What do ancient Chinese characters mean? Why don't modern people?

The ancients were famous for their words. It was said that an ancient baby was named by his father three months later. When the man was twenty years old, he took the word when he was crowned as an adult. When the woman was 15 years old, she took the words when she held the ceremony. Names and words have a meaningful connection. Some names and words are synonyms. Such as "Liang" in Zhuge Liang and "Ming" in Kongming. For example, Qu Yuan, whose name is Ping, has the original word. Erya: "Guangping Yue Yuan". Another example is Yan Hui, whose words are deep. Shuowen: the deep, backwater also. Some names and words are antonyms. For example, Ceng Dian, the word Xi. Shuowen: Point, Xiaohei also. But sometimes, we can't see the connection between words and names, mainly because of semantic changes. In the Zhou Dynasty, the word "noble man" was preceded by the word "uncle Ji" to indicate ranking, and the word "father" or "fu" was added to indicate gender, which constituted the full name of man. In the Zhou Dynasty, the surname was added in front of the noble women's words, and Meng (Bo) Zhong Shuji was added in front of the surname to indicate ranking, and "mother" or "female" was added behind the words to indicate gender, which constituted the full name of women. In the Spring and Autumn Period, the most common way for men to choose characters is to add "Zi" in front of the characters, which is a respectful title for men. The names of ancient people in China, like modern times, are symbols used by people to represent individuals in social communication. What we call someone by name now is different from the ancients. In ancient times, the name was a name, and the word was a word, each with its own purpose. The ancients were named as soon as they were born, and when they were adults, they had characters and numbers; After death, there was posthumous title. "Book of Rites. On the Tan Bow": "Young name, crown word, Zhou Dao also."

Names are personal symbols used in society. Claiming to use names and calling people by words. The word "Zi" is often the explanation and supplement of "Ming", and it is also called "Biao Zi".

The relationship between "name" and "character" of the ancients has the same meaning. For example, Ping Zi, a Zhang Hengzi who created the seismograph in the Eastern Han Dynasty, and Mi Heng, a writer who beat the drums and scolded Cao, have the word Zhengping, and the word "balance" in their names and characters is "ping"; In Song Dynasty, Qin Guan's word "Shaoyou" and Lu You's word "Wu" are synonymous in their names and words.

"name" and "character" complement each other meaningfully. For example, Liang Hong, a writer who cited Qi Mei in the Eastern Han Dynasty, was named as Bo Luan, and both "Hong" and "Luan" were praised as two kinds of birds. Bai Juyi, a poet in the Tang Dynasty, was named Lotte, so he was able to "live in Yi" because of "Lotte". Chao Buzhi, a writer in the Song Dynasty, has no blame for his words (blame is a fault), and only by "making up" can he be "blameless".

"Ming" and "Zi" have opposite meanings. For example, Zhu Xi, a philosopher in the Song Dynasty, and Zi Ang, a painter and calligrapher in the Yuan Dynasty, are antonyms.

The names and characters of the ancients are often taken from the classics of ancient books, such as the word Meng De written by Cao Cao, and the sentence "A husband is a virtue" in Xunzi. Lu Yu, a writer in the Tang Dynasty (who wrote the Book of Tea, and was later honored as the "Tea God") used the word Hung-chien, which was taken from the Book of Changes.

The names and characters of the ancients were also commonly used to indicate the generations in the family. In the pre-Qin period, Jia Bo (Meng), Zhong Shu and Ji Cousins were often added before their first names and surnames, such as Bo Yi and Shu Qi, where Bo was the elder brother and Shu was the younger brother; Kong Qiu word Zhong Ni, "Zhong" is the second child. After the Han Dynasty, people gradually used the same word or radicals to express peer relations in "names" or "characters", such as Su Shi, a writer in the Song Dynasty, and Su Zhe's brothers * * * used radicals "cars" to express peers.

in addition to names and characters, some ancient people also had numbers. "Hao" is a fixed alias, also known as another name. Middle-and upper-class people in feudal society (especially literati) often take their own names (including fasting names and room names) based on their residence and interests. For example, Li Bai's Qinglian layman in the Tang Dynasty, Du Fu's Shaoling Yelao, Su Shi's Dongpo layman in the Song Dynasty, Liu Ruju layman in Tang Yin in the Ming Dynasty and Banqiao in Zheng Xie in the Qing Dynasty are all well known to future generations. Some nicknames even exceed their real names (such as Su Dongpo and Zheng Banqiao). The nickname is given by the user himself, unlike the name, which is restricted by family and generation, so you can express or flaunt some sentiment of the user more freely. Common nicknames such as "lay man" and "mountain man" are intended to show that users despise Lilu's interest. There are people who are famous for their names, such as Song, Zhou, Dunyi, Gui Youguang, Zhenchuan and Wang Fuzhi. There are also honorific titles ("private overflow") given by masters and descendants after death, such as Jingjie Festival of Tao Qian in Jin Dynasty. Posthumous title, the honorary title awarded by the emperor after his death. For example, Bao Zheng in Song Dynasty called Bao Xiaosu, Yue Fei called Yue Wumu, and Ji Yun in Qing Dynasty called Ji Wenda. In addition, there are "nicknames", which are recognized by others and are descriptions and descriptions of people. For example, in Water Margin, all the 18 people in Liangshan have nicknames, and most of them accurately describe the characters' personalities, specialties or physiological characteristics. These nicknames are well known as names.

