At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty

This has brought a lot of trouble for many people to choose a name.

There are only so many characters. If you change them over and over again, can you still create your own characters?

Learn from Wu Zetian?

At that time, Zhang Wei will run rampant in the world, you will be Zhang Wei, I will be Zhang Wei, and he will be Zhang Wei too. If there is an emperor named Zhang Wei, well, let’s change the name together.

In order to avoid taboo, the imperial court stipulated that when writing the character [Peng] in the future, it should be replaced by [Peng], and the character [Shan] should be replaced by [一].

If it goes on like this, it is unknown when the duplication of names will become a huge trouble for the empire.

Therefore, after Mr. Guo has dealt with some major issues, this kind of minor issue should also be put on the agenda. It is imperative to change the taboo system and abolish the policy of "removing two names".

A certain person from Guo held a meeting, summoned officials from Shangshutai and the cabinet, and discussed with them about changing the taboo system and the policy of removing two names.

When they heard about it suddenly, the ministers felt a little strange, wondering why the emperor suddenly remembered this matter.

That is to say, Zaoyi had expected this matter, so he stood up to express his support.

"In recent years, there have been more and more household registration population statistics, and the population growth rate has never been seen before. However, His Majesty requires everyone to register and register their household registration. If only single-character names are used, there will be a high number of duplicate names. In the imperial court Statistics are bad.

If there are more and more Wei household registrations in the future, there will be more and more people with the same name. One Zhang San is enough, but there are thousands of Zhang San, who knows who is who?In this way, it will be very troublesome for the court rule, and such problems have to be considered. "

Zaozhi said, "Your Majesty's move is beneficial to the country."

Zaoyi expressed his support, and then Guo Peng looked at the others.

For example, Cui Yan, Minister of Rites.

Cui Yan felt Guo Peng's gaze.

He had to bite the bullet and stand up.

"Your Majesty, I think that it has been hundreds of years since one name is noble and the other is cheap. It has become a custom and is something everyone agrees with. If there is a sudden change, I am afraid there will be some resistance, and there will be many people. Feeling suspicious.

Moreover, the biggest resistance is not duplicate names, but taboos. According to the etiquette system, future generations should avoid taboos for predecessors, and should be taboos for emperors. Big trouble.

If you follow the etiquette system and avoid taboos for the venerable, then double names are definitely not feasible. If you can’t do double names, as Zaobutang said, the situation of duplicate names is indeed embarrassing. How to change it may not be decided overnight. I ask Your Majesty to think twice about this matter. "

Although what Cui Yan said was not so pleasant, it was indeed true.

From the Spring and Autumn Period [Taboo for the venerable, taboo for the relatives, taboo for the sage], taboo is the trouble of everyone later.

But for autocratic monarchy, this is also a kind of help, reminding people from all aspects to pay attention to the superiority and inferiority of the upper and lower levels, which is conducive to ruling, and is an important part of the feudal ethics system.

Taboo is a big proposition, which contains many small propositions, such as national taboo, family taboo, sacred taboo, internal taboo, constitutional taboo, personal taboo, etc., and there are many types.

With the passage of time, the feudal autocratic monarchy deepened day by day, and there were more and more taboo rules.

In Guo's era, taboos mainly involved the official and family levels.

For example, the taboo about the emperor, the emperor's father, the upper officials under the dual monarchy, and the descendants of the family's ancestors.

For Guo, maintaining the principle of taboo is also beneficial to the rule, and abolishing the taboo rashly will inevitably encounter great resistance, which is not conducive to rule.

Therefore, in order to facilitate population statistics and future governance, Guo decided to call a group of ministers to make a change and summary of the taboo system, and to determine the taboo principle of the Wei Empire from various levels, leaving a certain amount of freedom for future generations. It is convenient for the general public.

So Guo Peng nodded to Cui Yan's suggestion.

"Cui Qing is right. You must think twice, but change is also necessary. Otherwise, thousands of Zhangs, Lis and Lis will pop up. Will the court still need to count the population? I have decided to make a comprehensive change and summary of the taboo system. .”

The ministers didn't know how the emperor planned to change, but if the emperor wanted to change, they had to follow the emperor's wishes.

In the next few days, Guo Peng convened officials in power and many famous scholars to discuss the matter in the palace. According to the previous regulations and actual needs, some detailed changes were made to the taboo system and the two-name system.

About a month or so, Guo Peng announced the specific results of this discussion.

In general, the general principle of [Taboo for the respected, taboo for the relatives, taboo for the sage] will not change, but some changes must be made on some issues under this framework.

First of all, a major premise is about the naming of Limin people. The new regulations formulated by Guo Mou allow Limin people to be named without following the principle of taboo.

