Science fiction is very keen on the subject of real names. The first chapter of Vinci's Real Name (which is also my favorite novel, with timeless insights) reads: "In the age of magic, long, long ago, any prudent wizard put himself His real name is regarded as the most cherished secret and the greatest threat to his own life. Because - it is said in the story - once the wizard's nemesis has his real name, he can use whatever name he wants. No ordinary magic can kill him, or make him his slave, no matter how powerful the wizard's magic may be and how weak and clumsy his adversary may be." Also in
"Doctor Who" The "calling magic" appears many times. The story of the Doctor's encounter with Shakespeare in Season 3 is set in a setting similar to "Age of Magic": three witches from aliens cast spells by acquiring each other's names, while the Doctor temporarily fails by naming the aliens correctly. Break the magic.
Even "Doctor" was actually a name he chose for "healing" purposes, not his real name. The Doctor's real name has been kept as one of the biggest secrets for fifty years, from the beginning of the series to the present. There have been many famous words or hints from the front and side in the play that the name of the Doctor is not only the biggest secret in the universe, but also cannot be said or mentioned, otherwise it will bring disastrous consequences. Therefore, when the Doctor heard Dr. River Song say his name in his ear in the episode "Library on the Moon", although he couldn't hide his shock and confusion, he immediately chose to believe and obey her unconditionally. This is a very figurative manifestation of the person who knows the real name declaring the power to the owner of the name.
If you look at the history books, there is also the custom of "policy name entrusting pledge" in the Spring and Autumn Period of our country: "A pledge to be a minister, without two hearts; the title of the book is a manual, showing that you will die." When a person expresses his unequivocal loyalty to the lord At the time of writing, the Jian policy with his name is presented, and the recipient can control the name of the person to die for his life. To give the name to the other party means to put the key of control into the other party's hand. People in love especially believe in the power of their real names. The two sides gave up the well-known, common name, and tried to grasp the essence of each other by taking another nickname, tying the relationship between the two. The change of title is an attempt to establish or dissolve such a relationship.
This actually reflects a long-standing philosophical tradition since Plato. That is, the tangible things in nature are fluid, but the forms or ideas that make up these tangible substances are eternal. The neurotic Wittgenstein went a step further, arguing that the essence of philosophy is language. Language is the expression of human thought and the foundation of the entire civilization. The essence of philosophy can only be found in language.
The real name needs to be hidden, and the power it has actually has the same reason: everything in the world has a real name that is different from the name on the surface. It grasps the core secret of things, and it is a kind of real name that presents its true essence. name.
There is also a very interesting variant of the real name legend, which is "expelling ghosts in the name of ghosts". During the Eastern Han Dynasty, alchemists who mastered Taoism in various places knew how to "explore ghosts and know the names of ghosts". A wooden slip of the Eastern Han spell that went out of the Han Dynasty ruins in Gaoyou County, Jiangsu Province is engraved with three lines of incantation: "Yi died on the sun, the ghost name is Tianguang. The emperor of heaven knows your name and travels three thousand miles. : "This ghost, I already know your name is Tianguang, go as far as you can." During the Wei and Jin Dynasties, there was also a strange book, the Daquan of Ghost Names, "The Law of Nvqing Ghosts", which said: "This time I will write down its real name, so that people will know it. Once you know the name of a ghost, the evil will not dare to go forward; three times call it a ghost. Name, the ghosts are gone, the ghosts come and go, and the ghosts are evil." (However, the atmosphere at that time was very different from today, and the attitude towards ghosts and gods was quite casual.) The British fairy tale Tom Tit Tot is also a story with a similar theme.
It seems that foreigners have done more research in this area. One of the points made in Clod's "Magic in Names and othings" is that the taboo of names exists only among savages, who regard names as part of their bodies. The industrial age has washed away the mystery of the real name, and the name of the civilized man is only a mark. However, Clod's research was written in the 1920s, and the world has changed. Nearly a hundred years later, with the expansion of the cyberspace, the connection between the individual and his countless names in different dimensions seems to have become ambiguous again. stand up. It is the riddle of the Sphinx, the ideas of Plato, and the mandala of Jung. As Wenqi wrote in "Real Names and Surnames":
"Now, the wheel of the times seems to have turned a full circle, and our concepts have turned back to the age of magic (whether this age really exists, this is not a question) ——We are worried about our real name again.”
Note: This is a comment I wrote from reading a short science fiction story before, and it seems appropriate to put it here.
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