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Ancient Chinese single name and double name (excerpt) - [A certain West thinks this evidence is very interesting, the naming of the scholar clan has actually gone through a process of single name to double name, in the family of "Lanling Merry", many still use single names, of course, there are also double names, there are too many descendants, not using double names]

In modern society, the surname and first name together constitute a group of people's markers.

But there is actually a distinction between a first name and a given name.

The use of the first name predates the surname, and the combination of the two is a later cultural habit. In different cultures, most of the use of personal names has its own specific rules. Specifically in ancient China, the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period gradually formed a Chinese-style name habit of stable dìng, that is, "surname (surname) name". This kind of name system marked with Chinese characters contains a wealth of concepts such as respect and inferiority, and subordination, and has the role of Chinese cultural labels. As the Chinese state expanded its influence to the periphery, this cultural label also spread to the periphery.

In a sense, the acceptance and use of Chinese-style names by the surrounding groups means the occurrence of cultural assimilation and mutation.

1. Single name and double name

Due to the distinctive mononymous color in the Book of the Later Han, the Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms, and the surviving Han and Wei stone carvings, it is generally believed that the Three Kingdoms of the Eastern Han Dynasty was an era in which mononyms were popular.

It is generally believed that the habit of single names in the Three Kingdoms period of the Eastern Han Dynasty originated from the edict of "going to two names" in the first two years of the Western Han Dynasty (2 AD). In the spring of this year, the emperor issued an edict saying that his name "Jizi" was not "in line with the ancient system", so he "removed the second name" and changed it to a single name "Yan".

As a result, the names of people in the Eastern Han Dynasty showed an obvious stratification phenomenon - officials and intellectuals did follow the habit of "single name", but for the general public, single and double names were still used in parallel.

The names of ordinary people in the Eastern Han Dynasty have the characteristics of mixed names of single and double names, which shows the continuity of folk name-making habits.

Generally speaking, there are two main forms of double names in Western Han names: (1) the two characters are used together, which together constitute an expression. Common ones such as longevity, Hanchang, Lijia, longevity, longevity; (2) It consists of a real character and an imaginary character. There are certain rules for the use of imaginary characters, mainly there are mood particles such as 子, zhi, yuan, etc., which indicate the ranking of Bo, Zhong, Ji, Shu, and Mo, and indicate the loyalty and faith of virtue. The above two forms of double names are common in Western Han society.

This reminds us that when observing the changes in the naming habits of the two Han Dynasty, we should pay attention to distinguishing between different levels of people.

In fact, the understanding that the Eastern Han Dynasty is a single-name era mainly comes from the stele inscriptions of the official historical figures, officials, and intellectuals. The neat form of "single name" presented in these historical materials is actually the cultural habit of the upper strata of society. At the same time, the people at the bottom not only generally have no "characters", but also do not make a clear distinction between single and double names. In other words, a "single name" embodies an identity.

The reason for the singular trend of upper-class names may be attributed to the infiltration of Confucianism after the Zhaoxuan of the Western Han Dynasty. Confucianism has long had the concept of "two indecent names". With the infiltration of Confucianism, this concept and the associated problem of avoidance will gradually expand among the Confucian scholars and officials, leading to the popularity of single names among the upper class names. In this context, looking at the edict of the first emperor, we can understand that the so-called prohibition of "two names" was just in line with the social atmosphere of the time.

At the same time, the impact on the general population is not obvious, and it is still a single name and a double name. This apparent difference in name-making habits shows the limited influence of the "big tradition" on the "small tradition".

2. The change of southern names in the Han Dynasty and the problem of single names

During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the names of southern people still had a strong indigenous color. Taking the names of King Wu and King Yue as examples, you will find that there are often some specific words in them, such as the character "Yu" in the name of King Wu (Yu Qiao suspicious wu, Yu sacrifice, Yu Yu), the word "Wu" (Wu Yu, Wu Yi, Wu Hao) and the word "no" (不寿, 不皞) in the name of King Yue, and the common character "Fu" (Fu Cha, Fu Kang).

The early royal names of Shu belong to another form, such as silkworm cong, cypress shrub, fish squirt, Du Yu, turtle spirit, Jia Meng and so on. These names have the same surnames as the names of King Wu Yue. From the perspective of naming methods, the most striking feature is that the names of people are mostly related to the names of animals and plants, and may also be their tribal emblems.

Compared with Wu, Yue, and Shu, the Chinese characteristics of the name of the king of Chu are relatively significant, and the form of "bear single name" is mostly seen.

