Naming taboo was a taboo of saying or writing names (specifically characters) of the emperors and ancestors in China and neighboring nations in the ancient Chinese cultural sphere. Chinese (written) language (pinyin: zhōngw n) written in Chinese characters The Chinese language (汉语/漢語, 华语/華語, or 中文; Pinyin: H nyǔ, Hu yǔ, or Zhōngw n) is a member of the Sino-Tibetan family of languages. ... Simplified Chinese characters (Simplified Chinese: 简体字; Traditional Chinese: 簡體字; pinyin: jiǎntǐzì; also called 简化字/簡化字, jiǎnhuàzì) are one of two standard character sets of printed contemporary Chinese written language. ... Traditional Chinese characters are one of two standard character sets of printed contemporary Chinese written language. ... Pinyin (拼音, pÄ«nyÄ«n) literally means join (together) sounds (a less literal translation being phoneticize, spell or transcription) in Chinese and usually refers to HànyÇ” PÄ«nyÄ«n (汉语拼音, literal meaning: Han language pinyin), which is a system of romanization (phonemic notation and transcription to Roman script) for Standard Mandarin. ... Wade-Giles, sometimes abbreviated Wade, is a Romanization (phonetic notation and transliteration) system for the Chinese language based on Mandarin. ...

Name taboos:

• The naming taboo of the state (国讳; 國諱) was the taboo against using name of the emperor and his ancestors. For example, during the Qin Dynasty, Qin Shi Huang's name Zheng(政) was avoided, and the first month of the year "Zheng Yue" (政月: the administrative month) was rewritten into "Zheng Yue" (正月: the upright month) and furthermore renamed as "Duan Yue" (端月: the proper/upright month). Generally, ancestor names going back to seven generations were avoided.
• The naming taboo of the clan (家讳; 家諱) was the taboo against using names of one's own ancestors.
• The naming taboo of the holinesses (聖人諱) was the taboo against using the names of respected people. For example, Confucius' name was a taboo during the Jin Dynasty.

In diplomatic documents and letters between clans, each clan's naming taboos were observed. The Qin Dynasty (秦朝 Pinyin Qín, Wade-Giles Chin; 221 BC - 207 BC) was preceded by the Zhou Dynasty and followed by the Han Dynasty in China. ... Qin Shi Huang (秦始皇) (November or December 260 BC-September 10, 210 BC), personal name Zheng, was king of the Chinese State of Qin from 247 BC to 221 BC, and then the first emperor of a unified China from 221 BC to 210 BC, ruling under the name First Emperor. ... [edit] Confucius (traditionally September 8? 551 BC–479 BC) was a famous thinker and social philosopher of China, whose teachings have deeply influenced East Asia for centuries. ... The Jin Dynasty (金 pinyin: Jīn 1115-1234; Anchu in Jurchen), also known as the Jurchen dynasty, was founded by the Wanyan (完顏 Wányán) clan of the Jurchen, the ancestors of the Manchus who established the Qing Dynasty some 500 years later. ...

In 1777, Wang Xihou (王錫侯) wrote Qianlong Emperor's name on his book, resulting in the executions of him and his relatives. 1777 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... The Qianlong Emperor (born Hongli, September 25, 1711–February 7, 1799) was the fifth emperor of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and the fourth Qing emperor to rule over China. ...

There were three ways to avoid a character:

• Changing the character to another one, which usually was a synonym or sounded like the character being avoided. For example, the Xuanwu Gate (玄武門：the northern gate) of the Forbidden City was renamed as "Shenwu"(神武門：Gate of Divine Might) in order to avoid the Kangxi Emperor's name Xuanye(玄燁).
• Leaving the character as a blank.
• Omitting a stroke in the character, especially the final stroke.

Although these taboos are not strictly followed now, they are still practiced by many people who avoid giving their children names exactly the same or having similar sound to the ancestors'. (This is in direct contrast with the Japanese practice of having a son inherit a character from his given name from his father.) This can explain why even the modern Chinese find disrespectful calling elders by name, and why it is rare to find a Chinese person with "Jr." or "the third" in his name. Synonyms (in ancient Greek syn συν = plus and onoma όνομα = name) are different words with similar or identical meanings. ... Forbidden City Courtyard The Forbidden City or Forbidden Palace (Chinese: 紫禁城; Pinyin: ; literally Purple Forbidden City), located at the exact center of the ancient City of Beijing, was the imperial palace during the mid-Ming and the Qing dynasties. ... The Gate of Divine Might or Gate of Divine Prowess (Chinese: 神武門; pinyin: ; literally Divine Military Might/Prowess Gate) is the northern gate of the Forbidden City in Beijing, China. ... This article needs cleanup, so as to conform to a higher standard. ...

Throughout Chinese history, there were emperors whose names contained common characters who would try to alleviate the burden of the populace in practicing name avoidance. For example, Emperor Xuan of Han, whose given name Bingyi (病已) contained two very common characters, changed his named to Xun (詢), a far less common character, with the explicit stated purpose of making it easier for his people to avoid using his name. Similarly, Emperor Taizong of Tang, whose given name Shimin (世民) also contained two very common characters, ordered that name avoidance only required the avoidance of the characters Shi and Min in direct succession and that it did not require the avoidance of those characters in isolation. (However, his son Emperor Gaozong of Tang effectively made this edict of Emperor Taizong ineffective after his death by also requiring the avoidance of Shi and Min.) Emperor Xuan of Han (91 BC–49 BC) was an emperor of the Chinese Han Dynasty from 74 BC to 49 BC. Emperor Xuan was the great grandson of Emperor Wu. ... Emperor Taizong of Tang China (January 23, 599–July 10, 649), born Li Shimin (李世民), was the second emperor of the Tang Dynasty of China from 626 to 649. ... Emperor Gaozong (628 - 683) was the third emperor of Tang Dynasty in China and he ruled from 649 to 683. ...

The custom of naming taboo had a built-in contradiction; without knowing what the emperors' names were, one could hardly be expected to avoid them, so somehow the emperors' names had to be informally transmitted to the populace to allow them to learn them but not use them publicly. In one famous incident during the Northern Wei Dynasty, Korean ambassadors made a formal request that the imperial government issue them a document containing the emperors' names so that they could avoid offending the emperor while submitting their king's petition. The emperor agreed and issued them such a document. However, the mechanism of how the regular populace would be able to learn the emperors' names remained generally unclear throughout Chinese history. Northern Wei Buddha Maitreya, 443 AD. A Buddhist stela from the Northern Wei period, build in the early 6th century. ...