A name is the identification of a family or clan related by blood, and it is the main basis used by human beings to distinguish them from other races. Therefore, the ancients were quite cautious in choosing names.
For this reason, the ancients also summed up a taboo about choosing a name, called"Men don't bring the sky, women don't bring immortals".
Men do not carry the sky", as the name suggests, means that the word "day" cannot appear in the name of men. So, why is this a statement?
First of all, "heaven" is the supreme existence in ancient feudal society and the ruler of everything in the universe. Therefore, the interpretation of "heaven" in "Shuowen Jie Zi" is, "Heaven, upside down, supreme, from one great".
After the establishment of the Xia Dynasty, in order to make the subjects of the world willing to obey his rule, the Xia King created the saying "royal power is bestowed". Because royal power is given "by heaven", this gives royal power "divinity".
So, from then on, the king's will became the "Mandate of Heaven."
For the ancients, who had not yet formed a scientific understanding of the natural world, they certainly did not dare to disobey the "heavens".
After all, when the "heavens" are angry, "natural disasters" will descend, so they are willing to accept the rule of the king who "has been ordained by heaven".
In addition, since the beginning of the Zhou Dynasty, rulers have called themselves "Son of Heaven", which means "Son of Heaven".
Therefore, even an emperor did not dare to call himself "heaven", how could ordinary people dare to add the word "heaven" to their names?
Moreover, in the eyes of the ancients, although there is "heaven" above the "king", the "heaven" is an ethereal existence after all, and it is the "king" who really rules them.
If, like "king", "heaven" is included in the name, this is tantamount to a demonstration and provocation against the king's power.
However, the ancient "king" was the most powerful person in the country, and once they noticed that the "royal power" was challenged, they would definitely punish the person. This is also why in "Tang Ju Lives Up to His Mission", the warning words "The wrath of the Son of Heaven, millions of floating corpses, and thousands of miles of blood" will be written.
Therefore, in order to live in peace, the ancients resolutely did not add the word "heaven" to the boy's name.
Then let's talk about this "woman does not bring immortals". Although the word "immortal" is not like the word "heaven", which will violate the taboo of the emperor, this word cannot be used to form names in the eyes of the ancients.
So, what is the special feature of the word "immortal"? First of all, if you write this character on paper with a small seal, you can discover the secret hidden by the word "immortal".
From the glyph of the "immortal" in the seal body, the right half is like a person stretching out four hands and lifting an object above his head. The left half is a seated figure.
The ancients believed that such glyphs represented the process of a person's ascension to immortality.
Perhaps, this thing held high above the head was a sacrifice to heaven. Therefore, "immortal" was used by the ancients to refer to the gods of the heavenly realm.
And if you combine "fairy" and "woman", you will become a fairy. In myths and legends, the daughter of the Jade Emperor is called a fairy.
Therefore, if a woman's name has "Xian" in it, it is too high and too honorable to hold her up, which is inappropriate.
In addition, in the "Shuo Wen Jie Zi","Immortal" also means "immortal immortal". For the ancients, who were already fearing ghosts and gods, how dare they casually put words like "immortals" and "death" on their lips in their daily lives.
Moreover, it is also unorthodox to give a newborn baby girl a name related to "death".
In addition to the above two reasons, there is another reason related to Taoism. In Taoism, there is a kind of immortal that is a scattered immortal, and the scattered immortal is an immortal who has not been knighted by the heavenly court, so they will wander in the Three Realms and live a life of dispersion and leisure.
And although such immortals have not yet obtained the immortal position, they are no longer creatures of the human world, and they are already beyond the existence of the six realms of reincarnation.
So, if you give a girl a name that doesn't belong to the "world", then isn't it a curse on them!
The above reasons are all related to the system and beliefs of the feudal period, but if the sentence "men do not bring the sky, women do not bring immortals" falls on the individual, then there will be a reason.
The ancients believed that once a baby's name was added with such important words as "heaven" and "immortal", they would be afraid that the child's life would not be suppressed and bad things would happen. Because in the view of the ancients, "the extremes of things must be opposed, and moderation is good".
In addition, it is recorded in ancient books that the glyphs and strokes of the name can reflect the future numerology of the person and will be related to the future fate of the person. If you have a good name, then you may be able to turn evil into good luck and solve bad luck. Otherwise, they will fall into calamity.
Therefore, when the ancients named their children, they would conduct gossip deductions according to the date and time of their birth, so as to determine a good name that would help their life.
For example, if a person is killed by fire, then he should not have water in his name.
According to the doctrine of the five elements of yin and yang, water will overcome fire. And it is better to include the word "wood" in his name, because wood can help the fire burn.
Because the meanings of the words "heaven" and "immortal" are so huge that the ancestors will regard them as taboo and will not include them in the names of their children.
But in today's society, people don't seem to have so many taboos and particularities about naming things, and they don't care about the experience and taboos summarized by their ancestors at all.
Many parents will add the word "immortal" to their daughter's name, but in fact, aside from the taboo of this word, the word "immortal" itself will make people feel too dazzling. Avoid it, who can become a real fairy?
If an ordinary girl has been placed on high hopes by her parents to become a "fairy" since she was a child, she will definitely be under pressure when she grows up, and she may be ridiculed by her peers.
And the word "day" will give people a very powerful feeling, which will also make the boy with this name burdensome. Children who grow up under this pressure may become inferior and depressed.
Therefore, although there are not so many taboos now, the wisdom left by the ancients still needs to be heard. Otherwise, it may harm the child for life.
Although no child would like his name to be ordinary and ordinary,But perhaps only under such a name can you grow up safely and worry-free, and will not receive special attention from outsiders because of your name.
Therefore, "men do not bring the sky, women do not bring immortals", this saying of the ancestors is still very valuable for reference.