During the Warring States Period, the ordinary names of the Chu State, like the names of the kings of Chu, were mostly in the form of Chinese-style "names", with both single and double names, and single names were dominant.

During the Chu and Qin dynasties, with the progress of the annexation war and the promotion of the new county system, the household registration in the south was further strengthened. There are two ways to record the person's name, one is a Chinese-style name, and the other is just a name.

Among them: the names of the households are all "surnames and single names", for example: Manqiang, Huang De, Peng Xian, Song Wu, Li Badger. Mothers, wives and children in each household are given only their first names but not their surnames.

The record form of the waiter's name is "name", and there are both single and double names: such as Zai Weng Zhong, Wang Weng Ji, Yang Gongzi, Tao Zhong, Yao Ji, Zhang Cang, and Chen Hei.

With the advancement of the southern rule of the Qin and Han empires, the state of personal names will further transition to the direction of "name" in the direction of Chinese. In terms of the use of personal names, some words that are obviously indigenous to the south will gradually decrease. In this process, the names of the upper class will change earlier than the average householder.

3. The rise of the upper class and its significance during the Jin and Song dynasties

From the end of the Western Han Dynasty to the Eastern Han Dynasty, the naming habit of the upper class went through a process of mononymization. This practice of single names has had a great impact on the compilation of household names in some areas, such as through the establishment of household registers. However, as some researchers have pointed out, the habit of using personal names has undergone new changes since the late Eastern Jin Dynasty, and the single-name habit of the upper strata of society has begun to be broken.

This raises a question: why did the cultural concept of "removing the second name" in the upper strata of society gradually fade during the Jin and Song dynasties? Does this have anything to do with the underlying name-making habit of coexistence of single and double names?

In the late Eastern Jin Dynasty, there was a special phenomenon in the rise of double names among the names of the upper class of society, that is, they mostly constituted double names in the way of "single names". Regarding the meaning of the word "zhi", Chen Yinke pointed out very early on that it is the habit of the Heavenly Master and the Taoist, and it has the connotation of faith mark. However, from a purely literal point of view, "zhi" is a virtual word, and it can also be considered to have no substantive meaning. Because of this, the word is often omitted when used, and only a single name is used. This begs the question: in the process of the rise of the upper class double names, what is the meaning of imaginary characters?

The imaginary characters in the double name are indeed special. The Northern and Southern Dynasties were one of the times when the most important avoidance was attached, but the names of Zhi, Dao, and Monk were not among the names of avoidance.

Chen Yuan pointed out: "There are five well-known sons of Jin Wang Xi: Xuanzhi, Ningzhi, Huizhi, Caozhi, and Xianzhi. The son of the emblem is Zhenzhi, and the heir of the dedication is quiet. Grandfathers, grandchildren, fathers and sons, all in the name of 'zhi', do not think it is suspicious. Song Wang Hongzi Monk Da, Sun Seng Liang, Seng Yan, Congzi Monk Detail, Seng Jiang, Seng Qian, Congsun Seng You, uncles and nephews are all named "monks", do not think they are suspicious. ”

This shows that the imaginary characters such as zhi, dao, tan, monk, and spirit are mainly used as embellishments of faith in the double name. Since these words do not have the function of actual personal names, there is no need to shy away from them. It can be concluded that the names of people with such imaginary characters are not double names in the pure sense.

The question is, why add such virtual words that have no real function?

This may take into account the influence of folk cultural practices.

Although the society of the Eastern Jin Dynasty and the Southern Dynasties emphasized the identity system, the scholar society was not completely isolated from civil society. In the name system of the scholar society, the singular name and the character together constitute an identity of the elegant name, while at the same time, the use of the nickname is folk.

For example, Sima You's nickname is Taofu, Emperor Wu of Liang's nickname is Lian'er, and his son Ziqing's nickname is Black Bear. In addition, you can also cite nicknames such as Zhen Evil, Peach Branch, Daomin, Lingbao, Fasheng, Fazhen, Barbarian Slave, Hak'er, Panlong, Sheke, etc.

The most striking feature of these nicknames is the slang color and the meaning of belief expression, such as the Taoist people and spiritual treasures with Taoist colors, and the peach branches, peach charms, and evil spirits to ward off evil spirits. In the use of nicknames, there is no obvious difference between the scholars and the common people.

It is worth noting that in civil society, such slang nicknames are also often used as official personal names. In nature, this practice is similar to the religious imaginary characters such as "zhi", "monk" and "dao" in the names of the scholars.