After all, they don't know many words, so it is too difficult and unnecessary for them to avoid taboos.

In the face of local residents, it is allowed to choose names that do not follow the principle of taboo. Single-character names or double-character names are optional, and even the emperor's name is allowed to be used at will.

The groups that need to be tabooed are officials, scholars, and people with a certain amount of property. These people have a certain economic foundation, must be literate, read, and have cognition, so they need to be tabooed according to the general principle of tabooing.

To be precise, it is judged according to the amount of property and status. Most people with less property and low status do not need to shy away from it, and the emperor's name can also be used by them.

This is the great grace of heaven, the grace of the emperor.

Those with high status and wealth need to avoid taboos according to the general principle of taboo. The name of the emperor cannot be used indiscriminately and should be avoided. The names of family elders should not be used indiscriminately.

And the only taboo involving the entire group, including legato tables, court documents, and contemporary records, is the name of the current emperor.

Someone in Guo stipulated that as long as the emperor is alive, regardless of whether it is the current emperor or the Supreme Emperor, as long as he is alive, the name of the current emperor must be taboo.

But he added a time limit to this rule, that is, while alive.

After the death of the current emperor, the name of the emperor is open to use without taboo. It is regarded as the last grace left by the Daxing Emperor to future generations. It prevents some important ancient books and characters left by the predecessors from losing their original meaning in order to avoid the taboo of the emperor.

In addition, if the emperor's name is a double-character name, as long as the emperor's double-character name is not used together, it is not considered a taboo. The two characters can be used separately, as long as they are not connected, there is no problem.

In general, there are only so many people, and too many Guo people have not changed, and they will not shake the foundation of this system.

Of course, there was another point that Guo Peng highlighted and changed.

Guo did not allow some domineering superiors to force their subordinates and the people in the area under their administration to avoid taboos.

When such a situation arises, some officials like to be domineering in their own jurisdiction, and openly require subordinate officials and the people in their jurisdiction to avoid their taboos.

There are also some upper officials who don't have that intention, but some lower officials who are good at gaining money take the initiative to avoid taboos in order to please the upper officials and try to gain political benefits.

What's more, in order to obtain more political benefits and express their own attitude, they also forcibly coerce others to take the same initiative to avoid taboos for Shangguan like themselves.

Originally, everyone was well with each other, but after such a commotion, there was a sudden difference between closeness and estrangement.

The group of officials is like this, and the folks don't let it go. For their own benefit, those small officials coerce the people in the jurisdiction to join him in hiding the taboo for the upper official, doing their best to make money.

For this situation, Mr. Guo hated it very much, so in the new regulations, Mr. Guo raised the standard again.

The so-called is it the king's land under the whole world, is it the king's subjects on the shore of the land, there is only one emperor in the world, there is only one monarch, you are all my subjects, you can just avoid taboos for me, and you have to lower officials to avoid taboos for superior officials, what are you doing?

Want to be emperor?

This is trespassing!It is infidelity!

Mr. Guo, who has been governing and fighting against the double monarch, took this opportunity to set down this regulation.

From then on, any lower officials do not have to hide from the upper officials.

If there is a situation where the Shangguan threatens, it is trespassing, and the crime is the same as rebellion!

If the lower officials take the initiative to avoid taboos for the upper officials, they are villains and shameless!

If there is such a situation now, change it immediately.

Is the name your parents gave you just for you to please Shangguan?

Unfilial!

Adding the former means disloyalty and disfilial piety!

Unfaithful and unfilial people, what face do they have to stand between heaven and earth?What face do you have to be an official of our Great Wei Empire?

I, Wei, rule the country with filial piety, unfaithful and unfilial people are not qualified to be officials of my Wei!All dismissed!

A certain Guo used his traditional skills—the traditional skills of throwing up Yuan Shao and Yuan Shu to vomit blood at the beginning, telling right and wrong, turning black and white and secretly changing concepts.

Those famous scholars who were still arguing at that time did not dare to speak up, and agreed with the condition proposed by Guo.

So the taboo system of the Wei Empire was established in this way.

Accompanied by the implementation of this provision, there are also amendments to relevant laws.

Chapter 983 - Nine hundred ninety-three

Wang Mang once stipulated that when criminals commit some unforgivable crimes, they need to change their single-letter names to double-letter names in accordance with the regulations to show punishment and humiliation.

This will lead to a tragic ending of social death for the person concerned. If he has a little self-esteem, he will basically commit suicide.

In the Eastern Han Dynasty and the early Wei Dynasty, such laws were carried forward and continued to be used.

Now, someone from Guo ordered Guo Yi, Minister of the Ministry of Punishments, to revise the Wei Law and delete this law.

