temple name

Calque of Chinese 廟號 / 庙号 (miàohào). The temple (廟 / 庙 (miào)) refers to the grand temples (太廟 / 太庙 (tàimiào)) built by each dynasty for ancestor worship where each deceased monarch's temple name was recorded on their ancestral tablet in the grand temple.

temple name (plural temple names)

1. (historical) A variant posthumous name used in China and occasionally other East Asian cultures for ritual worship at a dynasty's ancestral temple.

   Synonym: temple title

   Coordinate terms: art name, courtesy name, era name, posthumous name

   The posthumous names of early Chinese rulers were often variations of a few words like "the martial one" (武), "the literary one" (文), and "the filial one" (孝), but by the Tang they had become so long that people began using rulers' temple names or era names instead.

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