave Yingzheng a "honorific title", the earliest "honorific title" was proposed to be "Emperor Tai", but Yingzheng was not satisfied, he thought that his merits were "virtue and three emperors, gonggai five emperors", so he was called "emperor".
The emergence of "honorific titles" can be traced back to the Qin Dynasty
In fact, at this time, the so-called "honorific title" can be equated with the emperor in meaning. In other words, Ying Zheng already felt that the "Hou" of Xia, the "Emperor" of Shang, and the "King" of Zhou could no longer highlight the grandeur of their merits, and needed to find a more noble and perfect word as their title. Therefore, the word "emperor" appeared in itself to solve the problem of the use of honorific titles. Therefore, the author feels that although the meaning of the honorific titles of later generations, especially after the Tang Dynasty, has been completely different from that of the Qin and Han dynasties, it shows a consistent relationship in nature.
The author believes that Fan Zuyu, a historian of the Song Dynasty, revealed this kind of inheritance relationship to us in the "Tang Jian", "The rise of the honorific title, GaiBen at the beginning of the new century." The Lord was proud of his subjects, and thought it was a story. "Fan Zuyu talked about the objective historical fact that the atmosphere of giving honorific titles to emperors began to flourish, starting from the Tang Dynasty. Then, more importantly, he revealed to us the reason why honorific titles began to flourish in the Tang Dynasty, that is, "the Lord is proud of his subjects." The Kaiyuan prosperous era created by Tang Xuanzong was the peak of China's feudal society, in this case, Li Longji was complacent, which led to the so-called "lord arrogance", and "subjects" were the products of "main pride", and the situation in which the honorific title began to flood came into being, and continued until the end of the entire feudal era.
The initiator of the flood of honorific titles
The proliferation of tang dynasty honorific titles, the author feels, is mainly manifested in two places. First, the honorific title will be frequently honored more than once, regardless of the emperor's death, for example, Tang Xuanzong was honored as many as six times before his death, and after his death, he was once again added as "Emperor Xiaoxiao of the Great Sage of the Dao", which is actually the origin of Tang Xuanzong's popular name "Tang Ming Emperor". Secondly, the number of words in the honorific title was constantly increased, and Li Longji's honorific title reached fourteen words before his death, "Kaiyuan Heaven and Earth Great Treasure Saint Wen Shen Wu Xiaode Preaching Emperor", which was a test of lung capacity, wasn't it? This situation, in fact, is what Lu Yan said, "especially fearful of saying that it is not yet zhou", for fear that he has not used all the beautiful words in the world to describe the merits of the emperor.
However, this situation has been criticized by historians, and Sun Fu of the Northern Song Dynasty has some scorn for it, and his great work of historiography, "The Thesis on the History of Tang", chronicles the rise and fall of chaos in the three hundred years of the Tang Dynasty, which is quite historically critical. In this book, he has criticized the situation of the Tang Dynasty's honorific title Dasheng, and he believes that outstanding emperors like Tang Gaozu Li Yuan and Tang Taizong Li Shimin did not abuse the honorific title, and even people like Qin Shi Huang, who very much wanted to "add drama" to themselves in the title, did not use the honorific title.
The true hero of the Tang Dynasty did not care about the honorific title
Moreover, he further criticized Tang Xuanzong, believing that he had given a bad start to the abuse of the honorific title. Tang Xuanzong's own standard of "good and evil" was actually self-aware, but he "knowingly committed a crime" and forgot the pragmatic practices of Tang Gaozu and Tang Taizong, the holy lords and emperors, and instead emulated Tang Gaozong and Tang Zhongzong's untruthful act of engaging in the "face project" to make a false name.
In addition, there is a well-known nickname. We are familiar with Dayu, Chengtang, and King Wu of Zhou, of which "Da", "Cheng" and "Wu" are all nicknames. The role of the nickname is mainly to "cover the coffin", to summarize the life of the deceased. The difference here is that whether it is a temple number or a honorific title, it is exclusive to the emperor, while the "nickname" can also be enjoyed by "ordinary people". The reason why ordinary people here want to put quotation marks, of course, is not that the real common people can also enjoy it, but only from the perspective of imperial propriety. Moreover, because it is a matter of honor and etiquette, and it is also a bellwether of public opinion, the supreme ruler has always tried to control the right to rule on the number of the people, for example, in the Han Dynasty, "the rumors must be too often decided".
Moreover, the name of the temple is not strict compared to what we said before, and the "fate is determined" seems to be somewhat arbitrary, but the name is more standardized, and the "Law of The Book" has been continuously improved in the revision of successive dynasties. Moreover, the ancients had heavy names, and there was often a special concern for the nicknames.
Wu Has offended too many people and is called "ugly"
During the Three Kingdoms period, Emperor Wen of Wei's good friend Cao Pi's good friend Wu Qian, who had made great contributions to Cao Pi, was considered to have insulted Dong Zhao, retaliated against Cui Lin, and made Cao Zhen of the clan ugly in public, especially to Chen Qun, and almost offended the representatives of these scholar groups who held the power of ideological interpretation. When he passed away, everyone unanimously believed that he was "arrogant and wanton", so according to the "Tan Fa", he was given an unprecedented "ugly", known as "ugly hou". For such a nickname, the descendants of the Wu family are naturally difficult to accept, Wu Tian's son Wu Ying, in order to repay his father a "fair", has always insisted on writing a letter to express great wrongs, and finally after twenty-four years, let Wu Qian change his name to "Wei Hou", and at this time, all the people who gave Wu Zhi a title have passed away.
Similar to this, there is the story of Jia Chong, the number one hero of the Wei and Jin Zen dynasties, Jia Chong, because he once instructed the "back pot man" Cheng Ji Jun, at the time of his death, he did not care much about anything else, the only thing he cared about was his own nickname.
The Biography of Jin Shu Jia Chong:
"The drama of decay and illness, the constant worry of one's own rumors, the model: 'It is not a long time to see oneself, and it cannot be hidden.'" ”
It should be said that Jia Chong's worries were not unfounded, and after Jia Chong's death, Dr. Qin Xiu gave Jia Chong the title of "Absurd Gong" with the "Tan Fa" to "faint and chaotic discipline", which became a sensational event. Qin Xiu's approach is undoubtedly a reflection and negation of this ugly and cruel political injustice that occurred during the Wei and Jin Dynasties. Although Sima Yan was already very unimpressed with Jia Chong in his later period, out of the consideration of maintaining the legal system of the Western Jin Dynasty, he still did not accept this title and used the suggestion of Dr. Duan Chang instead, and Jia Chong was made "Duke of Wu".
Ancient temple numbers, honorific titles and courtesy titles were an important part of the national ritual system, but the ritual system itself was more abstract and difficult to understand. Starting from Liu Bang's title analysis, the author made a sharing introduction to the reading of history with everyone on the temple number, honorific title and the nickname. Finally, the author ends with two slightly interesting short stories, trying to give the originally abstract and difficult history of etiquette some light-hearted and lively picture sense.