Methods To Avoid Offence
There were three ways to avoid using a taboo character:
- Changing the character to another one which usually was a synonym or sounded like the character being avoided. For example, the Xuanwu Gate (玄武門：the Black Warrior Gate) of the Forbidden City was renamed as "Shenwu" (神武門：Gate of Divine Might) in order to avoid the Kangxi Emperor's name Xuanye (玄燁).
- Leaving the character as a blank.
- Omitting a stroke in the character, especially the final stroke.
Compare to the writing of G-d or L-rd in Judaism.
Read more about this topic: Naming Taboo
Famous quotes containing the words methods, avoid and/or offence:
“It would be some advantage to live a primitive and frontier life, though in the midst of an outward civilization, if only to learn what are the gross necessaries of life and what methods have been taken to obtain them.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“...we avoid hospitals because ... they’ll kill you there. They overtreat you. And when they see how old you are, and that you still have a mind, they treat you like a curiosity: like “Exhibit A” and “Exhibit B.” Like, “Hey. nurse, come on over here and looky-here at this old woman, she’s in such good shape....” . Most of the time they don’t even treat you like a person, just an object.”
—Annie Elizabeth Delany (b. 1891)
“Without, or with, offence to friends or foes,
I sketch your world exactly as it goes.”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)