The Study Of The Emperor's Nickname System In The Tang Dynasty

Posthumous title is the name of the ancients to avoid the name of the former. It appeared in the early Western Zhou Dynasty. During the Spring and Autumn and the Warring States period, Confucianism give the posthumous title of the function to evaluate people. Posthumous title as an important part of the ancient ritual system,contains a wealth of Confucian ethics and culture. The posthumous title of the emperor not only reflects the moral standards promoted by the ancient society in the supreme ruler, but also reflects the dynasty's social atmosphere, cultural consensus and political change.Comparing with the previous dynasties, Posthumous titles of Tang Dynasty produces very big change. Not only the addition of emperors' posthumous titles become more frequently, but also appears the form of add posthumous titles for crown princes or brothers of the emperor. It reflects the close link between posthumous titles and the reality of the political changes. The emperors' posthumous titles of Tang Dynasty are not one or two words any more. Most emperors' posthumous titles have from four to nine words, the posthumous title of XuanZong is the longest and has eighteen words.Meanwhile, the connotation of posthumous titles are more abundant. Every emperor has a good posthumous title except the last emperor of Tang Dynasty—AiDi.The change of the posthumous title of the emperor is closely related to the strengthening of imperial power in the Tang Dynasty and the development of the imperial examination system. The strengthening of imperial power wided the disparity between the emperor and the ministers. The imperial examination system has cultivated a group of people who are good at ingratiating. Both of the two factors contribute to the change of Tang Dynasty emperor posthumous title. What's more,it also has a far-reaching impact on the emperor posthumous title after the Tang Dynasty.