How the word was discarded, and why we now have a name but no word .

Characters are also called table characters, which are names used to indicate some virtues or the meaning of their own names in addition to their own lives. In ancient China, when Han men were twenty years old, that is, after the crown ceremony or the women's ceremony at the age of fifteen, because it was no longer convenient to call them directly, they were called by the table words related to their own names, because this kind of word was used to show their morality, so it was also called the table character. The reason why people now only have names but no words is actually related to the movement to break the four olds and the convenience of population statistics after the founding of New China.

According to the statement in "The Book of Rites: Tan Gong", when people become adults, society often needs to respect them, so peers can't call them by their names, so they give themselves a table to let themselves be called and used when socializing with others to show their respect. At that time, the origin of table characters was in the Shang Dynasty, and then it became a system in the Zhou Dynasty, and until modern times, there were many literati and scholars who had table characters, such as Hu Shi's table characters were suitable.

After the New Culture Movement, new culture and new concepts began to prevail in China, and at that time, it was advocated that names and characters should be unified, and names should no longer be separated. But at that time, the words were not completely gone. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, a campaign to break the four olds was launched, and the breaking of the four olds at that time required the destruction of old ideas, old cultures, old customs, and old habits.

As one of the representatives of traditional Chinese culture at that time, it was natural that the table character would become a target for abolition. In addition, after the founding of New China at that time, it was necessary to count the household registration, and if it had a table word, it would be more troublesome to count, so it was canceled for this reason.

With the development of China, few people now have to give themselves a table character, but we still can't forget this tradition, and we can also explore the meaning of this kind of table character from ancient literature.

In ancient times, "word" and "name" were mutually explanatory, and "word" was an explanation and supplement to "name", which was a kind of name for people in society. For the culture of modern people's simplicity, it is too cumbersome to take "words" in addition to "name"; Only the "name" is relatively simple for the registration and management of the modern household registration system. There is a "name" but no "word", which has become a trend at the moment.

of the ancients"word"It is what we now call nicknames, which were all chosen by ourselves and not discarded. It's just that now only one name is needed for unified management.

The name is in the right body, and the word is in virtue. This means that the name is used to distinguish different individuals, and the word is used to show respect and inferiority; In general, the first name is used for humble titles, and the character is used for honorific titles. China has always been a country of etiquette, pay attention to etiquette, for example, the parents and elders of the monarch are not called by their names, otherwise it will be regarded as a great disrespect, so the word came into being; There is no name but no word, because the traditional set of respect and humility has been denied, and the words with the main function of respecting and being humble have no basis for existence.

Because we only use one name for our hukou now, which is our big name, which is what the ancients called the name.

The name of the ancient literati is recorded in the "Yan's Family Motto": "The name is in the right style, and the word is in virtue." "Explained to us the difference between names, which probably means that the name is to distinguish each other, and the word is to be honorable and inferior.

The name of the ancients is really exquisite, name, character, number, and so on. The book "Shuowen" records the origin of the name of the Tao: "The name is self-proclaimed."

From the mouth of the night, the night, the underworld, the underworld does not meet, so the mouth is self-named". Probably that after dark, when it is dark, you can't see your face clearly, and you can't recognize who is who, so you use a code name, which gives rise to a "name". That is to say, in the early Ming Dynasty, it was a code name, a word that appeared in order to facilitate faster identification of who is who.

In fact, our current name is just what the ancients called it. And our Xiao Ming today is equivalent to the words of the ancients. So from another point of view, in fact, we didn't abandon the word.

It's just that for the sake of order and unity, we only use our big names, which are our names, and in life, there will be many friends and family who call us nicknames.

The difference between a name and a character is what we now call a big name, that is, a scientific name, usually this name is entered into the family tree, and it is generally given by the elders, some are obtained according to the generation, and some are obtained directly according to their own ideas.

And the word is other names, also called aliases, that is, nicknames, which are generally acquired by themselves. Moreover, in the eyes of the ancients, it is polite to call the peers or respectful generations, and it is also an expression of respect. For example, Zhuge Liang, surnamed Zhuge Liang, name Liang, and the word Kongming.

And now, there are very few ancient words, but in fact, we will also have other names, nicknames or our pen names are similar to ancient words, there is a little bit of that flavor. In fact, it's not that it's abandoned, it's that there's no need anymore.

We can now name ourselves ourselves, and we can also be your name. It can only be said that the world is different, and the needs are different; But he still exists.