Chapter 5 Section 4 Naming because of the surname

The so-called "names based on surnames" means to take advantage of the semantic meaning of the representative characters of surnames to form words, phrases or short sentences with a name to express a complete meaning, that is, to write with surnames. Although Chinese surnames are represented by Chinese characters with different shapes, these Chinese characters with different shapes are not designed to "serve" these surnames. They are also the carrier of many Chinese words.That is to say, these Chinese characters used as surnames not only have the meaning of surname, but also have the meaning of their words.For example, the word "Zhang", besides the meaning of surname, has at least some common meanings: to put on a bowstring; to unfold a closed thing; to expand;If it is used to form a written name with a surname, it may appear: Zhang Qinxian, Zhang Lexian; Zhang Yifei, Zhang Yipeng; Zhang Qigong, Zhang Qiming; Zhang Lile, Zhang Yanhui (Yan, the same as "Yan"); Zhang Jingjing, Zhang Meijing, etc. .

It is difficult to trace when this naming method started.According to Gu Yanwu from the Qing Dynasty, it seems to have originated in the Tang Dynasty.In the second and third volumes, he cited the names of several actors from the Tang Dynasty to the Liao Dynasty, such as Huang Fanchuo and Yun Zhaoxia in the Tang Dynasty, Jing Xinmo in the Five Dynasties, and Luo Yiqing in the Liao Dynasty.When citing the Jingbian Court of the Five Dynasties, he also quoted Hu Sansheng [Xing Xing]'s note in "Tongjian" as saying: "Jing, the surname is also. The name of an actor has the same meaning as the surname, so it is also a joke." This kind of name with the surname Chengwen is to win the king's laughter, and the scholar-bureaucrats are unwilling to follow suit, so Gu Yanwu sighed: "It has been the case since Jiajing that the scholar-bureaucrats are named after actors!"

In fact, this naming method appeared earlier.For example, "Book of the Later Han·Fang Shu Zhuan·Huatuo" has recorded Lu girls, Tang Yu, Yuan Huzhi in Southern Song Dynasty, Zhou Panlong in Liang Dynasty, Ma Xinxin in Houliang, Fengzhiwen in Northern Wei Dynasty (sealed emperor's edict), and noble in Northern Qi Dynasty. Scholars, Sui Youchang Dezhi, and Tang Dynasty poet Yuan Jie’s grandfather was named Heng, and his character was Lizhen. Named after a surname?The only difference is that there are less frivolous and playful meanings of "Mirror New Grinding" (Jing Xin Grinding) and "Luo Yi Qing Rou" (Luo Yi Qing).

In the Song Dynasty, more and more scholar-bureaucrats named them in this way, but they were all solemn and solemn, and they made more use of various documents.A few examples are as follows: Qi Wenshao "The Analects of Confucius Shuer": "The son heard "Shao" in Qi, but he didn't know the taste of meat in March." Wan Jie "Mencius Gongsun Chou 1" "Junjie Reigns" Han Zhaoqi Note: "Jun is also a person with outstanding beauty; thousands of people are called outstanding." Ge Tianmin Tao Qian's "Mr. Wuliu's Biography": "There are no people from the Huai family? People from the Ge Tian family?"

Bi Congzhou "The Analects of Confucius Bayi [yiyi]": "Zhou was supervised in the second generation, and he was very literary! I follow Zhou." Lian's surname is written as "all from Zhou Dynasty". It just doesn't use historical allusions, and it doesn't have the humorous habit of haiku (pai platoon).Such as Jiang Wanli, Chen Jiayan, Chen Zhidao and so on. There are also a lot of names written with a single name and even a surname.Such as: Zhou Nan, Hong Fu, serious, strict, careful, talkative, Bai Gui, Liang Dong... Jin Yuan still continues this trend.Such as Zhang Ruyi ("Spread your wings"), Yuan Haowen (the language version "Book·Zhong虺〔huihui〕zhigao', "If you ask well, you will be rich", even if the surname is Wen, it becomes "Yuanben Haowen") .

Indeed, as Gu Yanwu criticized, starting from Jiajing in the Ming Dynasty, it was common practice to use even surnames.Among them are elegant and tame, some are easy to understand, some are vulgar, and some are like actors.Examples are as follows. Lu Tiaoyang Zhou Xingsi's "Thousand Characters": "Lu Lu Tiaoyang." Zhang Siwei "Guanzi Herdsmen": "If the four dimensions are not stretched, the country will perish." This is a positive application. Xi Shangzhen "Book of Rites Confucianism": "Confucians have treasures on the table to be hired."

