Name: two. On the ancient naming ceremony.

Second, why are you happy after being beaten-at the naming ceremony

In Lanping County, northwest Yunnan, there is a real "minority"-Pumi nationality.

On the morning of the fifth day of July every year, there are often some young Pumi women holding their children in one hand and a wooden stick in the other, hiding by the roadside or under the bridge, waiting for the first elderly or adult men and women to pass by, taking advantage of it and suddenly jumping out and hitting people with sticks.

Interestingly, the hitter looked innocent; Although the victim was frightened, he was not angry, but smiled and was overjoyed.

What's going on here?

It turns out that Pumi people think that children are often young and ignorant at the beginning of birth, weak and prone to illness. So disaster should have a Chinese name. Their "naming ceremony" was held on July 5. On this day, the child's mother led the child to hide in the village entrance, roadside and under the bridge early in the morning.

When you meet a passerby and finish the fight, the mother of the child will immediately say: Do you care about the child? Why not give the child a name?

Whoever is beaten must give the child a lucky name in such a scene. Otherwise, you can't escape anyway. Therefore, on the fifth day of July every year, people who have no knowledge dare not get up early and go alone without authorization. But if Mr Fang in Fortress Besieged lives here, he won't be able to sleep for the first night.

This is a ceremony for pumi people to beat people and call themselves names.

Today, the grand naming ceremony is a rare old custom, which is disappearing except for some ethnic minorities and closed and backward areas. However, as an important aspect of jurisprudence, it still has certain research value.

Naming ceremony, ancient and modern, Chinese and foreign.

I. * * Naming Ceremony

Since ancient times, people have considered names extremely mysterious. People think that people's names are closely related to the body and soul of China people. So the ancients believed that among all the blessings and curses, the name was the key. A person's name is mysteriously associated with his person or soul, so it must be carefully protected.

Since the name is so important, people should hold a grand ceremony and carefully choose a good name at the beginning of the name establishment. This is the same reason why people hold weddings and ribbon-cutting ceremonies today.

In ancient China, only princes, princes, dignitaries and aristocratic families had names. Therefore, only the upper classes of these societies have the manpower and material resources to hold a grand naming ceremony. If the prince is born, a ceremony of "divining the name" will be held, and the name will be given by blowing. "Dai" contains the following words: the prince was born crying, and the master blew the bronze ware and said: There is a certain method in the sound. Taizai said: I tasted something. Then predict the name.

This means that the prince cried all his life. At this time, a Buddhist monk standing nearby took out a bronze instrument to play, and he wanted to play a melody that was in harmony with the prince's cry. Taizai felt ok after listening to it, and began to use the beautiful melody in his voice to determine the name of the prince. Probably the names of the ancients are mostly used to address, so they should be loud and catchy, so they are named according to their sounds. As for the shape and meaning of the name, let's not take it seriously.

From ancient times to the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the naming of * * * was particularly ritualized. However, there is only one ritual "the name of divination". At that time, people didn't know the taste of high-tech development, dared not be enemies of heaven and earth, and passively adapted to nature. The naming ceremony is an example. The method of divination first takes burning turtles as a symbol of harmony. For example, at the beginning of his masterpiece Lisao, Qu Yuan, a great poet, talked about his name and words in terms of his pedigree and date of birth. Poetry cloud:

"After the emperor levin, I take an examination of" harmony, I gave my virginity to Meng Xi, and GengYin down to me. Huang Lan slapped Yu from the beginning and gave Yu a good reputation. The name Yu is formal, but the word Yu is both. I have both this advantage and the ability to cultivate. "

In his poems, the poet claimed that he was a descendant of Zhuan Xu and died on the auspicious day of Silver Day in silver moon the following year. On the day he was born, his father burned a turtle and made a fortune. Zhao and Zhao were universal in ancient times. Its name comes from divination.

The poet said in the "death" of "Nine Songs":

"Omens are famous for their regularity, while hexagrams are considered spiritual."

These two sentences are obvious. Recording the name of divination in poetry shows that people attached importance to the ritual of divination at that time.