Although there was no direct use of nicknames by personal names in scholar societies, it was common to call nicknames in public. Sima Zhao likes Sima Yu and often calls him in small characters: "This peach talisman is also." Someone once called Huan Yi in small characters to his face and said: "This Huan Ye Wang also." ”

In addition to nicknames, it was mentioned earlier that it was common for people with the imaginary character "A" in the names of Han and Wei people. This custom was also continued in the society of the Six Dynasties, such as calling Lü Meng Ameng and the prince respecting Ajing. "Ah" is a non-believable imaginary character. This makes people suspect that the appearance of the upper class "zhi" and "dao" and other imaginary characters may be influenced by folk customs.

Compared with single names, the advantage of double names is that they have one more word and express richer connotations of personal names.

The naming of the sons of Huan Huo in the Eastern Jin Dynasty provides a good illustration. "Book of Jin" volume 74 "Huan Yi Biography of Aconite Huo Biography": "At the beginning, I heard that there was a rumor in the country of Fu Jian: 'Who said that Erjian stone was broken. There were twenty sons, all of whom responded in the name of 'stone.' Only Shiqian, Shixiu, Shimin, Shisheng, Shisui, and Shikang are well-known. The word "stone" in the name of the sons of Huan Huo □□ is said to be in line with the rumors of the former Qin. If you want to embody the rumor of "broken stones" in people's names, it is most convenient to add the word "stone" to the popular single name at that time. This should be the functional basis for the double name that is popular in civil society and is gradually accepted by the noble society.

When it was discovered that adding a word to a person's name could express their wishes more abundantly, the imaginary character gradually went beyond the level of faith and colloquialism. The names of the upper class thus broke through the convention of single names since the Eastern Han Dynasty.

During the Jin and Song dynasties, with the change of the social identity of the ruling class, the trend of double names became more and more significant. In the Book of Song, Liu Yu's sons are all double names with the word "righteousness", which is the best example.

With the popularity of imaginary dual names such as "zhi" and "dao" in the upper echelons of the government centered on Jiankang, single names no longer have a strict identity significance, and new entrants to the government no longer need to make a single name. Its original naming habits, such as the coexistence of single and double names, and the "child" tail and "child" tail personal names, will appear in official occasions.

In short, the breakthrough of the habit of the upper class of people to single names has led to the society no longer being in an atmosphere of advocating single names.

It is precisely this point that leads to the gradual increase in the proportion of double names in the names of people in the Southern Dynasty, and by the inscription of Xiao Xiu Tablet in the ordinary years of the Liang Dynasty, the proportion of double names has accounted for more than ninety percent.

After the Jin and Song dynasties, this trend of double names in the upper class was the result of the influence of the lower society's beliefs, psychology, and oral habits. This is an example of the influence of folk culture on the upper class. And once the upper class of society breaks through the limitations of the concept of single name, it will in turn promote the process of double name. The upper classes, in particular, had a cultural advantage, and their habits of using words in the double name system would re-influence the general population.

IV. Conclusion

In a sense, behind the stratification of personal names is actually the distinction between elite culture and folk culture, the so-called "big tradition" and "small tradition". The Eastern Han Dynasty's singular custom was a product of elite culture, and the folk did not follow this concept.

The single-name habit of belonging to the "big tradition", and the "small tradition" of folk names are influenced in two ways. One is the power and indoctrination of the magistrates; The second is the concept and practice of the local bureaucracy, who are between the government and the people, and are susceptible to the influence of the practice of single names. On the other hand, the influence of "small traditions" on "big traditions" is relatively sluggish.

During the Jin and Song dynasties, the single-name conventions of the upper class began to be broken, first of all, the belief imaginary characters such as "zhi" and "dao" were attached to the single name, forming a special type of double name. There are two factors that may influence this change from the "little tradition": the psychology of faith and the habits of speaking. After the single-name convention was broken, the subordinate class also got rid of the influence of single-name, and a large number of personal names with colloquial characteristics such as "子" tail and "er" tail surfaced.

And when the upper-class crowd breaks through the single-name limit, a new dual-name name system will be created. The most obvious is the way of "proposition" among the upper class since the Han Dynasty, which began to affect the use of binomial characters. This kind of "characterization" of double names in turn affects the lower class of people through various ways. Judging from this trajectory of changes in personal names, elite culture will absorb certain elements of folk culture in order to achieve some kind of cultural breakthrough. And when the breakthrough is completed, the new elite culture will be fed back to the people again.

——Author: Wei Bin (Associate Professor, School of History, Wuhan University)

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