 | THE HISTORY OF THE FORMER HAN DYNASTY The history of the former Han dynasty |  |
APPENDIX I
THE TABU ON IMPERIAL PERSONAL NAMES
The tabu on the personal names of emperors seems to have originated
in the Chou period. Tso-chuan, Dk. Huan, VI, (Legge, p. 50; Couvreur,
I, 93) says, "The people of Chou used [the custom of] tabuing [names]
in serving the spirits [of the dead]; after they were dead, their personal
names (ming [OMITTED]) were in the future tabued." K'ung Ying-ta (574-648)
accordingly concludes, "Before the Yin [dynasty] had ended, there
was no procedure of tabu. Tabu originated with the Chou [dynasty].
The Chou [rulers] used the procedure of tabu in reverencing and serving
their ancestral spirits."
Such a tabu did not mean, as is sometimes said, that an emperor's
personal name was not supposed to exist for his subjects. The use of
such a name seems to have been largely similar to the European lese
majesty, and was punished as severely. This danger of punishment
made every person who might prepare a memorial or even talk in the
presence of officials highly conscious of the tabued names, since such
persons had to be continually careful to avoid these names. Punishments
were severe: HS 46: 3b says, "When [Shih] Chien was Chief of
the Gentlemen-at-the Palace, he memorialized a matter and it was
referred back to him. When [Shih] Chien [re]-read it, he was frightened
and afraid, and said, `The writing for "horse" should have, together with
the tail, five [strokes at the bottom of the character, one for the tail
and four dots for the feet]. Now I have, however, [only written] four,
one less than enough. If [Emperor Wu] had happened to have been
irritated, [I should have been made to] die." Chou Shou-ch'ang, who
quotes this passage in a note to HS 8: 13a, concludes that if a mistake in
writing one character could have been punished thus severely, how much
more a violation of tabu!
He also quotes the T'ang dynastic code as follows: "Whoever presents
a memorial, memorializing matters with a mistake which violates the
names tabued [by the imperial] ancestral temples, shall be beaten 80
heavy strokes; whoever orally makes a mistake or in writings other
[than memorials] writes a mistake, violating [a tabu], shall be beaten
50 light strokes." It also says, "Whoever in his own personal name
violates and breaks [a tabu] shall serve three years of penal servitude;
[but] if by a homonymn or if by using separately one word of a double
[tabued] name, he violates [a tabu], he shall not be sentenced [for crime]."
(The latter provision is taken from the Book of Rites, I, i; Legge, I, 93;
[facts], we can estimate [what were] the Han [dynastic] regulations."
Since it was so important for persons who composed memorials to
know exactly what to avoid, tablets with the tabued names were hung up
in public places for the guidance of the gentry. The History of the
Southern Ch'i Dynasty, 46: 5a ff, in the biography of Wang Tz'u (lived
451-491), recounts that after Wang Tz'u had become a high official, he
considered that the practise of placing "in the court and halls a tablet
with the tabus [written on it] [OMITTED] was not an ancient or old
custom." Emperor Wu thereupon order a discussion concerning the
discontinuance of this practise. The Gentleman Division Head of
Ritual, Jen Fang, said in the course of the discussion, "The institution
of publishing the tabus has, however, come down from Han times to the
Chin [period] for successive ages without error. The present tablets of
tabus have moreover a clear meaning, and imitate [the first Han tabu,
that instead of] the word pang, [meaning `country', the personal name of
Emperor Kao, there should be written the word] kuo [meaning `state'],
which is really a proof of [how] things [were done in] the past. The
importance of the tabu on personal names is that it is the extreme of
affection and respectfulness. Hence [such tablets] are hung in the various
courts and halls where the gentry gather, in order to bring it about that
when they rise and lie down, at morning and evening, [the tabus] may
not escape their eyes or ears. [This] way of prohibiting and avoiding
[tabus] is most evident and easy to follow." Wang Tz'u's proposal was
accordingly dropped. Chou Shou-ch'ang points out that in Han times
there must accordingly have been this practise of publishing tabus.