Dragon in the field "Yi·Qian Gua": "Seeing the dragon in the field is beneficial to seeing the adults." Wen Ruyu "Poetry · Qin Feng · Xiao Rong": "Speaking of a gentleman, warming him like jade." Ma Fenggao According to Liezi Shuofu, Bole recommended Jiufanggao as the prime minister of Duke Mu of Qin.Gao's body was taken from the spirit, and he got a good horse.Meeting Jiufang Gao with a horse is a metaphor for wishing to be appreciated by the Lord. Some people who are named after their surnames, although they also quote classics, their style is similar to that of actors.Such as:

Line supplement Dagon [gun roll] "Poetry · Daya · People": "There is a gap in the position of Dagon, and Wei Zhongshan just makes up for it." Dagon, the dress of the emperor.Using thread to patch up the emperor's clothes is like the emperor correcting gains and losses, picking up what's left and making up for it. horse ashigaru Wang Wei's "Watching and Hunting" poem: "The grass is dry and the eagle's eyes are sick, and the snow is exhausted and the horse's hoof is light." There are also those who do not use allusions, such as: Man Chaojian, Li Min'an, Yellow River Water, Zhan Rushui, Cong Suo, Mo Ruzhong, all of which are almost the same as Jingbianting, Luo Yiqing, and Zhai Yuanshen (actors in the Song Dynasty).

There are also some vulgar ones, such as fierce as a tiger and powerful as a tiger.Fortunately, they are all warriors, and their names are commensurate with their names. Inheriting the legacy of the Ming Dynasty in the Qing Dynasty, there are still people named after their surnames, especially in the early Qing Dynasty.This may be because these people entered the Qing Dynasty from the Ming Dynasty, and their names were brought by the previous generation, such as Shi Yunyu, Wan Sinian (taken from the "Yu Wansi Nian" in "Poetry Daya Xiawu"), Ma Negtu (taken from This is true of the ancient legend of "the negative image of a dragon and a horse", Mu Tianyan, etc.After Kangxi, although the wind has been killed a little, there are still names such as Shi Yunyu, Chi Shengchun (taken from Xie Lingyun's poem "Climbing the Pond and Upstairs" "spring grass grows in the pond"), and Wanhuquan; Written ones, such as the name Huangjintai, the word Crane Tower.Both the Golden Terrace and the Yellow Crane Tower are names of ancient buildings, which had not been discovered before.

Since a name based on a surname can form a complete meaning, it may cause misunderstandings or jokes in a certain language environment.Lu You once recorded such a current affairs joke in Volume 7 of "Laoxue'an Notes": In recent years, there is a Lingnan supervisor but a moderate... One day, the court officials looked at the report and saw that the Lingnan prefect was investigated for illegality, and the imperial decree was "ordered but moderately rooted".One person sighed and said: "This county guard must be in the hands of powerful people." Asked: "How do you know it?" He said: "If you are lonely and cold, you must treat it painfully. All the people in the same seat covered their mouths.The man made a look of dismay and said: "You should be laughed at by all the gentlemen!" He didn't realize it and left.

