Chinese style name
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A Chinese style name, sometimes also known as a courtesy name (zì), is a given name to be used later in life. After 20 years of age, the zì is assigned in place of one's given name as a symbol of adulthood and respect. Primarily used for male names, one could be given a zì by the parents, or adopt a self chosen zì later. The tradition of using style names has been fading away since the May Fourth Movement. There are two common forms of style name, the zì and the hào.
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[edit] Zì (adult name)
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| Chinese name | |||||||||
| Traditional Chinese: | ( |
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| Simplified Chinese: | ( |
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| Kanji: | |||||||||
| Hiragana: | あざな | ||||||||
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| Korean name | |||||||||
| Hangul: | 자 | ||||||||
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The zì, sometimes called the biǎozì or 'courtesy name', is a name traditionally given to Chinese males at the age of 20, marking their coming of age. It was sometimes given to females upon marriage. As noted above, the practice is no longer common in modern Chinese society. According to the Book of Rites (Traditional Chinese:
The zì is mostly disyllabic, i.e., comprises two characters, and is usually based on the meaning of the míng or given name. Yan Zhitui (
The relation which often exists between a person's zì and his míng can be seen in the case of Mao Zedong (Traditional Chinese:
Another way to form a zì is to use the homophonic character zǐ (Chinese:
It is also common to construct a zì by using as the first character one which expresses the bearer's birth order among male siblings in his family. Thus Confucius, whose actual name was Kǒng Qiū (
The use of zì began sometime during the Shang Dynasty and slowly developed into a system, which became most widespread during the succeeding Zhou Dynasty . During this period, women were also given zì. The zì given to a woman was generally composed of a character indicating her birth order among females siblings and her surname. For example, Mèng Jiāng (
Prior to the 20th century, sinicized Koreans, Vietnamese, and Japanese were also referred to by their zì.
The zì of some famous people:
| Family name | Given name | Zì | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Laozi | Lǐ | Ěr | Bó Yáng |
| Confucius | Kong | Qiu | Zhòngní |
| Sima Yi | Sima | Yi | Zhòngdá |
| Zhuge Liang | Zhuge | Liang | Kongming |
| Li Bai | Li | Bai | Taibai |
| Sun Yat-sen | Sun | Deming | Zaizhi |
| Mao Zedong | Mao | Zedong | Runzhi |
| Yue Fei | Yue | Fei | Pengju |
[edit] Hào (pseudonym)
| Chinese style name | |||||||||
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| Chinese name | |||||||||
| Traditional Chinese: | |||||||||
| Simplified Chinese: | |||||||||
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| Japanese name | |||||||||
| Kana: | ごう (modern usage) がう (historical usage) |
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| Kyūjitai: | |||||||||
| Shinjitai: | |||||||||
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| Korean name | |||||||||
| Hangul: | 호 | ||||||||
| Hanja: | |||||||||
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Hào (traditional Chinese:
