谈名道字——中国古人名字中的语言文化现象考察

Chinese Ancient Names and Their Biaozi:A Linguistic and Cultural Survey

中国古人兄弟之间取名有若干规则。双名者,兄弟名皆在相同位置有一字相同;单名者,兄弟名皆有相同的偏旁部首或结构形式。此外有若干特殊规则,如取"八元"、"八恺"、《周易》卦名等。取名规则与维护宗法秩序和血统纯洁的目的相关。古人表字有与名的涵义无关者,其形式为以表长幼次序的字与表男子身份的字构成。古人有单字表德者,加语助而为双音节词。单字加语助有两种情况,一为单字加行第,即表德之字加伯、仲、叔、季等;一为单字加美称,即表德之字加子、甫(父)、君、公等。僧人法名由"共名"与"殊名"组成,表字与士大夫同。法名可简称"殊名",字须全称,法名与表字可连称。据其称呼惯例可纠正古籍整理中的错误。

There are some rules in the pattern of brother names in ancient Chinese. If the names respectively contain two-character given name, it has a same character at the same position; if the given names only contain one character, the brothers＇ names have a same radical or structure. In addition, there are other special rules such as ＂eight yuan,＂ ＂eight kai,＂ and divinatory symbols in Zhouyi. The rule to give names is well associated with the purpose to sustain the order of patriarchal system and the purity of the bloodline. Among ancient people＇ s biaozi （ literary names） is the phenomenon that they are not always related with the connotation of their formal names, the forms being that such names may show the order of the eider or younger and that of the status of the male. The single-character literary name expressing merits in ancient men may have an added character to form a two-syllabic word. There are usually two cases： one is to add such character showing the elder or younger among brothers and relatives as the eldest, the second in rank, the third in rank, etc. ; the other is to add a character showing respect such as （zi, fu, jun, gong, ） etc.. Monks＇ formal names consist of a ＂common name＂ and a ＂special name＂, their biaozi similar to the scholar-officials. They can be only the ＂special names＂ in short, but their biaozi has to be called in full. Their formal names and biaozi can be called together. From the perspective of the formality of ancient names, mistakes can be identified and corrected in the reading and rearrangement of ancient literature.