Hsün Yüeh (148-209) probably quotes the statements on these tabu-boards,
in his notes to the imperial titles at the beginning of each HS
"Annals." For example, for Emperor Hui he writes, "His tabued
personal name was Ying, and for this word write man [OMITTED]"
(HS 2: 1a); for the Empress of the Kao-tsu, "Her tabued personal name
was Chih, and for this word write yeh-chi [OMITTED]" (HS 3: 1a);
etc. (In reading these condensed phrases, Hsün Yüeh's comment on the
Kao-tsu [HS 1A: 1b] is illuminating, "His tabued personal name was
Pang and his style was Chi. For the word pang, write kuo [OMITTED]
[OMITTED].")
Thus it became possible to identify what particular words were being
tabued and, when the tabu was dropped, to restore the original word.
Because of the tabu on the personal name of Emperor Ming of the Later
Han Dynasty, (ruled 58-75 A.D. during and after which period Pan Ku
was thus originally written in the HS; it is hence immediately apparent
that for Former Han times the surname Yen should be translated Chuang,
while for times after Emperor Ming's accession, the same surname has
been Yen. In books republished after a tabu had been announced,
tabued words were changed; when a book was again republished after a
tabu had been lifted, as by a change in the dynasty, the previously tabued
words were restored. Sometimes in this procedure, words were mistakenly
restored (cf. 6: n. 28.1). The date of a book may sometimes be
determined from the tabus found in that edition. When, moreover, the
relationship of a previous emperor to the reigning ruler became distant,
due to a large number of generations intervening, tabus were relaxed.
Thus Pan Ku, writing in the Later Han dynasty, used the tabued names
of even the earlier Han rulers, who were ancestors of the Later Han
dynasty. This practise of relaxing tabus of distant ancestors may be
derived from the practise of increasingly doing away with the temples of
distant imperial ancestors and worshipping separately only the five
immediately preceding generations, together with the founder of the
house (cf. Glossary sub Wei Hsüan-ch'eng). The tabu on the personal
name of Emperor Kao, Pang, may however have sometimes been maintained
all through this period. In 99 A: 35b, a memorial to Wang
Mang tabus this word, which was probably written in the original
portent; but the present text of 99 B: 19a uses this word. Shuo-wen,
6 B: 5b, does not mention any tabu on this word, hence it was not always
tabued in Later Han times. The Mou-tzu (by Mou Tzu-po, fl. 190-3)
however tabus pang; cf. Pelliot in T'oung Pao, v. 19, p. 397, n. 321.
Han writers were often lax about tabus, while originally tabued words
may have been restored by later editors.
Imperial personal names were usually composed of only one character,
following the principle enunciated in the Kung-Yang Commentary, in
order to avoid troubling the people by many tabus (cf. 99 A: n. 8.7).
When an emperor's personal name contained a commonly used word, he
often changed it to an unusual word, in order that the people should not
fall into crime by violating the tabu. Thus Emperor Hsüan changed
his name from the very ordinary words, Ping-yi (meaning, "his illness is
over," a magical name for a sick child) to the unusual word Hsün [OMITTED]
(cf. 8: 13a, b). Because they were homonyms, the surname of the famous
Hsün [OMITTED]-tzu was written Sun [OMITTED], and remained so written until
Yang Liang corrected it in the ninth century. (The words hsün and sun
must therefore have been homonymns in Han times; they are today
pronounced exactly alike in some Chinese dialects, e.g., in Hunan,
archaic and T'ang pronunciations for them.) Some later emperors followed
Emperor Hsüan's example.
Since the emperor was considered the parent of his people, Confucian
sons have similarly tabued the given names of their fathers and close
ancestors. The Li-chi, I, i, v, 16 (Couvreur, I, 58) holds that the tabu
on ancestral names is primary and that upon the names of rulers is in
imitation of it. Confucius, however, taught that the practises of the
Chou rulers should be those of an educated gentleman; hence the tabu on
ancestral given names may well have first been a practise of the Chou
kingly clan and have been spread to the lower orders through Confucian
influence; most of this spread may indeed have occurred in the early part
of the Former Han period, when the practise of mourning to the third
year similarly spread.
