Category: Chinese

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Eileen Chang: Naming is a kind of creation

I myself have an unbearably vulgar name, am well aware of the fact, and have no plans to change it. But I remain extremely interested in people’s names.

To give someone a name is a simple and small-scale act of creation. When the patriarch of days gone by would sit in winter with his feet propped up on a foot-warming brazier, smoking a water-pipe, and pick out a name for a newly arrived grandson, his word was all. If the boy was called Guang-mei (Brighten the Threshold), he would end up doing his best to redound honor on the gates of the family house. If he was called Zhuyin (Ancestral Privilege) or Chengzu (Indebted to the Ancestor), he would be compelled always to remember his forebears. If he was called Hesheng (Lotus Born), his life would take on something of the coloring of a pond in June. Characters in novels aside, there aren’t many people whose names adequately describe what they are like in reality (and often the opposite is the case and the name represents something they need or lack– nine of ten poor people have names like Jingui [Gold Precious], Ah Fu [Richie], Dayou [Have a Lot]). But no matter how or in what manner, names inevitably become entangled with appearance and character in the process of creating a complete impression of a person. And this is why naming is a kind of creation.

I would like to give someone a name, even though I’ve yet to have the opportunity to do so….

—Chinese novelist Eileen Chang (1920-1995) in her essay “What is essential is that names be right” from Written on Water (2005), translated from her book Liuyan (1968) by Andrew F. Jones. The essays were written in wartime Shanghai. The title refers to a famous quotation of Confucius.

Thank you to Nick who found the Chinese (below).

我自己有一个恶俗不堪的名字，明知其俗而不打算换一个，可是我对于人名实在是非常感到兴趣的。

为人取名字是一种轻便的，小规模的创造。旧时代的祖父，冬天两脚搁在脚炉上，吸着水烟，为新添的孙儿取名字，叫他什么他就是什么。叫他光楣，他就是努力光大门楣；叫他祖荫，叫他承祖，他就得常常记起祖父；叫他荷生，他的命里就多了一点六月的池塘的颜色。除了小说里的人，很少有人是名副其实的，(往往适得其反，名字代表一种需要，一种缺乏。穷人十有九个叫金贵，阿富，大有。)但是无论如何，名字是与一个人的外貌品性打成一片，造成整个的印象的。因此取名是一种创造。

我喜欢替人取名字，虽然我还没有机会实行过。。。

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Chinese girls’ names in Dream of the Red Chamber (Hong Lou Meng)

Zixing said, “So in the Jia household, the first three [girls] are not bad. Old Mr Zheng’s oldest daughter, whose name is ‘Beginning-of-Spring,’ because everyone praised her virtue and talents, was chosen to enter the imperial palace as a lady-in-waiting. The second daughter is the daughter of old Mr She by his wife, and her name is ‘Welcome-the-Spring.” The third young lady is the daughter of Mr Zheng by a concubine, and her name is ‘Seek-for-Spring.’ The fourth young lady is on the Ning Mansion side [i.e. not in the same branch of the family] and is the younger sister of Mr. Zhen. Her name is ‘Regretting-the-Spring’….

Yucun said, “It was so intelligent that in the Zhen family’, the girls’ names always used to be the same kind as the boys’, not the way other families named girls– with those ‘glamorous’ names like  ‘Spring’ or ‘Red’ or ‘Fragrant’ or ‘Jade.’ Why would the Jia family choose this kind of vulgar naming?”

The character "Min"

Zixing said, “It doesn’t. But because the oldest young lady was actually born on the first day of the year, she was called ‘Beginning-of-Spring,’ so the others were named following that, with the name ‘Spring.’ But the generation before that, the girls were named like their brothers. Now to prove it, take your employer’s wife Mrs Lin, who was from the Rong family, the full sister of Jia She [shè means Clemency] and Jia Zheng [zhèng means Rule]. Her name was was Jia Min [min means Clever]. If you don’t believe me, you can ask for yourself.”

Yucun hit the table and said laughing, “No wonder my girl student, whenever she reads the word ‘Min,’ always reads it as ‘Mi’ and always leaves off one or two strokes of the brush [there was a taboo on writing the full names of one’s parents and the emperor]. It puzzled me. Now I hear you say that, there’s no more mystery! ”

—Cao Xueqin‘s Dream of the Red Chamber (Hong Lou Meng 紅樓夢 ) was written in the middle 1700s

子興道：「便是賈府中，現有的三個也不錯。政老爹的長女，名元春，現因賢孝才德，選入宮作女史去了。二小姐乃赦老爹之妾所出，名迎春；三小姐乃政老爹之庶出，名探春。四小姐乃寧府珍爺之胞妹，名喚惜春。。。」

雨村道：「更妙在甄家的風俗，女兒之名，亦皆從男子之名命字，不似別家另外用這些『春』『紅』『香』『玉』等艷字的。何得賈府亦樂此俗套﹖」

子興道：「不然。只因現今大小姐是正月初一日所生，故名元春，餘者方從了『春』字。上一輩的，卻也是從兄弟而來的。現有對証：目今你貴東家林公之夫人，即榮府中赦、政二公之胞妹，在家時名喚賈敏。不信時，你回去細訪可知。」

雨村拍案笑道：「怪道這女學生讀至書，凡中有『敏』字，她皆念作『密』字，每每如是；寫字遇著『敏』字，又減一二筆，我心中就有些疑惑。今聽你說的，是為此無疑矣！」

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Slaves’ names in early Han China

The names inscribed on the funerary figurines from Fenghuangshan are almost our only evidence for the names of slaves during the Former Han period. The names seem to be a mixture of pejorative names like Disrespectful, Bear, Panther, Drunkie, Girlie, Captured, Bound, Carrier, and Round and names of virtuous personality traits like Gentleman, Lucky, Worthy, Trust, Stalwart, Appropriateness, and Contemplation. The names in the second category were common in the general population. A common name for female slaves sees to have been Increase (i.e. fertility).

—Anthony J. Barbieri-Low, Artisans in Early Imperial China (2007), p. 318 note 224

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Confucius: Names must be correct

Old man, China, from Okinawa Soba on Flickr
Zi Lu said, “The King of Wei wants you to help him about government. What will you talk about first?”

Confucius said, “Correcting names, of course!”

Zi Lu said, “Oh really! That’s far-fetched! How would you correct them?”

Confucius said, “Zi Lu, you are really barbaric. A noble man, when faced with something he does not know, tries to hide his ignorance.

“If names are not correct, then words are unfitting; if words are unfitting, then matters are not accomplished. If matters are not accomplished, then ceremony and music will not flourish. If ceremony and music do not flourish, then justice will not be evenhanded. If justice is not evenhanded, the people will be tied hand and foot. That is why the noble man must use names that can be spoken, and words that can become deeds. The noble man never speaks carelessly, that’s all there is to it.”

—From the Analects of Confucius (551-579 B.C.) (論語), 13:3 (Zi Lu 子路)

子路曰：“衛君待子而為政，子將奚先？”子曰：“必也正名乎！”子路曰：“有是哉，子之迂也！奚其正？”子曰：“野哉由也！君子於其所不知，蓋闕如也。名不正，則言不順；言不順，則事不成；事不成，則禮樂不興；禮樂不興，則刑罰不中；刑罰不中，則民無所措手足。故君子名之必可言也，言之必可行也。君子於其言，無所苟而已矣。”