In ancient times, adults had three meanings. The first is the adult, which corresponds to the toddler, and this usage is still used by us; The second usage is that the younger generation is to the elders, and now some old-fashioned people write letters to their parents, still saying "father" and "mother"; The third is a virtuous person, the "Analects" says, "The gentleman has three fears, fear of the mandate of heaven, fear of the great, fear of the words of the sage", the "Book of Changes" says, "see the dragon in the field, see the lord", and the "Historical Records" says, "Pei Gong is the elder", all refer to his virtue, not official position. What kind of virtue, in the interpretation of "Zhou Yi", is, "with heaven and earth, with the sun and the moon, with the four seasons in order, with the ghosts and gods with their auspicious and vicious, congenital and heaven is against the heavens, and the day after tomorrow is in heaven." Such a good adjective, of course, will be preempted by the most powerful people, so it is also called the prince and noble, and we still say "the prince", Sima Xiangru once wrote "The Adult Fu", in which the adult is the Son of Heaven.

All honorific titles will develop as usual - there is no one who does not like to be lifted. Just like "Xianggong", at first only the prime minister who was named a duke could use it, and then it became the title of ordinary scholars, and then even male prostitutes were used, which made people can't help but sigh and be happy.

The same is true for adults, from addressing the princes and nobles to addressing the people around the princes and nobles. They have no official position, and their virtue is not easy to say, but because of their prominent position, people flatter him and call him "sir". During the Song and Yuan dynasties, when Beijing officials went out, people in small places felt that they were people around the Son of Heaven, so they would also call them "adults", and slowly, they became a very grand title for the big officials. It must be noted, however, that this is rare. During the Wanli period, Shen Defu wrote "Wanli Ye Won the Compilation" said such a thing, his grandfather Shen Qiyuan had served as the deputy envoy of Shaanxi Province, and once met Zhang Juzheng, Zhang Juzheng called "Lord Shen", Shen Qiyuan felt very fresh.

In the Qing Dynasty, it became a very common phenomenon to call the great talent, and Xu Ke believed that "the name of the adult began at the beginning of the Yongzheng Dynasty, but only the governor Fu had it, and at the end of the Kangxi Dynasty, it was applied to the ministers of the Qin Mission." Jiadao descended, the Beijing officials were above the fourth grade, and the foreign officials were all called adults. Hanlin opened, and the six products were also adults. The compilation and inspection are poor, and the seven products are also adults. At the end of Guangxu, it was not bad to compile the number, inspect and Shu Jishi, and Langzhong, the staff outside Lang, the director, and the cabinet secretary, all called adults. Foreign officials with three titles or Taoist titles are all not big people, and for a long time, and the prefect and Zhili Prefecture are also adults." According to Xu Ke, we can find two points: one is that the names of adults are becoming more and more indiscriminate, and by the end of the Qing Dynasty, they were indiscriminate; Second, no matter how indiscriminate the street is, it will never be called a seven-grade official like the magistrate, unless it is a noble official like Hanlin.

Based on the above, the word "adult" is not used in the title of officials or between officials in this book, and the author has also consulted relevant historical materials for specific titles, which may not be very accurate, but it is very different.