Chinese Names
– Big Deal and Big Headache
5 October 2006
"必也正名乎。名不正则言不顺，言不顺则事不成。”
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.
Li Bai: Hi
Moon, Have a drink with me! By the way,
is moon your surname? You first name?
Your academic name? Or your title?
China stories
are told at wenhousecrafts.com
Pre: One
Humanity, One Family
| Next: Only
Scholars Are Noble Cut
Similar Stories:
List
of All Stories
