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:
“The methods by which a trade union can alone act, are necessarily destructive; its organization is necessarily tyrannical.”
—Henry George (1839–1897)
“How vigilant we are! determined not to live by faith if we can avoid it; all the day long on the alert, at night we unwillingly say our prayers and commit ourselves to uncertainties. So thoroughly and sincerely are we compelled to live, reverencing our life, and denying the possibility of change. This is the only way, we say; but there are as many ways as there can be drawn radii from one centre. All change is a miracle to contemplate; but it is a miracle which is taking place every instant.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“It breedeth no small offence and scandal to see and consider upon the one part the curiosity and cost bestowed by all sorts of men upon their private houses; and on the other part the unclean and negligent order and spare keeping of the houses of prayer by permitting open decays and ruins of coverings of walls and windows, and by appointing unmeet and unseemly tables with foul cloths for the communion of the sacrament.”
—Elizabeth I (1533–1603)