Some people have recently seen a problem on the tombstone of Zhu Yuanzhang in Xiaoling Tomb of Ming Dynasty, that is, the word "明" in Xiaoling Tomb of Ming Dynasty has an extra horizontal line. So some people want to ask, why is this? ? Let’s analyze this issue together and see why. Interested netizens can take a look, don’t miss it!
If you travel to Nanjing, Ming Xiaoling Tomb is definitely a must-see. A place. As the joint burial mausoleum of Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang and his queen Ma Xiuying, it represents the highest achievement of architecture and stone carving art in the early Ming Dynasty and is praised as the first royal mausoleum of the Ming and Qing Dynasties.
In the Xiaoling Mausoleum of the Ming Dynasty, there are two very famous stone tablets. One is the merit tablet standing in Sifang City. It is 8.78 meters high. It was built by Zhu Di. It has nine characters: "The Great Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum is a miracle." Monument of Holy Virtue.
The other one is a tombstone standing next to the top of Zhu Yuanzhang’s mausoleum. There are seven characters engraved on it: This is the tomb of Taizu Taizu in this mountain. Among them, next to the word "日" in the word "明", there are more One horizontal line.
Many people will naturally be curious, why is the same word "明" written in two different ways? In particular, why is it necessary to add an extra horizontal line to the word "明"? What is there? What kind of story? Many good people cannot help but speculate.
There are two popular theories at present: First, in order to prevent people from continuing to miss the Ming Dynasty, Kangxi launched a literary inquisition and severely cracked down on those who used the word "Ming", so that the people had to use the word "Ming". An extra horizontal line is specially added to avoid the taboo word "明".
Over time, "眜" also represented the Ming Dynasty, so when later generations rebuilt this tombstone, they also adopted the word "眜".
Objectively speaking, this situation is relatively common. After Li Shimin became emperor, in order to avoid the taboo word "Shimin", the people also changed the word "Shi" to "thirty" and the word "民". Change it to "household". These two characters still exist in many Tang Dynasty documents and monuments, so it is reasonable for Kangxi to do this.
There is also a theory that Kangxi (also known as Qianlong) deliberately wrote this when he paid homage to the Xiaoling Mausoleum of the Ming Dynasty, which meant to satirize the "sun and moon without light" of the Ming Dynasty. Because the word "明" itself represents the sun and the moon, now adding another line in the middle of the day can play a very good role as a partition, so that the sun and the moon will no longer have light. In other words, Feng Shui meant that the Ming Dynasty would never be restored again.
There is some truth to this statement, but the problem is that according to historical records, during Kangxi’s six southern tours, he personally went to Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum to worship five times; and during Qianlong’s six southern tours, even more They went to the Xiaoling Mausoleum of the Ming Dynasty to worship every time, and when they worshipped, they always performed three kneels and nine kowtows, which was very generous. Their purpose was to win the hearts of the Han people.
In this case, if Kangxi or Qianlong came up with such a "sun and moonless" thing, wouldn't it be a slap in the face? Then they still need to go to great lengths to worship the Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum. Kneel down three times and kowtow nine times to Zhu Yuanzhang? On the one hand, he did not hesitate to kneel down at the Xiaoling Mausoleum of the Ming Dynasty to win people's hearts. On the other hand, he belittled the Ming Dynasty in various ways, and even specially created a "sinister" stone tablet. Is this sick? What exactly are they doing? What do you want to do?
In this sense, the second statement is obviously untenable; as for the first statement, it is actually not very accurate, because among the many documents and monuments left during the Kangxi or Qianlong years, in When referring to the Ming Dynasty, the word "Ming" is still used, and this horizontal cross is not specially added. Therefore, the so-called literary taboo is also worthy of scrutiny.
Finally, there is another theory, saying that the character "眜" with an extra stroke is a variant of "明". The two characters have exactly the same meaning and can be substituted for each other. In this regard, according to the development and evolution of Chinese characters, the character "明" was originally written as "朙", in which "囧" is the shape of the window, symbolizing the moonlight entering the room through the window to achieve the lighting effect.
Later, after the Chinese characters were simplified, the two characters "ming" and "眜" came into being, both of which were simplified writing methods of "朙".
However, the word "Ming" is more commonly used in daily life, while the word "眜" is mostly used in calligraphy. In particular, some famous artists will deliberately choose to use "眜" when writing calligraphy. Chinese characters, because they are easier to write and more enjoyable to read.
For example, in the post "Ode to the Goddess of Luo" written by the great calligrapher Wang Xianzhi, the clear character is written as "眜"; Chenggong Liquan Ming" also wrote the clear character "眜" in it. There is also a plaque in the Zhuge Wuhou Temple in Chengdu: Mingliang will last through the ages.
Even after the founding of the People's Republic of China, the Nanjing Municipal Government erected the "Ming Xiaoling National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit Sign Monument", in which the word "Ming" also chose to use an extra horizontal "眜" ". In this sense, it is reasonable for people at that time to choose to use the word "眜" when writing "The tomb of Emperor Taizu Shu on this mountain".