Where did the name of Japan come from?

The word Japan means "the country of sunrise".

The origin of Japanese names:

Japan was not called Japan at first. In ancient Japanese mythology, the Japanese called it "eight continents" and "eight island countries". According to the records in Hanshu and Houhanshu, Japan was called "Japan" or "Japan" in ancient China. In the 5th century A.D., after Japan's reunification, its national title was "Yamato". Because the ancient Japanese worshipped the sun god and regarded the sun as their totem. According to legend, at the beginning of the 7th century, Shoto Kutaishi of Japan wrote in a letter to Emperor Yang Di: "The prince comes from Japan to the sunset prince", which is the embryonic form of Japanese country name. It was not until the second half of the 7th century that Japan sent Tang Shi to change the country name to "Japan", which means "the place where the sun rises", that it became the official country name of Japan. According to the Biography of the New Tang Dynasty in Japan, in the first year of Xianheng (670), Japan sent envoys to the Tang Dynasty. At this point, Japan has "learned a little bit about Xia Yan, hated its name and changed its name to Japan". The messenger said that he was famous for his recent appearance. "In addition, in Chinese," Fusang "and" Japan "are also nicknames for Japanese country names.

The origin of Japanese names

First, the origin of surnames

In ancient Japan, there were no surnames, only first names. Later, with the development of production, especially after entering the class society, surnames and surnames first appeared in the ruling class. Scholar is a political organization in ancient Japan. Every surname has its own name, which is called "name". Surnames are named after the positions held by the clan in the imperial court or the places under its jurisdiction. For example, in the imperial court, the department in charge of offering sacrifices is called taboo department, and the clan in charge of taboo department is called taboo department, while Yun and Jin are the clans that rule the places near Yun He. In ancient Japan, "surname" was a title of surname to show its social and political status. There are dozens of surnames, which are similar to titles and are hereditary. There is an obvious hierarchical relationship between surnames. For example: minister, secretary, monarch, ambition, etc. In addition to surnames and surnames, a new appellation called Miao character appeared in the ninth and tenth centuries. Miao means the origin and branch of Miao. Miao is a new surname of a family after leaving the clan. In other words, the surnames of ancient Japanese have three parts: surname, surname and Miao language, which respectively represent certain meanings. The names of ancient aristocrats are often very long, such as "Fujiwara courtiers have nine things", among which the surname, courtiers are surnames, and the nine articles are Miao Wen, which are also real surnames. Later, the number of new Miao languages increased greatly, and surnames, surnames and Miao Wen gradually merged into one, collectively known as Miao Wen: in today's Japanese, Miao Wen is what we usually call surnames. The emperor is an exception among the aristocratic ruling classes with surnames, surnames and Miao characters. Japanese emperors in history had no surnames, only first names. In ancient times, the emperor was regarded as a descendant of the gods and had supreme power, so there was no need for a surname. Not only the emperor, but also the queen and Tian Lei's children have no surnames (the emperor's daughter can take her husband's surname when she grows up and gets married).

Surnames, surnames and Miao characters are all symbols of power, so it was the privilege of the Japanese ruling class at that time to give names these titles. And the broad masses of working people never have surnames, only first names. After the Meiji Restoration (1868), Japan abolished feudal equality, and in the third year of Meiji (1870), the Japanese government decided; All ordinary people can take their own names. But many people are afraid to fight for it themselves because of their long-term habit of giving. Therefore, in the eighth year of Meiji (1875), the Japanese government once again stipulated that all citizens must have surnames. Since then, every family in Japan has a surname, and the son inherits the father's surname, and the wife follows the Japanese surname, which has continued from generation to generation.

Second, the meaning of surname

Japanese have the most surnames in the world. According to statistics, there are currently about 1 1 10,000 surnames in Japan, of which more than 400 are the most common.

Japanese surnames all have certain meanings. Taking place names as surnames is a major feature. For example, some people live at the foot of the mountain and take "Yamamoto" or "Yamamoto" as their surnames; Some people live near paddy fields, so they are called "fields". Many Japanese surnames end with the word "village", such as Nishimura, Okamura, Sencai and Kimura. These surnames were originally derived from place names or village names. In addition, there are many surnames that express natural phenomena and the ideology of social life. From the people of the sun, the moon and the stars to flowers, birds, fish and insects, from professional residence to religious belief, almost all can be used as surnames. For example, Takasaki, which means the prominent part of the island, is the square in front of the palace. Bai Niao and Little Bear are animals. Ruosong and Gaoshan are plants; Gao Qiao and Uju represent buildings; Onodera and cylon expressed their religious beliefs; Qin is the surname of a naturalized person (that is, an immigrant) who entered Japan from China via Korea in ancient times.

Japanese women should take their husband's surname after marriage (men take their wife's surname after adoption). The famous table tennis player changed her husband's surname to "Li Ben" after marriage. After World War II, Japan's new civil law stipulated that both husband and wife could take their husband's surname or wife's surname according to prenuptial agreement. However, most Japanese women still take their husbands' surnames according to Japanese customs after marriage.

Third, the meaning of the name

Japanese names also have certain meanings. For example, loyalty, filial piety, benevolence, righteousness, courtesy, wisdom and faith in names represent ethics; Goodness, auspiciousness, happiness and Jia represent auspiciousness; Tortoise, crane, pine, Chiyo, etc. Represents longevity; Dai Jun and others represent a long time, while broadness, erudition, vastness and foreign land represent wisdom. Some words that express the evil meaning of death and disease, such as thin, hungry, thin, bitter, strange and evil, are taboo and generally do not need to be named.

