When we read ancient history, we will find an interesting phenomenon. Some emperors are called "what emperors", some emperors are called "what families" and "what ancestors", and some emperors are called. Why is there such a big difference in appellation? When we call ancient emperors, we can call them posthumous title, the temple number, the year number and even his nickname. Why is this problem? Why did the emperors basically change their temple names after the Tang Dynasty? To solve this problem, we must know what the temple number, posthumous title and year number are.

Temple number is the name used by the ancient emperors of China when offering sacrifices in ancestral temples. The name of the ancient temple in China has a long history, which can be traced back to Shang Dynasty. According to the patriarchal clan system, monarchs who have made great contributions to the country and deserve eternal sacrifice and respect from future generations will especially pursue temple names. In Shang Dynasty, there were only four temple names: Tai, who laid the foundation for a career, had a high achievement, sacrificed to the world from generation to generation, and Zhong, who had a high achievement.

The Zhou Dynasty inherited and developed the posthumous title system of the Zhou Dynasty, but did not inherit the temple name system of the Shang Dynasty. All the Zhou Dynasties had no "ancestors" or "clans". After the establishment of the Qin Dynasty, Qin Shihuang simply ignored posthumous title and the temple number, and abolished posthumous title and the temple number, which was "the son discussed the father and the minister discussed the monarch". Therefore, the Qin Dynasty became one of the few dynasties in the history of China without posthumous title and the temple name. After the establishment of the Western Han Dynasty, the names of posthumous title and Temple were restored.

During the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, temple names began to flood. Cao Pi Temple, which established Cao Wei, was named Wei Gaozu, and Wei Mingdi, which laid the groundwork for the demise of Cao Wei, was actually named Wei Liezu. There are three grandfathers in Cao Wei, a regime that has not completed reunification, which embarrassed the three grandfathers in Qing Dynasty, and also embarrassed Li Shimin, the emperor Taizong who actually started the Tang Dynasty. After the Wei and Jin Dynasties, basically, except for the king of national subjugation or the puppet emperor, there were temple names. After the Sui Dynasty, the basic emperors, cats and dogs, could chase the temple number, and even the perishing monarch could have the temple number.

There are two main names of temples: "Zu" and "Zong", which, in layman's terms, is to create a Sect for Zushou. Pioneering achievements are generally called Taizu and Gaozu, such as Tang Gaozu and Ming Taizu. Re-establishing the world and establishing order are generally called sai-jo, sage and ancestor, such as sai-jo, Qing sai-jo, Qing sage and Ming. Taizong means to carry forward, such as Emperor Taizong, Song Taizu and Qing Taizong. Sejong has a bumper harvest, such as Emperor Sejong of Han Dynasty; Sejong also means that the succession to the throne has shifted. For example, Emperor Jiajing of Ming Shizong indirectly inherited the throne.

Posthumous title refers to the dead emperors, queens, princes, ministers and people with certain status, who were given evaluation titles after a final evaluation according to their life stories. Posthumous title was popular not only in ancient China, but also in Korea, Viet Nam, Japan and other places influenced by China culture.

Generally speaking, obituaries can be divided into beautiful obituaries, plain obituaries and evil obituaries.

Shi Mei has also become a stone-admiring, that is, praising posthumous title. Generally speaking, there are Zhuang, Wu, Wen, Xuan, Xiang, Kang and Jing. The word "Wen" written by Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty is a complete beauty, which means that he is learned, learned or diligent.

Posthumous title, who is mostly sympathetic. There are thoughts, mourning, thinking, mourning and sadness. For example, when Liu Bei was in Shu Han, he gave Liu Xie, a worthy Han Emperor, a Han Emperor.

Bad history is the next history, that is, posthumous title. Strong, smart and gentle. For example, "yang" means good internal courtesy, just like the emperor; "Li" means violent and ruthless, killing innocent people, just like the same; "Spirit" means chaos without loss, like Emperor Han Ling.

The number of words in posthumous title has also grown from one word to many or even dozens of words. Before the Tang Dynasty, the emperor's posthumous title was basically one or two words. After the Tang Dynasty, a long list of modifiers, mainly compliments, will be added before the most crucial posthumous title. The number of words in posthumous title, Ming Taizu is basically stable at 16 words, while the number of words in posthumous title, the Qing emperor, can reach as many as 22 words.