As a consequence of its use upon the tabu-boards, the word for tabu
(hui [OMITTED]) came to have the meaning of "avoided personal name." Chou
Shou-ch'ang writes, "Accordingly, when [a person was alive, his personal
name] was called his ming; [after] he was dead, it was called his hui
(tabu)." But in his edict changing his personal name, Emperor Hsüan
speaks of his personal name as his hui while he was still alive. Chou
Shou-ch'ang says in explanation, "In Han [times], there was no difference
in calling [a personal name] a ming or a hui. Shuo-wen [ca. 100 A.D.;
7 A: 7b, sub] the radical, `Grain', [the word] hsiu [OMITTED], says, `The Emperor's
hui,' meaning [Emperor] Kuang-wu, [reigned A.D. 25-57, ibid., 1 A: 1b,
sub] the radical `Signs [OMITTED]', [the word] yu [OMITTED], it says, `The Emperor's
hui,' [which must] then [mean] Emperor An [reigned 107-125]. Hsü
Shen, [the author of the Shuo-wen] died in 121; his son, [Hsü] Ch'ung, in
that very year presented the Shuo-wen to the Emperor, while Emperor
An was still alive. This [fact proves that] while still alive, [an emperor's
personal name] was called his hui.
"[According to] the Record of the Southern Yen [Dynasty], when Mu-yung
Tê [reigned 398-404] ascended the imperial throne, he said, `[Emperor]
Hsüan of the Han [dynasty] pitied his officials and common people
[because] they violated his hui, hence he changed his personal name
(ming). We now add the one word Pei [OMITTED] to be [Our] second personal
name (ming), desiring to open the way whereby [Our] subjects may
avoid [Our] hui (tabued name).' This [quotation shows that] Mu-yung
[Tê], while alive, himself called [his personal name] his hui and also
referred to this act of [Emperor] Hsiao-hsüan."
It is difficult to determine when the motivation of this tabu on personal
names was magical and when it was merely a matter of respectfulness.
name put the name, and by sympathy, that person himself, in rapport
with the circumstances mentioned in connection with the name, some of
which might easily be harmful: the emperor was so important for the
well-being of the empire that it would be merely prudent to avoid the
use of his name. If the emperor's personal name was used in an inauspicious
set of words, that inauspiciousness would be reflected upon
him, and through him, upon the empire. The age was, in many respects,
deeply superstitious. Divination, auspicious and inauspicious days,
and the like were features of the best Confucian teaching. Tung Chung-shu
made rain in time of drought by closing the south gates of the city
and opening the north gates, to allow the yin influence full entrance and
keep the yang influence out (cf. Glossary sub voce). Before the time of Wang
Mang, and after, the emperor, vassal kings, nobles, and officials, including
disciples of private schools, all wore "kang-mao amulets," in order
to protect themselves against diseases and epidemics (cf. 99: App. III).
After Wang Mang had done away with the Han dynasty, he felt compelled
to do away with his knife-coins, because the surname of that
dynasty, Liu [OMITTED], contains the word knife [OMITTED].
Yet Confucius had doubted the spirits and Hsün-tzu had denied the
existence of all spirits; he had explained superstitious beliefs in a purely
naturalistic manner (cf. Works of Hsuntze, Bk. XVII). Jen Fang adopted
Hsün-tzü's interpretation, and many other intelligent persons undoubtedly
did the same. For them this tabu was merely a matter of
respect. Thus its significance was an individual matter: to some it was
magic and to others merely a matter of respectfulness.
For further discussion, cf. Ch'en Yüan, "The Traditional Omission of
Sacred and Imperial Names in Chinese Writings" (in Chinese), Yenching
Journal of Chinese Studies, no. 4, Dec. 1928, pp. 537-651; E. Haenisch,
"Die Heiligung des Vater- und Fürstennames in China," Berichte über d.
Verhandlungen d. Sächischen Akademie d. Wissenschaften, Philolog.-hist.
Klasse, 84. Band, 1932, 4. Heft; M. A. Vissière, "Traité des charactères
chinoise que l'on évite par respect," Journal Asiatique, vol. IX, 18,
1901, 320-373.
| THE HISTORY OF THE FORMER HAN DYNASTY The history of the former Han dynasty | |