This self-proclaimed "clumsy and straightforward" court scholar understood "Dan Zhongyong root investigation" as "can only be investigated impartially", and never thought that "Dan Zhongyong" is a person who can only be regarded as Mr. Dong Hen by his colleagues up. Since the first name and last name can express a more complex and complete meaning, in a certain language environment, it may arouse a certain reaction from people. The time, occasion and recipient are different, and the reaction results are also different.In the feudal society, some people got misfortune because of their names, but some got blessings because of it. It all depends on chance.This kind of thing has been written in history since the Tang and Song Dynasties.I won’t go into the details of what is far away, but just give a few examples from the Qing Dynasty, and then you can see others. In the fifty-fourth year of Qianlong (1789 A.D.), during the imperial examination of the Jiyou Division, there was a man named Hu Changling who was at the end of the 10 papers submitted.But when Emperor Qianlong saw the three characters "Hu Changling" on the paper, he couldn't help saying happily: "Hu Ren is Changling!"It turned out that Emperor Qianlong was nearly 80 years old at that time, and he had already called himself the "Emperor of Ancient Xi" before that. What's more, he thought that Wenzhi and martial arts were astonishing in ancient and modern times, which was enough to surpass Qin Emperor, Han Wu, Tang Zong and Song Zu.At this time, it can be said that I am full of ambition, and I have nothing else to ask for, "the only thing that is insufficient is longevity".Just at this time, when I saw the name Hu Changling, I thought it meant that he would live forever, so I didn't even taboo the word "Hu", and even admitted that I was from Hu, in response to this auspicious omen.This is something that Hu Changling never dreamed of.Hu Changling was a person with good moral character. Although he came from Quanxiang Heshen's family in the test, he was not attached to Heshen, so he was highly valued by the later Emperor Jiaqing. Some names have good meanings, but when it comes to nervous, taboo, and picky people, it is inevitable that unexpected events will arise.In the seventh year of Tongzhi (AD 1868), during the Wuchen Imperial Examination, there was a man named Wang Guojun, who was already listed in the top ten. Wang Guojun" sounded like a "subjugated king". He was very upset, so he demoted him to the top three and became a "prefect under the list".Wang Guojun's name is taken from "Poetry·Xiaoya·Jie Nanshan" "Bingguo is the average, and the four directions are the dimension", which is very high-sounding. However, in the late Qing Dynasty when the national power has declined and the government is changing, it encounters a psychological state. The unhealthy and suspicious queen mother ruined her future.This can be regarded as a tragedy of naming names. At the beginning of the 20th century, there was a folk story about winning the first prize because of an auspicious name. The Empress Dowager Cixi wanted to hold the 70th Daqing in the 30th year of Guangxu (1904 A.D.). In order to add to the warm atmosphere of the auspicious celebration, an Enke examination was held in the first year (1903), and the regular examination in the next year was also held as Enke. .This is "Yi and Shengzai". In 1903, Enke won the champion named Wang Shoupeng.After the list was released, the good people commented: "The word 'Wang Shou Peng' means that the king's lifespan can be the same as that of Peng Zu who lived 800 years old. This corresponds to the Queen Mother's 70th birthday. He was hand-picked as the No. 1 scholar." In fact, this matter "has a reason, and there is no evidence to investigate", which is mostly speculation and analysis.However, this kind of anecdote spread like wildfire, and almost everyone believed that Wang Shoupeng won the number one prize because of his good name.Even if this Zhuangyuan is full of mouth, he may not be able to explain clearly, so he can only call out in vain. From Yan Zhitui in the Northern Qi Dynasty to several scholars in the early Qing Dynasty, all of them held a negative attitude towards the method of naming people because of their surnames, but it was still popularized.Especially in the early vernacular novels, many characters' names were obtained by this method; especially homonyms were used.For example, there are two characters in the book who play the role of starting, inheriting, transferring, combining and interspersing the development of the storyline in the book. One is Zhen Shiyin and the other is Jia Yucun.Zhen's name is Fei and the word Shiyin means that the real thing is abolished, and the matter is also hidden, that is, the real thing is hidden.Jia's name is Hua, the character is Shifei, and the nickname is Yucun, which means lies, things are wrong, and the language is also "village".Cao Xueqin explained in the first chapter of "Zhen Shiyin's Dreams and Psychics, and Jia Yucun's Lovely Girl" in the first chapter of Kaizong Mingyi: Therefore, the real story is concealed, and the book "Story of the Stone" is described by "psychic communication", so it is called "Zhen Shiyin". And said: Although I have no knowledge and no literature, why not use false words and village dialects to perform performances, and it can also make the boudoir spread...so it is called "Jia Yucun". From "Sanyan" and "Erpai" to the novels of gifted scholars and beautiful women in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, such as "Yuzhiji" and so on, from and to the denunciation novels of the late Qing Dynasty, such as, and so on, this kind of surname selection can be seen almost everywhere. name example.The reason why novel authors like to use this method to name characters is because it can imply meaning, such as Jia Yucun and Zhen Shiyin; it can comment on characters, such as Bu Chengren and Bu Shiren; it can imply the plot of the story, such as Huo Qi and Huo Shiduan... It has become an auxiliary means of expression. From this point of view, naming people because of their surnames cannot be easily denied.Aren't people who are engaged in literary and artistic activities today still named after their surnames?It should be noted: be serious, not glib and vulgar; especially carefully consider which words your surname can sound homonymous with, otherwise, even if you don’t want to be named because of your surname, you may come up with a surname like in a novel. name to come.

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