In The Tanalect (论语), one of four principal
Confucius classics, the master famously says,
"What is imperative is to have
appropriate names for things."
Why?
Because, according to
Confucian, "If the name does not reflect
the essence, then what is addressed will not
be what is defined; if what is addressed is
not what is defined, then what is said will
not be what is meant; if what is said is not
what is meant, then what is doing will not be
accomplished."
For over 2000 years, Chinese
truly take this message to heart,
particularly when personal names are
concerned. "If your name does not
reflect your true nature, then when you’re
called you are not addressed accurately; if
you are not addressed accurately, then your
place in life will not be defined properly;
if your place is not defined properly, then
your aspiration will not be realised."
They say, or at least the name-name masters
would say.
But to have an ideal name is a
tall order in today’s reality. With one in
every five people on earth is Chinese, you’ll
be lucky to come up with a name that is good
enough to separate you from the rest your
peers, let along to find one which is also
well-defined and essence-reflective and
aspiration inspiring.
Although Chinese boast to have
4,000 some surnames, the commonly used are
less than one hundred, with the top 10
popular ones accounted for 40 per cent of all
usages, such as Zhang (张), Wang (王), Li (李), Zhao (赵), Chen (陈), Yang (杨), Wu (吴), Liu (刘), Huang (黄), Zhou (周).
So the glorious task of
distinguishing you from others squarely lands
on the shoulder of your first name.
Considering 1.3 billion
Chinese have already taken a first name, and
20 million new Chinese born each year also
like to have a first name, how hard is the
task? Very hard, you bet.
About a month ago a list of
some most used full names was posted on the
Internet, which include Liu Po (刘波), Li Strong (李刚), Li Ocean (李海), Zhang Brave (张勇), Wang Brave (王勇), Zhang Great (张伟), Liu Great (刘伟), Wang Great (王伟) and Li Great (李伟), each is said to be shared
by millions.
What adds more pressure on the
already strained situation is the everlasting
love affairs that Chinese have with the Five
Agents.
Traditionally, when came to
name a baby, many Chinese would look at the
four pillars consisted of eight characters,
namely the heavenly stems and earthly
branches of the birth year, month, day and
time. From there on an expert would be able
to determine the inherited composition of the
Five Agents, and pick a character with a
complimentary property to balance the birth
chart. For instance if a baby’s birth chart
is overwhelmingly dry, a character with a
water radical may be chosen as his or part of
his first name.
Sometimes the balance concern
even goes beyond the scope of individual
names and include the whole generation.
It is said that to ensure a
constructive relationship between the
predecessors and successors, the founding
emperor of the Ming
Dynasty designed a sequence of
radicals, each of which assigned to a
generation. His sons had a wood radical in
their first names, and accordingly his
grandsons got a fire radical and his
great-grand sons an earth radical. It follows
the principle that the wood nurtures the fire
and the fire nurtures the earth, and so on so
forth.
The practice as such certainly
has its merit, but it undoubtedly further
narrows down the range of the Chinese
characters that can be used as first names.
In reality, however, there was
never a problem in identifying a historical
figure. It is because in the past thousands
years, Chinese adopted a multiple-name
system, meaning apart from a first name (名), one would also have an
academic name (字) and a title (号).
Tang poet Li Bai, for example,
was surnamed Li (李). His first name is
Bai (白 White), academic
name is Taibai (太白 Pure White) and his
title is Qinglian Juzhi (青莲居士 Blue Lily Cultivator).
The multi-name system has
been, nevertheless, abolished along with most
Chinese traditions when the Western custom
gains more and more foothold in China. But
the practice of using name to balance the
Five Agents composition in birth chart
remains. In fact, in recently decade, this
exercise has become more popular than ever.
And the result of this is an
increased problem of personal identification.
In order to counter the
confusion, some Chinese goes extreme. A man
in Beijing allegedly went to police and
insisted to change his name to "@",
saying it would make him stand out from the
crowd. It certainly would, imagine someone is
called "Zhang @", how can you not
to take notice of him.
Most people, of course, do not
go that far, and they go for dictionaries
instead, searching for the characters seldom
used in contemporary language.
When the new semester began in
September this year and brand new students
started their first day in school, local
newspapers in Chengdu reported some bizarre
scenes in classrooms: Some teachers needed
encyclopedias to help the roll call – there
was no way on earth they could know how to
pronounce those strange images in some of
their students' names.
According to the Chinese
police, as many as 4,600 characters currently
used in first names can not be found in
computer database, which presents a real
hazard when coming to issue an id card to as
many as 40,000 strong name-challenging
citizens.
As Chinese continuingly make
their name a big deal – rightly by all
means – it will persistently cause big
headache to themselves, to others, and to
police, too.