The new Wei law stipulates that single-character names and double-character names are regardless of high or low, and have the same status. Everyone should use them freely according to their own needs.

And in order to change the status quo that Wang Mang has been biased by double-character names for a long time, someone in Guo knew that only the emperor can fight against the emperor.

So someone Guo made an additional declaration.

"My single character name was given by the elders. The name of the elders was given by the elders of the elders. It has been used for a long time. It is not only inconvenient to change suddenly, but also against filial piety. So we forget it. Starting from our children and grandchildren, if If it is convenient, if you want to, just change the double character name.

Since I am the emperor, I should be the first in the world. I have decided to make the name of the eldest son of the crown prince a double-character name. It will be announced soon and announced to the world. The double-character name has no distinction between high and low. Future generations can choose at will. subject to legal intervention. "

Ministers of Shangshutai and the cabinet bowed down one after another.

"Your Majesty Shengming."

Afterwards, Guo Yi amended the Wei Law very quickly, deleting the rule that one name is noble and two names are cheap, and notified the Ministry of Civil Affairs, which jointly announced the matter to the public.

The detailed provisions of the general principle of taboo, some new deletions and revisions, and some new precautions, have spread throughout the country with this announcement.

Then, Guo Peng called Guo Jin and Guo Dan, and the grandparents and grandchildren thought of a name for Guo Jin's eldest son.

For a double-character name that has not appeared in the top ruling group for many years, the eldest grandson of the Guo family must be the first in the world.

This is a kind of political capital in itself, which is very meaningful, so someone in Guo pays special attention to it.

After a serious discussion, Guo Peng finally decided to name his eldest grandson Chengzhi, meaning to inherit the ambition entrusted to him by a certain Guo.

Then it was officially announced that the double-character name of the eldest grandson of the Guo family's royal family was announced to the world, as an example for the world, and called on people all over the world not to use double-character names as cheap, and to take double-character names together.

From then on, people all over the world can choose single-character names or double-character names, and will not be noble because of a single-character name, nor will they be inferior because of a double-character name.

The eldest grandson of the emperor has a double name, what are you afraid of?

This matter then became a certainty.

But what is quite interesting is that after Guo Peng made such a decision, civil servants and generals followed in Guo's footsteps and began to rename or name their children.

They have all changed the names of their underage sons and grandchildren to double-character names, or just started with double-character names.

Somebody Guo just gave the eldest grandson a name with double characters, but these guys changed all of them as long as they were underage, no matter whether they were famous or not.

For example, Cao Cao has a very smart young son, who is eight years old this year and was originally named Chong. In response to someone Guo's call, Cao Cao renamed his young son Chongzhi.

Cheng Yu had just decided on the name Cheng Gan for his young grandson, and in response to Guo Peng's call, he changed his name to Cheng Dinggan for his young grandson.

Cao Ren changed the names of his three underage sons to Xiuwen, Xiuwu, and Xiude.

Guo Jia renamed his two sons Guo Zhangping and Guo Zhangruo, and his daughter Xinyue.

Then Cao Hong also changed the names of his two underage sons and four daughters.

Guan Yu also changed the names of his two sons, three daughters and a grandson.

Zhang Fei also changed the names of his two sons and two daughters.

Zhao Yun also changed the names of his two sons and one daughter.

Etc., etc.

Anyway, everyone who can keep up has followed, and those who can't keep up, immediately go home to find wives and concubines to start creating people, and thoroughly implement the policy of doing things if there are conditions, and making conditions if there are no conditions.

In order to flatter Guo Peng and keep up with this trend, everyone did everything they could.

So in a short period of time, the double-letter name changed its embarrassing situation, and even became the trend of naming. Everyone started to take the double-letter name, and the single-letter name was not very popular.

Anyway, the emperor announced that under the current circumstances, apart from the internal rules of each family, the only words that all subjects need to avoid are [Peng] and [Shan], and other words can be used and combined at will.

However, people whose property does not meet the standards do not even have to avoid these two words. They name their children arbitrarily and ask officials to assist them in naming them. Double-character names are used to avoid duplication of names to the greatest extent, which is convenient for the government to register and compile population statistics. .

Thousands of names such as Zhang, San, Li, Si, Wang and Wu were also required to be renamed, so as to minimize the number of duplicate names as much as possible, so as to facilitate governance.

It can be seen how far-reaching the emperor's influence on a country is.

Even if it was Wang Mang.

This incident happened in March of the fourth year of Yande, when Ma Yuan and other joint caravans were on their way back.

It was also the time when the first batch of "Zuobo paper" after the "price reduction" entered Luoyang.