Wang Mang attaches great importance to "name". As soon as he came to power, there was a trend of changing his name. First, the names of officials at all levels of the central government were changed, and then there was a major change in place names. It was changed today and changed back tomorrow, which made people feel at a loss. Later, "Xiongnu" was even changed to "submit the slaves", and "Chanyu" was changed to "submit to", which triggered national wars. Wang Mang put even more effort into his name. He attached great importance to his own "king" and gave many royal family members and meritorious subordinates surnamed "Wang" the surname "Wang" to show his favor.
There is such a record in "Book of Han·Biography of Wang Mang": Wang Mang's eldest grandson is called Wang Zong. If he waits slowly and kills his grandfather and father, this Wang Zong can become the emperor. However, He was too impatient and couldn't wait any longer. He got the emperor's clothes and hat, put them on and had his portrait drawn, and engraved three bronze seals. He conspired with his uncle to prepare to seize power. But the level is limited, and things are exposed. Although he was his grandson, this matter could not be taken lightly. Wang Zong committed suicide as soon as he didn't like it. Although the person died, his "political power" must also be deprived. Wang Mang issued this order: "The original name of the clan was Huizong. Two names were removed due to the creation, and now it is renamed Huizong." This order cannot be understood without thinking about it. . "Made" refers to the law. The original name of Wang Zong was two words, "Wang Huizong", which was changed to "Wang Zong" in accordance with the law. Now that it is against the law, it has to be changed back and called the original "Wang Huizong". Three problems can be seen from Wang Mang's order: 1. Wang Mang's previous names were not restricted in the number of characters, and his own grandson's names were all two characters. 2. After Wang Mang came to power, he once made a plan to "remove two names", that is, it was legally stipulated that two-character names were not allowed. 3. After a person commits a crime, his two-character name is restored as a sign of punishment.
The "Book of Han·Biography of Wang Mang" also says: "The Chanyu of the Xiongnu, Shun made it, and removed the two names", which means that the Chanyu of the Xiongnu followed the decree of the Shun Dynasty and removed one of the two names. Character. It can be seen that not only was there a law prohibiting the use of two-character names at that time, but it also affected the Huns.
Due to Wang Mang’s decree, people gradually developed the habit of using one-character names from then on. Later, although Wang Mang said no, he never changed it. It is dishonorable to give someone a personal name. If everyone had one-character names now, it would be a big problem, because one-character names can easily lead to duplicate names. However, the population at that time was not very large, and people's range of activities and communication radius were also limited, so single-character names did not have much adverse impact on society. Therefore, the single-character phenomenon continued until the Three Kingdoms era.
The names of people during the Three Kingdoms period tell us that names have strong stages, and each era has its naming characteristics. Knowing this, some people can roughly guess what era he is from just by looking at his name.