There are other ways to generate names by divination, burn turtles and read the sign. Cha Sheng Lu Yu, for example, got his surname and first name through divination. According to legend, he is an illegitimate child of unknown origin, wandering on the waterfront, being accepted as a disciple by Zen master Jingling and taught as a disciple. When he grew up, Lu Yu was ashamed of his experience of shaving his hair and becoming a monk, that is, he moved to the Book of Changes and divined fame, and he got the "drifting" cloud: Hung-chien was on the land, and feathers could be used as tools. He took Lu as his surname and became a feather character. Later, Mr. Qian Zhongshu named the owner of the famous work Fortress Besieged "Hung-chien".

The name of the Han nationality has a unique feature, that is, it is not only famous but also has characters, and the names and characters complement each other. This phenomenon can be found in the Book of Rites more than 2,000 years ago. There is a cloud in the Book of Rites: "Young name, crown word, fifty equality, death, Zhou Dao also." The word "Guan Er" is one of Zhou Dao. "Born in March, adding a name" means giving a name to a child born in three months. At the same time, I cut my baby's hair, and my father coughed while holding the baby's right hand. After the name, the man is 20 kronor, and the woman is allowed to marry. According to research, when the children of ancient aristocratic families were 20 years old, they all held a grand coronation ceremony in the ancestral hall, and choosing words for them was one of the important contents of the coronation ceremony. "Being a father at the age of 20", the coronation ceremony is an important ceremony to gain the meaning of life. Obtaining the second name "Zi" as an adult at this ceremony also symbolizes the beginning of a troubled life.

Divination of names and "crowns" is an ancient custom. With the development of history, the replacement of dynasties has gradually become less important to future generations. However, the unified naming ceremony has been abandoned, and some new naming ceremonies have sprung up in areas with relatively close culture and fashion. These naming ceremonies are mainly reflected in Jiangnan area, that is, wuyue in the Han people's name system. Grasping Zhou, layup, posting names, stealing names, bumping names, etc. are all from Jiangnan water town.

Grasping Zhou is also called hard work. On the first day of a child's life, all kinds of toys and daily necessities are displayed in front of the child for him to choose at will. People think that those who catch them can predict the temperament and interests of children throughout their lives. If copper coins are caught, it indicates that children can make big money in the future; If you hold the brush tightly, it indicates that your children will be brilliant and brilliant in the future. Of course, if a boy puts down a handful of flowers as soon as he reaches out, people around him will laugh at him for being a "flower pole" when he grows up. For example, in A Dream of Red Mansions, Jia Baoyu, the second son of Jia's family, "reached out to grab some pink hairpin rings", and Grandfather Zheng was very angry and said, "The ears of people who scatter colors in the future!" So, I am very unhappy. "Jia Baoyu later mixed with girls all day long and often enjoyed eating rouge.

With regard to grasping the Zhou Dynasty, there is a passage in Yan Zhitui's "Yan Family Training Style Exercise" in the Northern Qi Dynasty: "Jiangnan customs, children are born, in order to make new clothes and clean and decorate. Men use bows, arrows, paper and pens, while women use knives, rulers and needles to carve and add food, treasures and clothes to play with. Before placing it, take it according to its meaning to test greed, honesty and stupidity, which is called testing children. "

In addition to "predicting" children's future, there is also an important mission of grasping Zhou, which is naming. The naming of Zhou is popular not only among Han people, but also among many ethnic minorities. As mentioned above, if you hold a bow and arrow, you can give your child a name related to the bow and arrow. If you are holding a book, it is mostly in the name of Zhong Shu and Xi Shu. For example, Mr. Qian Zhongshu, a great literary master, is famous for grasping Zhou.

The custom of layup scale also originated in Jiangnan. At the beginning of the baby's birth, the packaged baby and the satisfactory mascot are weighed together with a scale, and several kilograms are named after them. The mascot is decided by the parents of the baby, including the father's boots and the mother's hair, with a view to the child becoming an official or making a fortune in the future; There are books and bronze locks, and I hope that children will have virtue, wealth and longevity. Mascots should not be overweight, but the higher the baby's weight, the better. There is an "old lady of nine catties" in Lu Xun's novels, and her favorite sentence is "each generation is worse than the next". The reason is that he had a grandson named seven pounds, and later his daughter was only six pounds.

