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| Courtesy name (Zi) | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Chinese name | |
| Traditional Chinese | (表) 字 |
| Hanyu Pinyin | (biǎo) zì |
| Wade–Giles | (piao)-tzu |
| Vietnamese name | |
| Vietnamese alphabet | biểu tự tên tự tên chữ |
| Chữ Hán | 表字 |
| Chữ Nôm | 𠸜字 𠸜𡨸 |
| Korean name | |
| Hangul | 자 |
| Hanja | 字 |
| Revised Romanization | ja |
| McCune–Reischauer | cha |
| Japanese name | |
| Kanji | 字 |
| Hiragana | あざな |
| Revised Hepburn | azana |
Acourtesy name (Chinese:字;pinyin:zì;lit. 'character'), also known as astyle name, is an additional name bestowed upon individuals at adulthood, complementing their given name.[1] This tradition is prevalent in theEast Asian cultural sphere, particularly inChina,Japan,Korea,Taiwan andVietnam.[2] Courtesy names are a marker of adulthood and were historically given to men at the age of 20, and sometimes to women upon marriage.
Unlikeart names, which are more akin topseudonyms orpen names, courtesy names served a formal and respectful purpose.[1] In traditional Chinese society, using someone's given name in adulthood was considered disrespectful among peers, making courtesy names essential for formal communication and writing.
Courtesy names often reflect the meaning of the given name or use homophonic characters, and were typically disyllabic after theQin dynasty. The practice also extended to other East Asian cultures, and was sometimes adopted byMongols andManchus during theQing dynasty. The choice of a courtesy name was significant, intended to express moral integrity and respect within the cultural context.
A courtesy name is a name traditionally given to Chinese men at the age of 20sui, marking theircoming of age. It was sometimes given to women, usually upon marriage.[1] The practice is no longer common in modern Chinese society. According to theBook of Rites, after a man reached adulthood, it was disrespectful for others of the same generation to address him by hisgiven name.[3] Thus, the given name was reserved for oneself and one's elders, whereas the courtesy name would be used by adults of the same generation to refer to one another on formal occasions or in writing. Another translation ofzi is "style name", but this translation has been criticised as misleading, because it could imply an official or legal title.[1]
Generally speaking, courtesy names before theQin dynasty were one syllable, and from the Qin to the 20th century they were mostlydisyllabic, consisting of twoChinese characters.[1] Courtesy names were often relative to the meaning of the person's given name; the relationship could be synonyms, relative affairs, or rarely but sometimes antonym. For example,Chiang Kai-shek's given name (中正,romanized as Chung-cheng) and courtesy name (介石, romanized as Kai-shek) are both from theyù (豫) hexagram 16 ofI Ching.[4]
Another way to form a courtesy name is to use the homophonic characterzi (子) – a respectful title for a man – as the first character of the disyllabic courtesy name. Thus, for example,Gongsun Qiao's courtesy name was Zichan (子產), andDu Fu's was Zimei (子美). It was also common to construct a courtesy name by using as the first character one which expresses the bearer's birth order among male siblings in his family. ThusConfucius, whose name was Kong Qiu (孔丘), was given the courtesy name Zhongni (仲尼), where the first characterzhong indicates that he was the second son born into his family. The characters commonly used arebo (伯) for the first,zhong (仲) for the second,shu (叔) for the third, andji (季) typically for the youngest, if the family consists of more than three sons. GeneralSun Jian's four sons, for instance, wereSun Ce (伯符, Bófú),Sun Quan (仲謀, Zhòngmóu),Sun Yi (叔弼, Shūbì) andSun Kuang (季佐, Jìzuǒ).[5]
Reflecting a general cultural tendency toregard names as significant, the choice of what name to bestow upon one's children was considered very important in traditional China.[6]Yan Zhitui of theNorthern Qi dynasty asserted that whereas the purpose of a given name was to distinguish one person from another, a courtesy name should express the bearer's moral integrity.[citation needed]
Prior to the twentieth century,sinicizedKoreans,Vietnamese, andJapanese were also referred to by their courtesy name. The practice was also adopted by someMongols andManchus after the Qing conquest of China.[citation needed]
| Chinese | Family name | Given name | Courtesy name |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lǎozǐ老子 | Lǐ李 | Ěr耳 | Bóyáng伯陽 |
| Kǒngzǐ (Confucius)孔子 | Kǒng孔 | Qiū丘 | Zhòngní仲尼 |
| Sūnzǐ (Sun Tzu)孫子 | Sūn孫 | Wǔ武 | Chángqīng長卿 |
| Cáo Cāo曹操 | Cáo曹 | Cāo操 | Mèngdé孟德 |
| Sūn Quán孫權 | Sūn孫 | Quán權 | Zhòngmóu仲謀 |
| Guān Yǔ關羽 | Guān關 | Yǔ羽 | Yúncháng雲長 |
| Liú Bèi劉備 | Liú劉 | Bèi備 | Xuándé玄德 |
| Zhūgé Liàng諸葛亮 | Zhūgé諸葛 | Liàng亮 | Kǒngmíng孔明 |
| Zhào Yún趙雲 | Zhào趙 | Yún雲 | Zǐlóng子龍 |
| Lǐ Bái李白 | Lǐ李 | Bái白 | Tàibái太白 |
| Sū Dōngpō蘇東坡 | Sū蘇 | Shì軾 | Zǐzhān子瞻 |
| Bāo Zhěng包拯 | Bāo包 | Zhěng拯 | Xīrén希仁 |
| Yuè Fēi岳飛 | Yuè岳 | Fēi飛 | Péngjǔ鵬舉 |
| Yuán Chónghuàn袁崇煥 | Yuán袁 | Chónghuàn崇煥 | Yuánsù元素 |
| Liú Jī劉基 | Liú劉 | Jī基 | Bówēn伯溫 |
| Táng Yín唐寅 | Táng唐 | Yín寅 | Bóhǔ伯虎 |
| Sūn Zhōngshān (Sun Yat-sen)孫中山 | Sūn孫 | Démíng德明 | Zàizhī載之 |
| Jiǎng Jièshí (Chiang Kai-shek)蔣介石 | Jiǎng蔣 | Zhōutài周泰 | Jièshí介石 |
| Máo Zédōng毛澤東 | Máo毛 | Zédōng澤東 | Rùnzhī潤之 |
| Hồ Chí Minh 胡志明 | Nguyễn 阮 | Sinh Cung 生恭 | Tất Thành 必誠 |
| I Sunsin 李舜臣 | I 李 | Sunsin 舜臣 | Yeohae 汝諧 |
| Arai Hakuseki 新井 白石 | Arai 新井 | Kimiyoshi 君美 | Hakuseki 白石 |
A son at twenty is capped, and receives his appellation....When a daughter is promised in marriage, she assumes the hair-pin, and receives her appellation.
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