Posthumous title in the pre-Qin period was basically a word with two characters. One word, such as Zhou Wuwang and Zhou Chengwang. The word is like, Qin Zhuang, Zhao, etc. Qin Shihuang abolished posthumous title. When posthumous title was restored in the Han Dynasty, the posthumous title of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty was basically a word. Because the word "filial piety" is added in front of it, it can also be considered as a two-word prophecy.

Since the Tang Dynasty, especially Wu Zetian began to break the convention of "one word and two words" and became popular in posthumous title. For example, Tang Gaozong, Li Zhi and posthumous title are all "emperors among emperors". In 749, they were made emperor Sheng Da, and in 754, they were made emperor Sheng Da. Talk more and flatter more and more. After Tang Gaozong, the number of words in posthumous title was basically more than four.

During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the funeral rites were basically perfect and stable. The number of words in Ming Di is basically stable at 16, 17 or 2 1. For example, posthumous title, Zhu Yuanzhang, became a great sage, and Wu Junde, the god of righteousness, succeeded to the throne as emperor, with a total of 2 1 word. Posthumous title, the emperor of the Qing Dynasty, is usually 2 1 word, 23 words or 25 words, which is basically stable at about 22 words. Emperor Kangxi's posthumous title reached 23 words: "He Tian Hongyun tattooed Wu Rui and Gong Zhe thrifty, filial, honest, neutral and complete in merit".

Before the Tang Dynasty, basically every emperor had a posthumous title, but not every emperor had a temple number. And at that time, the emperor's posthumous title was mainly a word posthumous title or a word posthumous title, and it was enough to call the emperor posthumous title. For example, Emperor Wudi of Han Dynasty, Emperor Jing of Han Dynasty, Emperor Zhaolie of Han Dynasty, Emperor Wendi of Sui Dynasty and Emperor Xiaowen of Wei Dynasty. Not all emperors have temple names. If you call emperors by the names of temples, you can't call some emperors. For example, Emperor Han Jingdi has no temple number. What should I call him? So before the Tang Dynasty, posthumous title was basically called Emperor, which was simple, convenient and clear.

After the Tang Dynasty, there were two situations. Posthumous title, an emperor, began to change from a word posthumous title or a word posthumous title to a word posthumous title. Another situation is that almost every emperor has a temple number, and the temple number is a word temple number. It would be very bad to be called Emperor posthumous title again at this time. It is possible that you haven't finished Emperor posthumous title for a long time, and you may have forgotten Emperor posthumous title. If we changed the temple name, this problem would not have arisen at all, so we had the temple names of Emperor Taizong, Song Taizong, Emperor Xuanzong and Song Zhenzong that we usually heard. In addition, to a certain extent, the temple number is higher than that of posthumous title, and calling it the temple number is also more respect for the emperor.

We just said that sometimes we call an emperor by his title, which happened most often in the Qing Dynasty. I guess there must be many people who don't know the temple number and posthumous title of the Qing emperor, but they may know their year numbers. The year number is a way and name used by feudal dynasties in China to record the year. China's first year began with the "Jianyuan" of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, and the last year was named "Xuan Tong" (I can't help it if I have to say "Hongxian"). If you call an emperor by title, there must be a major premise, that is, the emperor has only one title. Emperors before the Ming dynasty often have multiple titles, so in general, we don't need to call emperors before the Ming dynasty by titles.

But nothing is absolute. For example, we will call Li Shimin Emperor Zhenguan and Liu Xiu Emperor Jianwu. Since Ming Taizu, emperors of Ming and Qing dynasties have practiced monism, that is, an emperor generally has only one title. Only Ming Yingzong had two titles in the Ming Dynasty, mainly because this guy was an emperor twice. Only Huang taiji had two titles in Qing dynasty, mainly because Huang taiji completed the transformation from Khan to emperor. Therefore, in the Ming and Qing dynasties, especially in the Qing dynasty, we usually call the emperor by the year number, which is simpler and clearer. Even when the emperor is alive, he can be called by the title of the year. For example, Kangxi, Yongzheng, Qianlong and Daoguang.

In addition, sometimes an emperor is called by some specific titles (posthumous title), which is very rare. For example, some people call Liu Xiu, Emperor Guangwu of Han Dynasty, the Emperor of Copper Horse, while others call Emperor Xuanzong of Ming Dynasty the Emperor of Cricket.