Why was the first king in Song Dynasty called Mao? And the first king of the Han Dynasty was called Gaozu?

Whether the founding emperor is called Taizu or Gaozu mainly depends on whether they pursue their ancestors: if they pursue their ancestors, he is Gaozu; If there is no commemorative seal, then he is Mao. That is to say, if the descendants of aristocratic families become emperors, they will generally call their ancestors or fathers Mao, and they can only call them Mao to show the difference; If the first generation of civilian families became emperors, they would probably be called Mao.

As a commoner, Liu Banghui is called "the great-grandfather", which is actually a misinformation given to us by Sima Qian, the author of Historical Records.

After the death of the founding emperor Liu Bang, ministers agreed that the temple name was "Taizu" and posthumous title was "Gao Emperor", so the official name should be "Han Taizu Gao Emperor". If it is called the temple number for short, it should also be "Han Taizu"; If it is called posthumous title for short, it should be "Emperor Wudi of the Han Dynasty"; In any case, it is not what people used to call "Emperor Gaozu".

However, in Sima Qian's Historical Records, the biographies of the Eight Great-Grandfathers recorded: "Bing Yin, buried. I set up a prince and went to the imperial palace. All the ministers said: Emperor Taizu started from the subtleties, set things right and settled the world. He was the emperor of the Han Dynasty, with the highest merit. Adults are high emperors. " It can be seen that Gaozu was both a honorific title and a generic title at that time, while Sima Qian used the honorific title of Gaozu at that time and took Liu Bang as the "Gaozu", which led to the later generations calling Liu Bang the Emperor Gaozu.

Extended data:

After the precedent of "Emperor Gaozu", later dynasties simply made the same mistake and added the name "Emperor Gaozu" directly to the temple name system when deciding the temple name for the founding emperor. As a result, later dynasties followed suit, and some decided the temple name of the founding emperor as "Mao" according to the original temple name system, such as Sun Quan, the emperor of Wu Kaiguo in the Three Kingdoms period, and Liang Kaiguo in the Southern and Northern Dynasties.

Some set the temple names of the founding emperors according to the example of Emperor Gaozu, such as Cao Pi, the founding emperor of Cao Wei in the Southern Dynasties, and Liu Yu, the founding emperor of Song Dynasty, followed by Nanliang and Nanchenye, namely Xiao Yan, Liang Gaozu, Chen Baxian, Chen Gaozu and Sui and Tang Dynasties. That is to say, for a long time after the Han Dynasty, "Taizu" and "Gaozu" existed side by side and were mixed, and there was no strict difference.

Sometimes, some founding emperors designated their ancestors as "Taizu" and kept the temple name "Gaozu" for themselves. For example, Li Yuan, the founding emperor of the Tang Dynasty, designated his grandfather Li Hu as "Mao" and was called "Tang Gaozu" after his death.

Sometimes, some founding emperors designated their ancestors as "great ancestors" and used "great ancestors" or other temple names after their death. For example, Sima Yan, the founding emperor of the Jin Dynasty, designated his grandfather Sima Yi as "the great ancestor of the Jin Dynasty", his father Si Mazhao as "the great ancestor of the Jin Dynasty" and his temple name as "the great ancestor of the Jin Dynasty".

Baidu encyclopedia-Taizu

Baidu Encyclopedia-posthumous title