17-05-2025
- Politics
- South China Morning Post
Why were Chinese emperors' names taboo? Like popes, their titles reflected their legacy
The 1.3 billion Catholic Christians around the world welcomed Leo XIV as their new leader this month following the death of the widely loved Pope Francis.
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It was in the middle of the last century that new popes began to choose papal names that communicate the aim of their papacy.
The new pope said he had selected his name partly to honour Leo XIII, who was pope from 1878 to 1903, for his dedication to social issues and workers' rights.
In the choice of his name, Leo XIV may be signalling the direction of the Roman Catholic Church under his reign – a church that looks out for the powerless, the poor and downtrodden.
Given the traditional name taboo among the Chinese, where addressing people by their birth names in informal settings was simply not done and even rude, Chinese monarchs were never called by their names in their lifetimes, even out of earshot.
The ruler who we now refer to as the Kangxi Emperor was born Aisin Gioro Xuanye. Anyone whose name shared the same characters as 'Xuanye' had to change their names.
During their reigns, rulers were referred to as 'His Majesty' or 'Your Majesty' and, in the late imperial period, 'the Lord of 10,000 Years' or simply '10,000 Years', as a felicitous wish that they would be as long-lived. Sometimes, 'the current emperor' sufficed.