Some names have specific meanings, such as Isoroku Yamamoto. Fifty-six was named after his father. He was fifty-six years old when he was born. Most Japanese men's names indicate power, British invasion, loyalty and so on. Such as Kuroda in Xiong Jun, Xiao Ye in Takahiro, and Hideyoshi in Hotan. In addition, ranking is also a feature of male names. Such as: Ren Saburo, Chengshan Saburo and Xintian Jiro (the second son). Male names are widely used. Generally speaking, there are many names ending in Lang, Xiong, Male and Husband, such as Kobayashi Hideyoshi, Beowulf Sakamoto and Kishi Nobusuke. Before the Meiji Restoration, many men were called "soldiers guards" or "left (right) guards". This class name originated in ancient times. In the eighth century AD, the emperor's court set up five military institutions, which were responsible for defending the emperor and the court respectively, namely, the Weimen House, the Left and Right Guards House and the Left and Right Guards House. Taiwan Province is called "the home of five guarantees". Originally known as "Bing Wei" or "Left (Right) Wei Men", most of them were non-commissioned officers working in governments at all levels, and some were immediate family members of these non-commissioned officers. However, these time-honored brands are rarely used now.

Japanese women's names are very unique, which is quite different from men's names. Women's names usually use beautiful, elegant and soft-sounding words, such as memoirs of a geisha, pool, hanako and zako. In Japanese history, many women were named after their husbands, fathers and other immediate family members. For example, Murasaki shikibu, the author of the famous Japanese classical novel Biography of Li, took her name "Shibu" from her father's official position-Shibu Cheng (an official in charge of etiquette and other affairs in the ancient imperial court). The names of ancient Japanese women were all written in Japanese pseudonyms (Japanese letters, divided into katakana and hiragana), except for the daughters of a few ruling classes, such as aristocratic landlords. This custom still persists among some women. For example, the name of movie actor Ryoko Nakano is written as "Ueko Nakano" in Japanese. Where "Quotient B" is a pen name letter. Ending with the word "Zi" is a feature of modern Japanese female names.

Nowadays, many women's names are followed by the word "Zi". For example, the names of contemporary famous singers Kato Shizi and Seri Yoko are like this. In addition, there are many names ending with the words Jiang, Dai, Mei and Zhi, such as Daguan Hangjiang, Gandai and Fuzhi. The name of the Japanese emperor is "imperial name" or "taboo". The imperial name was given by the last emperor (that is, his father) after the emperor was born. From the 54th generation of Emperor Akihito (8 10-850 reigned), the Imperial School was composed of two good characters. The so-called good words are auspicious words carefully selected by famous literati and court ministers such as Dr. Wen. For example, the imperial name of Emperor Hori is "Kindness" and that of Emperor Ren Tomorrow is "Liang Zheng". The last word of many emperors' imperial names is "benevolence". Later, Emperor Meiji stipulated this custom as a court system, requiring all the last words of the crown prince to use the word "benevolence" and all the last words of the princess's name to use the word "zi". For example, the royal name of Taishi Emperor is Jiaren; Today, the emperor's imperial name is Hirohito. In addition to the official names of emperors, emperors also have palace names and elegant names, which are often used by emperors in their daily lives. For example, the palace numbers of Emperor Meiji and Emperor Taishō are Right Palace and Ming Palace respectively. After the death of the emperor, there was another title that was forced out by later generations. According to different meanings, this appellation can be divided into two types: one is called "posthumous title" and the other is called "Zhuihao". The former means to praise the goodness and beauty of the emperor before his death, while the latter does not. For example, Wu Sheng, Xiao Gan and Ge Wei were posthumous title of these three emperors; Awakening, Murakami and Dongshan are the titles of these three emperors. Fourth, the composition and distinction between surnames and first names. Japanese surnames use one Chinese character and several Chinese characters. For example: Mori, Matsumoto, Maeji Fukuda, Koji Musha, Koji Kakudo. In ancient times, there were even surnames as long as seven Chinese characters, such as Omusamiyakenotabe. Generally speaking, in modern Japan, two Chinese characters are the most common surnames, followed by three Chinese characters and one Chinese character. Surnames with more than four Chinese characters are rare.

Japanese names consist of a Chinese character or a Chinese character. For example, it is easy to raise a dog. [Morishita] Yoko, [Tanizaki] Runichiro. [Sakai Tian] Kaqimen. In modern Japan, there are two Chinese characters with the most names, and there are very few names with more than four or five Chinese characters.

The order of Japanese surnames and surnames is the same as that of Han people in China. However, due to the inconsistency of Japanese names, it brings a lot of trouble to distinguish surnames from first names. People in other countries often can't tell which words are first names and which words are surnames. For example, people in China generally know that Taiping is the surname and Zheng Fang is the first name. But a name like Hiroshi Yagi is not easy to tell whether Hiroshi Yagi is a surname or a first name. Because "Yagi" is also a surname in Japanese. For the sake of convenience, Japanese people often separate their surnames from their first names in various ways when they formally sign their names. For example, Mori Yoshiro, Bing Qing and Nikaido Susumu wrote Mori Yoshiro, Bing Qing and Nikaido Susumu respectively. So the first and last names are clear at a glance.

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