First, emperors avoided using the names of contemporary emperors and emperors of past dynasties, which was a "national taboo" or "public taboo" at that time. For example, during the Liu Xiu period, the scholar was changed to Cai Mao; Ganlong once wrote a letter to the door, saying that Five Blessingg was not allowed in the couplet, in order to avoid the name of the emperor shunzhi Fu Lin. Sometimes they even avoid using the queen's name, such as Lv Hou's name, and courtiers have to change their names to pheasants when they meet pheasants.
The second is to avoid the names of the officers, that is, subordinates should avoid the names of the officers themselves and their parents. Even some arrogant officials strictly ordered their men and people to avoid their names. There is a story in Lu You's Notes on the Old Learning Temple: a state official named Tian Deng, his subordinates and people in the state are not allowed to call his name or write his name. On the fifteenth day of the first month, turn on the lights for three days as usual. The little official who wrote the notice did not dare to write the word lamp, but changed it to "the state government set fire to it for three days according to law." From this, there is a joke that "only state officials are allowed to set fires, and people are not allowed to light lamps".
Third, avoiding sages mainly refers to avoiding the name of sages Confucius and Mencius. Some dynasties also avoided using the name of Huangdi, the ancestor of the Chinese nation, and some even avoided using the name of Duke Zhou or even Laozi. For example, Confucius was named "Kong Qiu". In the Northern Song Dynasty, the court ordered that when reading the word "autumn", the word "A" should be pronounced and the word "autumn" should be circled with a red pen. This is even more true in the Qing Dynasty: from now on, everyone with the surname of "Qiu" in the world should add an ear next to it and change their surname to "Qiu". They are not allowed to pronounce "Qiu" but "seven". [2]
As a result, the world surname "Qiu" was renamed from now on. Today, there are people with the surname "Qiu" and others with the surname "Qiu". The reason is that some have changed, and some have changed back to the original word "autumn".
Fourth, avoid elders, that is, avoid the names of parents and grandparents, which is a "family taboo" or "private taboo" of the whole family. When dealing with people, it is very impolite to avoid the taboos of the other elders. Li He, a poet in the Tang Dynasty, had a father named Jin, and "Jin" and "Jin" are homonyms, so Li He could not be a scholar all his life. In A Dream of Red Mansions, Lin Daiyu's mother's name is called, so whenever she meets Min, Lin Daiyu pronounces it as "trick" or "secret". Sima Qian's father was called "Sima Tan", so in Historical Records, everyone with the same name as his father changed his name. For example, "Zhang Mengtan" was changed to "Zhang Mengtong"; "Zhao Tan" was changed to "Zhao Tong".
Later, the same was true of Ye Fan, the author of Vares Han Shu. Because Ye Fan's father was called Mrs. Fan, in Vares Han Shu, Cathay Pacific was unconsciously turned into Cathay Pacific. This man named "Qin Zheng" has also become "Zheng Tai".