In addition to the above-mentioned characters and numbers, the names of individuals are often replaced in history:

1. Place names (including place of birth, place of residence and place of employment, etc.). For example, Kong Rong in the Eastern Han Dynasty was called Kong Beihai, Han Yu in the Tang Dynasty was called Han Changli, Liu Zongyuan was called Liu Hedong or Liu Liuzhou, and Su Zhe in the Song Dynasty was called Su Luancheng. In feudal times, naming people by their places was a sign of respect, which was called "looking at the ground".

1. official titles (including titles, titles, etc.). For example, in the Eastern Han Dynasty, Ma Yuan called Ma Fubo (once General Fubo), Ban Chao, who joined the army, called Ban Dingyuan (once sealed Ding Yuanhou), Ji Kang of the Three Kingdoms called Ji Zhongsan (once a doctor of Zhongsan), and Du Fu called Du Gongbu and Du Congyi in the Tang Dynasty (once a foreign minister of the Ministry of Industry and Zuo Congyi).

14. those with room name, fasting name, Xuan name and hall name as numbers. For example, the name of Wang Fu, Jiang Zhai, is taken from his room name; Xin Qiji's Jia Xuan is also taken from the room name; Su Shunqin, a poet in the Northern Song Dynasty, lived in Suzhou and built Canglang Pavilion, calling himself Canglang Weng.

2. add adjectives before surnames to refer to specific people with the same surnames. Xie Lingyun and his cousin Xie Huilian in the Southern Dynasties were both poets, known as Da and Xiao Xie. In the Tang Dynasty, Lao Du (also called Da Du) specifically refers to Du Fu, while Xiao Du specifically refers to Du Mu. Lao Su, Da Su and Xiao Su refer to Su Xun, Su Shi and Su Zhe in Song Dynasty.

⒌ use several surnames and call specific people. For example, "Ma Ban" (or "Ban Ma") refers to Sima Qian (author of Historical Records) and Ban Gu (author of Hanshu); Among the Tang poets, "Li Du" is Li Bai and Du Fu, and "Yuan Bai" is Yuan Zhen and Bai Juyi. "Han Liu" is Han Yu and Liu Zongyuan. There is also the aforementioned big thank Xiao Xie collectively referred to as "two thanks", and another poet in the Southern Dynasties, Xie Tiao, collectively referred to as "three thanks"; "Er Cheng" refers specifically to the brothers Cheng Hao and Cheng Yi, scholars of the Song Dynasty; Su Xun, Su Shi and Su Zhe are also called "Three Sus".

[6] In the Tang Dynasty, people were often called by rank, name and official position. Wang Weiyou's poem "Send Yuan Er to Xi 'an" ("Advise Jun to have a glass of wine, and go out to Yangguan for no reason" is one of the famous sentences), Answering Wang Twelve, a suggestion to my friend liu, and the like are frequently seen in Tang poems, all of which are called people by their lines. For example, Li Bai is Li Twelve, Han Yu is Han Eighteen, Liu Zongyuan is Liu Eight, and Yuan Zhen is Yuan Jiu. There was also this custom in the Song Dynasty, for example, Qin Guan called Qin Qi, Ouyang Xiu called Ou Jiu, and Huang Tingjian called Huang Jiu.

The above-mentioned names and names of literati in feudal society are all components of feudal patriarchal clan system and ethics. Because they have existed for a long time in history and have been widely used, we can't completely avoid them. For example, Wen Tianxiang, the author of Zhengqi Song, whose word is good, and whose word is Song Rui (auspicious, good and auspicious), has often been called "Wenwenshan" (self-titled), "Wen Prime Minister" (official position) and "Wen Xin Guo" (title) in past dynasties. If we don't know anything about the names and sizes of the ancients, we can't identify them at all. Therefore, in order to read ancient books and study ancient people's thoughts and styles, we still need to know something about it.