In Wuxian County, Jiangsu Province, there is still the old custom of naming children as gods and buddhas. Most people who adopt this naming ceremony are wealthy families, because the children of wealthy families are spoiled and sick from childhood. In order to protect the child's health and happiness, my father asked my wife to sew a bag with red cloth, write down the date and year of the child's birth, and put it in the bag, so as to "send the bag". After sewing, go to the temple to burn incense and worship Buddha, kowtow and ask the monks in the temple to give the child a name. If the Buddha in the bag is called Jin, the children are called "Jin Sheng" and "Jin Shou". Children come to the temple to burn incense and shout "Send to the Lord" to the Buddha who hangs the bag.

After the form of sending names is over, every year at the end of the Lunar New Year, the monks in the temple should check the "over-sending bag" hanging on the Buddha statue, write down the name and address, make some coarse rice and vegetarian dishes, and send them to your son's home. The children must be given a New Year's Eve dinner, and their father will give the monk some copper coins while thanking them. This form will take three years. After the child grows up and gets married, he has to go through the last procedure, that is, "pulling out the bag", and he will take it out in the temple himself. To some extent, the "ceremony" of giving a name to a Buddha is the end. However, the name should be kept for a lifetime.

Stealing and bumping names is also said to be a naming custom in Jiangnan. Stealing fame and gain must bear certain risks. Old people pursue more children and more happiness. Whoever is prosperous must envy his neighbor. When you admire them, you will inevitably think a lot. So how can we catch up with others' "population density"? Stealing names is one of its laws. At the beginning of the child's fame, someone invited him to steal a pair of chopsticks and a rice bowl from that rich family and named the child "bowl" or "chopsticks". The thief succeeded. When returning home in triumph, the child's mother will hold the child in her arms and stand at the door to greet the guests. As soon as the thief saw the child, he opened his mouth and shouted, "Chopsticks!" " "Still a bowl! The mother of the child must answer "Hey! "On behalf of the children can't talk. Hey! " They thought that after stealing the name, the child would be free from illness. However, this method is bitter for those families with many mouths. Originally, bowls and chopsticks were not enough, and the Zhang family stole and the Li family stole, so a family of many people became a problem. However, it is not clear whether the method of "stealing credit by charging" will be adopted in the future.

The name-bumping ceremony has the same effect as beating people to get their names. After the child is born, there is no hurry to name it, but to find a good day for the teacher of Yin and Yang. On that day, he will go out with his family, put fruit and food on the roadside, light incense sticks and paper money, and then stand quietly by the roadside, waiting for pedestrians. When the first passer-by came by, everyone flocked to take food, invited passers-by to enjoy it, and begged them to be godparents for their children. Passers-by must not refuse, they must admit that they are godfathers and godmothers, and give their children a surname instead of a name. It is said that some rogue proletarians often collude with Yin and Yang teachers in order to be godmothers and not take care of them for free food. As for the name, take any one. See flowers as flowers, grass as grass, and donkey as donkey. It can be seen that everyone in the world has it.

In order to deal with hooligans, the famous insurance companies have invented another method of "not being taunted and hiding", that is, naming themselves. The method is similar to this, that is, "pray with three-sex incense sticks on the road, burn paper money and throw rice to entertain the evil spirits of the past." Then I named my children "Yang Lu", "Rudy", "Luther" and so on. As soon as this law came out, street children changed their names from "godmothers" to "ghosts", but they still enjoyed delicious food.

Although the purpose of bumping into names or sending names is different, they are all the same, just to let children live safely and grow up healthily, so as not to suffer unexpected troubles and increase their sadness. However, apart from getting a little psychological comfort, what effect can this have on a person's future? I'm afraid materialists will sneer again when they know it.

