Introducing the Chinese Name-taboo Method Gaijian An expansion of recent work by Dou Huaiyong

Abstract

The present paper represents the first attempt to expand Dou Huaiyong’s recent contributions to the field of the Chinese name-taboo practice or bihui 避諱. Exclusively dealing with gaixing 改形 (modify the shape), a taboo method recognized only by Dou Huaiyong, the paper delves into his use of the term gaixing and a group of orthographies that might overthrow the recognition. Although it abandons the term gaixing and promotes a new phrase gaijian 改件 (modify the components), the paper finds Dou Houiyong’s core conclusion agreeable, taking gaijian as a taboo method that appeared in the year 658 by analyzing 500 stones carved between 618 and 663. While doing so, this paper introduces for the first time gaijian to the English scholarship, proposing to re-examine how the Chinese name-taboo practice developed in the early Tang dynasty.