The Five Types of Name: A New Methodology for Interpreting Zhou Dynasty Naming Practices

Abstract

When a child was born into a family of the ruling elite in Zhou dynasty China (1056-475 BCE), much of its name was already fixed by its position within the patrilinear clan. However, a considerable variety of personal names are recorded in bronze inscriptions and in ancient historical texts. There are a number of discussions of the rules and prohibitions affecting the choice of personal name in ancient China, which are found in books of ritual, and also in the Zuo Zhuan and Lun Heng. These rules defined the five appropriate types of given name; those that are the result of predetermination, those that have righteous connotations, those that are derived from some physical sign, those that are borrowed from an object, and those which are suggested by a similarity. However, it is clear that these rules were often ignored, for many historical examples are known where the choice of personal name contravened these regulations. In this paper an alternative methodology for understanding the choice of personal names is proposed, based on the surviving stories detailing the ways in which names were actually selected. In the alternative theory proposed in this paper, personal names in ancient China fell into one of two main groups. The first is names chosen by apparently outside agency: in a dream (where the dreamer was usually the mother) or as a result of a divination ordered by the father. The second is names which commemorated important events in the history of the nation or which recorded an event of great personal significance to one or other of the child,s parents. Using this new methodology, the significance of Zhou dynasty personal names can be interpreted in a different light.

在中國周代社會裡，貴族家庭孩子出生的時候，小孩的名字已經差不多決定了。古代中國是一個父系社會，名字表示每個人跟大宗的關係。周代青銅器銘文以及歷史和哲學文獻保存許多名字。在《禮記》、《儀禮》、《左傳》與《論衡》中也有一些與命名習慣的規矩和禁令有關的討論。依照這些規矩，只有五種適宜的命名方法：信（據天生的情況來命名）、義（以祥瑞的名字期望被命名者建立德業）、象（以相類似的事物來命名）、假（借物名為人名）、類（父母親以孩子與自己類似的某個方面命名）。然而，這些規矩和禁令經常被封建貴族忽視。在這篇論文中，我以古代與命名方式相關的故事來探究周代命名習慣，提出瞭解當時人名選擇的新方法。根據我的研究，周代社會的命名習慣主要可分為兩種，一、夢見一個名字（ 夢者大概都是母親），或者卜筮一個名字（令卜者都是父親）；二、選擇名字以紀念國家大事或者父母親生活裡的大事。藉由這個新方法，我們對周代的命名習慣可以得到不同的理解。