The Chinese sovereign was the ruler of a particular monarchical regime in the historical periods of ancient China and imperial China. Sovereigns ruling the same regime,and descended from the same paternal line,constituted a dynasty. Several titles and naming schemes have been used throughout Chinese history.
Throughout Chinese history,"Emperor" was the superlative title held by the monarchs who ruled various imperial dynasties or Chinese empires. In traditional Chinese political theory,the emperor was the "Son of Heaven",an autocrat with the divine mandate right to rule all under Heaven. Emperors were worshiped posthumously under an imperial cult. The lineage of emperors descended from a paternal family line constituted a dynasty,and succession in most cases theoretically followed agnatic primogeniture. The emperor of China was an absolute monarch.
A posthumous name is an honorary name given mainly to revered dead people in East Asian culture. It is predominantly used in Asian countries such as China,Korea,Vietnam,Japan,and Thailand. Reflecting on the person's accomplishments or reputation,the title is assigned after death and essentially replaces the name used during life. Although most posthumous names are given to royalty,some posthumous names are given to honour significant people without hereditary titles,such as courtiers or military generals.
Chinese names are personal names used by individuals from Greater China and other parts of the Sinophone world. Sometimes the same set of Chinese characters could be chosen as a Chinese name,a Hong Kong name,a Japanese name,a Korean name,a Malaysian Chinese name,or a Vietnamese name,but they would be spelled differently due to their varying historical pronunciation of Chinese characters.
The Mandate of Heaven is a Chinese political ideology that was used in Ancient China and Imperial China to legitimize the rule of the king or emperor of China. According to this doctrine,Heaven bestows its mandate on a virtuous ruler. This ruler,the Son of Heaven,was the supreme universal monarch,who ruled Tianxia. If a ruler was overthrown,this was interpreted as an indication that the ruler was unworthy and had lost the mandate. It was also a common belief that natural disasters such as famine and flood were divine retributions bearing signs of Heaven's displeasure with the ruler,so there would often be revolts following major disasters as the people saw these calamities as signs that the Mandate of Heaven had been withdrawn.
The nobility of China represented the upper strata of aristocracy in premodern China,acting as the ruling class until c. 1000 CE,and remaining a significant feature of the traditional social structure until the end of the imperial period.
A regnal name,regnant name,or reign name is the name used by monarchs and popes during their reigns and subsequently,historically. Since ancient times,some monarchs have chosen to use a different name from their original name when they accede to the monarchy.
For most of its history,China was organized into various dynastic states under the rule of hereditary monarchs. Beginning with the establishment of dynastic rule by Yu the Great c. 2070 BC,and ending with the abdication of the Xuantong Emperor in AD 1912,Chinese historiography came to organize itself around the succession of monarchical dynasties. Besides those established by the dominant Han ethnic group or its spiritual Huaxia predecessors,dynasties throughout Chinese history were also founded by non-Han peoples.
Taizong is the temple name used for several monarchs of China. It may refer to:
Son of Heaven,or Tianzi,was the sacred monarchial and imperial title of the Chinese sovereign. It originated with the Zhou dynasty and was founded on the political and spiritual doctrine of the Mandate of Heaven. Since the Qin dynasty,the secular imperial title of the Son of Heaven was "Huangdi".
Guo Wei,also known by his temple name as the Emperor Taizu of Later Zhou (後周太祖),was the founding emperor of the Chinese Later Zhou dynasty during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period,reigning from 951 until his death in 954.
Chinese era names,also known as reign mottos,were titles used by various Chinese dynasties and regimes in Imperial China for the purpose of year identification and numbering. The first monarch to adopt era names was the Emperor Wu of Han in 140 BCE,and this system remained the official method of year identification and numbering until the establishment of the Republic of China in 1912 CE,when the era name system was superseded by the Republic of China calendar. Other polities in the Sinosphere—Korea,Vietnam and Japan—also adopted the concept of era name as a result of Chinese politico-cultural influence.
Duke Hu of Chen was the posthumous title given to Gui Man by his father-in-law,King Wu of Zhou,who founded the Zhou dynasty in 1046 BC. Duke Hu was the founder of the Chen state,a dynastic vassal state of the Zhou dynasty located in modern-day eastern Henan.
Zhu Shizhen,born Zhu Wusi,was the father of Zhu Yuanzhang,the founding emperor of the Ming dynasty. He was a native of Jurong. The ancestors of the Zhu family had lived in Pei and later moved to Jurong. His father,Zhu Chuyi,moved to Xuyi,Si Prefecture,and Zhu Shizhen moved again to Zhongli,Haozhou.
The Confucian royal ancestral shrine (宗廟制) is a system of Confucian worship for royal ancestors in East Asian region. It is historically originated from Chinese culture,yet later redeveloped among countries in East Asian cultural sphere as cultural diffusion. Nowadays this system became famous around the world for its authentic cultural heritage preserved in Korea,'Jongmyo',designated as UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1995.
