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| 5/24 |
| 2005/10/24-25 [Politics/Foreign/Asia/China] UID:40241 Activity:kinda low |
10/24 I'm reading The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, and I have a
question about Chinese Names. For example, Liu Bei. Liu is
his family name, Bei is his given name, and he seems to have a
third name, Xuande. What's this third name? The translation
refers to it as a "style." What does that mean?
\_ It is typical for Chinese to have at least two "First names."
in the past. What we call "first name" is roughly equivalent of
"birth name," the name that goes to the family tree, and in the
imperial time, not very polite to be called upon unless you
are a very close friend or a member of family. One tend to use
"school name" or "zi" as the name to be used commonly. In this
case, "Liu" is the last name, "Bei" is the birth name, and
"XuanDe" is the "school name" which everyone call him upon.
It is not uncommon for well-established Chinese to have a 3rd
"first name" or "hao" roughly translated as "as known as."
So, in short, Chinese tend to have three first names. I am from
a very traditional family, and we managed to keep most of that
tradition even today. kngharv, the guy who has two
first names as well.
\_ It just means he's friggin' sweet.
\_ Liu not Lui unless you are still using some non-PRC standard
romanization.
\_ No, just a typo. Fixed.
\_ How did you find the book? Did you like Liu Bei, or thinks
he's a weenie? How about Cao Cao, the evil but cool dude?
\_ I haven't gotten all the way though it yet, I just read
about Liu Bei crossing the Tan. (I'm pretty busy these
days) So far it's been really good. I don't think I can
really pass judgement on either of them yet. Liu Bei is
possibly a little over restrained sometimes though.
\_ I'm surprised no one has mentioned the video game yet.
\_ I recognized the name from "Destiny of an Emperor" an old
NES RPG.
\_ There must be at least a dozen games based on the story.
Which one are you thinking of?
\_ The one called "Romance of the Three Kingdoms".
\_ There were several PC versions with the same name, and
now there are few versions of PS2 as well.
\_ The Romance of the Three Kingdoms is huge in Japan as well; I
used to get drunk at an izakaya called SanGokushi (Three
Kingdoms). --erikred
\_ The third name is used among friends, sort of similar to the use
of tutoyer in French.
\_ Ok, this seems to jibe with the other stuff I've heard. As
I now understand it, everyone is given a formal and an
informal name at birth. In this case, Bei is his formal
name, and Xuande is his informal name. Ok, does anyone know
why the translator chose to call the informal name the
"style?"
\_ Because the translator's Chinese-fu is weak?
\_ wikipedia is your friend. "Chinese style name":
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Courtesy_name
\_ wikipedia is your friend:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_style_name |
| 5/24 |
|
| en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Courtesy_name search A Chinese style name, sometimes also known as a courtesy name, is an extr a name that could be used in place of the given name. It could be given by one's parents or adopted later in life by oneself. Pinyin: bio z), or courtesy name, is a name tradit ionally given to Chinese males at the age of 20, marking their coming of age, or sometimes to females when they are married. This practice is no t very common in modern Chinese society. Book of Ri tes (), after a man becomes an adult, it is disrespectful for others o f the same generation to address him by his given name. Therefore, the g iven name is reserved for oneself and one's elders, while zi would be us ed by adults of the same generation to refer to one another in formal oc casions or writings; Confucius, whose Chinese na me was Kong Qiu, was the second son of his family. Therefore, his zi was Zhongni (), where "zhong" means ranking second among brothers. Pinyin: h o) was an alternative courtesy name to zi and is usually referred to as the pseudonym. It was most commonly three or four characters long, and perhaps first became popular due to people having the same names. Hao wa s usually self-selected and it was possible to have more than one. It ha d no connection with one's given name or zi, but was often a very person al, sometimes whimsical choice perhaps embodying an allusion or containi ng a rare character, as might befit an educated literatus. Another possi bility was the use of one's residence name as his Hao; |
| en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_style_name search A Chinese style name, sometimes also known as a courtesy name, is an extr a name that could be used in place of the given name. It could be given by one's parents or adopted later in life by oneself. Pinyin: bio z), or courtesy name, is a name tradit ionally given to Chinese males at the age of 20, marking their coming of age, or sometimes to females when they are married. This practice is no t very common in modern Chinese society. Book of Ri tes (), after a man becomes an adult, it is disrespectful for others o f the same generation to address him by his given name. Therefore, the g iven name is reserved for oneself and one's elders, while zi would be us ed by adults of the same generation to refer to one another in formal oc casions or writings; Confucius, whose Chinese na me was Kong Qiu, was the second son of his family. Therefore, his zi was Zhongni (), where "zhong" means ranking second among brothers. Pinyin: h o) was an alternative courtesy name to zi and is usually referred to as the pseudonym. It was most commonly three or four characters long, and perhaps first became popular due to people having the same names. Hao wa s usually self-selected and it was possible to have more than one. It ha d no connection with one's given name or zi, but was often a very person al, sometimes whimsical choice perhaps embodying an allusion or containi ng a rare character, as might befit an educated literatus. Another possi bility was the use of one's residence name as his Hao; |