2. Naming ceremony for ethnic minorities.

The naming ceremony of ethnic minorities is different from that of Han nationality. Influenced by the cultural development sooner or later, their ceremonies often remain under the negative influence of the concept of "name fetishism", and the naming ceremony has a very primitive religious color. In addition, some ceremonies not only appear in history books, but are still popular today with the development of society.

The Jinuo people who live in Jinuo Mountain, Jinghong County, Yunnan Province, have a childhood "fixed soul name" in addition to their real names. Its naming ceremony is quite charming: nine days after the child is born, parents will kill a pair of red chickens to entertain relatives and friends and the elders in the village. Then tie a red velvet knot on the child's hat for good luck, and then name it by the wizard who presided over the "Assam" ceremony. If the wizard shouts "Don't pull away", take "Don't pull away" as the initial pronunciation of the child's soul name. No, I didn't pull yesterday, I didn't pull Simba, and so on. But the name of the soul is only used by boys and will not be handed down. It is only a symbolic name recognized by the society.

Naxi people mainly live in Lijiang and Yongning areas. The Naxi people in Lijiang hold a family dinner at the full moon of their children, at which time they brainstorm to name their children. Zhi Zi Mosuo people of Naxi nationality in Yongning area pay more attention to naming than the former. On the day or the next day of the baby's birth, they will ask Daba or Thorne to hold a naming ceremony for the baby to lose weight. First, chicken, pork, rice balls, etc. They are all offered to the kitchen god for ancestor worship, and then divination is carried out. According to the age of the mother, the zodiac sign and the year, month, day and hour of the child's birth, calculate which position on the gossip, and hang the name of the Buddha who is consistent with the child's position as the child's name, and pray for the blessing of the Buddha.

The birth ceremony of Hani nationality is the most unique and interesting. After giving birth to the baby, the mother-in-law will make a fire in the yard and burn the fetal membranes. Burned afterbirth should be stored in a small bamboo tube. At the same time, another old man picked up the baby in the room, prayed for blessings, gently stroked the baby's forehead with his index finger, and read the baby's name in his heart.

There is also a ceremony to announce the birth name, which is on the morning of the third day after the child is born. At this time, the baby's father has to do a series of preparatory work. First, he will make many fist-sized dumplings, stick rotten old milk beans and a small piece of chicken wings, and pile them into a tower on the table. If the child is a man, a boy will be asked to carry a glutinous rice bamboo tube, wear overalls and carry a small hoe. If you are a girl, please carry a tube of glutinous rice, a pair of hemp fiber back frames and a machete. Everything is ready, the baby's father announces the baby's nickname to everyone. If the child's name is "Kuimo" and it is a man, the boy in overalls will hoe the ground outside the master's yard at this time, indicating that the baby can plow and farm when he grows up; If the child is a girl named "Chujiao", the girl with the hemp fiber back frame will shake the machete in her hand in front of the baby's mother and daughter, indicating that her daughter will cut wood and cook when she grows up.

This is how millions of Hani compatriots living in Ailao Mountain and Tian Liang in Yunnan choose baby names for the next generation.

Some ethnic minorities also pursue simple and interesting naming ceremonies. The Dragon People who live in the southwest of China are a representative. On the day when the child was born, the father went out to find a name for the child. The first thing he met was the child's name, which is said to be mainly used to distinguish the homonyms. For example, a Yao girl named Pan gave birth to a third daughter, usually called Pan Sanmei. In order to distinguish the other three sisters, he had to go out and look for names. If he sees a swallow as soon as he goes out, the child is called Sister Swallow. If someone drives the sheep up the mountain, call Sister Yang. I don't know if anyone chooses the toilet. If there is, it is not elegant to call a toilet girl. It is said that a Yao nationality who is still alive is called Fang Maide Shi Gong Yi. The name "Shi" was named after a stone that his father saw at first sight when he went out.

3. Naming ceremony for foreign friends

When it comes to naming ceremonies abroad, people may first think of "Christian names" and "dharma names". Because in foreign countries, the power of religion is often greater than that of politics, and its influence affects almost every major event of every family member. There is no doubt that naming a baby will have religious overtones.

