Posthumous name

A posthumous name (Traditional Chinese: ??/?? Simplified Chinese: ??; Pinyin: shì hào; Romaji Japanese: shig?/tsuig?; Revised Romanization of Korean: siho; Vietnamese: th?y hi?u) is a honorary name given to royalty in some cultures posthumously, that is, after the person's death. The posthumous name is commonly used when naming most Chinese royalty, most Korean royalty, almost all Vietnamese royalty and all the emperors of Japan, except the four most recent emperors, Akihito, Hirohito (the Sh?wa emperor), the Taish? emperor and the Meiji emperor. Posthumous names in China and Vietnam were given to honor lifetime accomplishment: many people who were not related to the emperor have posthumous names. An example is Sun Yat-Sen who is called Father of the Country (?? Guófù).

Non-royal posthumous names

It was common in China, Vietnam and Korea for persons of note to be given posthumous names even when those persons lacked any relation to royalty:

Related Topics:
China - Vietnam - Korea

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• Confucius
• Lao Zi
• Yi Sun-sin (posthumous name "Chungmu")

Often immediate ancestors of the first emperor of a dynasty were typically given posthumous names even though they themselves were not royalty. For example:

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• Sima Zhao, the Prince of Jin and effective ruler in Wei in the Three Kingdoms period, who was the father of the eventual first emperor of Jin Dynasty Sima Yan (Emperor Wu of Jin). Even though he was never emperor, Sima Zhao was given the posthumous name of Emperor Wen of Jin.

An exception to insignificant ancestor-naming is Lao Zi, the claimed ancestor of the Li family of the Tang Dynasty, was named posthumously (see the "Lao Zi" article). He has been culturally important after death.

Related Topics:
Lao Zi - Li - Tang Dynasty

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