The word "Ming" has one more horizontal line, which is "眜".
Some people say that Zhu Yuanzhang added it himself, and the purpose was to warn his sons, I have my eyes on you, and you must not rebel against your nephew. Some people also say that Kangxi did this intentionally to satirize the Ming Dynasty as "the sun and the moon have no light", which means that the Ming Dynasty was extremely stupid and deserved to die, while the Qing Dynasty was a clean and honest dynasty that could lead the people to glory.
I can clearly say that the above statements do not exist. "眜" was not written by Zhu Yuanzhang, nor was it deliberately done by Kangxi. These two statements are not said by the ancients, but are rumored by contemporary people.
First of all, we need to know that there are only two places with the word "眜" in Zhu Yuanzhang's mausoleum. One is the "眜" in the "Zhu Xiaoling Mausoleum" in the protective monument erected by the government. Another place is the stone wall directly south of the top of the mausoleum, which has the words "This mountain is the tomb of Taizu Taizu".
Ming Xiaoling Monument
What is certain now is that the three characters "Xiao Xiaoling" in the protection monument were written by the famous calligrapher Wu Zhongqi in the 1970s. . In another place, the seven words "the tomb of Emperor Taizu on this mountain" were written by people in the Republic of China.
So the year when "眜" appeared in the Xiaoling Mausoleum of the Ming Dynasty has been determined for a long time. Where did the above statement come from? Of course, there must be people here who don't understand why Mr. Wu Zhongqi and the Republic of China person wrote "Ming" as "眜"? Did they write it wrong? Or does it have other meanings?
Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum
None of the above statements are true. The real reason is that when New China was founded, before the fonts were not specified, "眜" and "明" actually meant the same thing. , that is to say, both of these two characters are written correctly. You can write "眜" or "明". "Ming" and "眜" are both simplified writings of "朙" which was extended to mean bright in ancient times. They are both simplifications of the radical "囧". Their meanings are the same, but some people like to use Simplify into words, and some people like to simplify into words.
As recorded in "Zhengzi Tong": "Zhuangzi Foreign Things Chapter" is clear and clear. If you don't borrow it from Shu, you will understand it from the sun and the moon. The meaning of "eye brightness" is the same as the meaning of "eye brightness" and "light and darkness". Tian Beiheng said: In ancient times, people used the sun and the moon to make light. The Han Dynasty was based on the eyes.
To put it simply, "眜" and "明" are the difference between the current simplified Chinese characters and traditional Chinese characters. For example, the traditional Chinese character "雑" and the simplified Chinese character "Miscellaneous" have the same meaning. No matter how you write it, it is not wrong. .
How to write the word "Ming" in the past dynasties
In fact, ancient calligraphers often wrote "Ming" instead of "眜" when writing calligraphy, such as Wang Xianzhi's "Luo Shen Fu", Cai Xiang's "Shantang Poems" and many tourist attractions today also write "Ming" instead of "Shu". For example, the "Ming" in the plaque "Shu Liang Qiangu" in the Wuhou Temple in Chengdu is "Ming" "眜".
In general, today’s writing is actually very different from ancient times. In ancient times, many words seemed wrong to us now, but they were not wrong in the past. They were just another way of writing the word.