In the west, the Christian name is also called the baptismal name, which is the name taken by the church clergy when they baptize their children. In Asia, Christian names are given by Brahmins. Regardless of the East or the West, the ceremony of choosing Christian names is very grand. For example, in Nepal, the naming of children should be held by Brahmins, all kinds of ceremonies should be carried out according to Hindu classics, and relevant scriptures should be recited repeatedly before a formal name, that is, the Christian name, is determined. In order to obtain a dharma name, Cambodian Cypriots usually have to be monks for more than three months. After obtaining the legal number, even your parents are not allowed to use common names, and they must be addressed respectfully.

The naming ceremony has its own flavor. Like Nepal, 89% are Hindus, and its naming ceremony is undoubtedly dominated by Hinduism. There, the naming ceremony of children is usually held at the end of the "impurity period", that is, the first 1 1 day after birth. The scale and grandeur of the ceremony depends on a person's social status and economic situation, but no matter how rich or poor, there are ceremonies. The so-called "fish has a fish road, shrimp has a shrimp road." For example, Nepali King birendra was born on February 28th, 1945, and his naming ceremony was held in 1946 1 month. On the day of naming, guests gathered and all the famous Brahmins in the country were invited to the palace. At a predetermined time, Brahma will gather in a beautifully decorated courtyard, carefully calculate the location of the constellation where birendra was born, and then perform various ceremonies according to Hindu classics. They recited the relevant scriptures repeatedly, and finally announced a word "B" in a solemn atmosphere, which means that it is most auspicious to take the name "B". Therefore, birendra was given a good name: birendra.

Ordinary people can't be as rich and powerful as kings. They only invited two or three or even one Brahmin to their home for a naming ceremony. At the ceremony, the fathers of children born out of wedlock are required to be present, because children born out of wedlock without fathers will be classified as untouchables. I wonder if there are many children born out of wedlock in Nepal, otherwise, there is no need to make special provisions for this.

The naming ceremony of Afghans is similar to that of Nepal, except that Brahmins are replaced by mullahs or imams. However, the naming ceremony of some ethnic minorities in Afghanistan is quite special. For example, in some tribes in Nuristan, when naming, a fire is lit, the whole family sits around the fire, a member of the family throws wheat into the fire, and the father of the child sits and reads the names of himself, his father and his grandfather. If the wheat grain happens to be thrown into the fire when the name is pronounced, then the name is named after the child.

Burmese people are also keen to choose an auspicious day and hold a naming ceremony for their children within one to four weeks of their birth. Ceremonies are generally presided over by highly respected people, and monks are invited. After reading the related scripture, the host said some auspicious words. He washed the baby's hair with prepared water of Gleditsia sinensis. The invited participants symbolically put some shampoo on the baby's head, then shaved the baby's fetal hair, put on new white clothes and sprayed perfume. The owner gave the child a suitable name. After that, give the child a mirror for him to appreciate, and grab some knives, needles, pens and other things for him to grasp as a sign. Finally, people should hold the child in their arms, let him land on his feet, squat seven times like walking, and express the hope that he will grow up as soon as possible.

Russians believe that water is a symbol of life, so when a baby falls to the ground, parents will hold the child and invite people to the water. The warlock will bathe the baby, then recite the scriptures to exorcise the evil spirits and predict the future. After that, the parents will choose the names of ancestors or heroes to name their children. After the victory of the October Revolution, the naming ceremony of rural babies was held in the village Soviet auditorium or club, and the host was the Soviet chairman. There is a "baby palace" in this city that is specially named for newborn babies.

In foreign countries, whether in Asia or Europe, naming ceremonies are often mixed with a very strong religious atmosphere. In China, regardless of the Han nationality or ethnic minorities, the naming ceremony is also quite superstitious. Fundamentally speaking, the naming ceremony itself is an old custom with feudal color. Therefore, with the development of science and technology and the progress of culture, this kind of ceremony is increasingly abandoned by people. So far, apart from religious restrictions, there are few naming ceremonies with other meanings, just scattered in the hinterland. I think the naming ceremony in the future will eventually fall into the waste paper pile of history with the disappearance of religion.

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