When we study classical Chinese, we often come across some words expressing age appellation, such as "cardamom" and "weak crown", which are all common words. Everyone generally knows their meanings, but the word "plum blossom year" may not be familiar to everyone. In fact, ancient age appellation has various names and interesting origins, which is really a treasure of China culture. Now, let me explain the meaning and origin of ancient appellations to you in detail.

Soup and cake period: refers to the third day after the baby is born.

In the old customs, when a child is born for three days, it is called "soup cake banquet" to entertain relatives and friends, and it is also called "soup cake banquet" and "soup cake party". From Liu Yuxi's "Send a Wash Poem": "I was born with an arc, and I am a guest. Here's to the birth of Kirin. "

First degree: refers to the first year of a child's life.

From The Story of Childhood Learning by Qing Dynasty writer Cheng. Later, it was also commonly called "the first birthday". For example, the 60th birthday was called "60th birthday".

Baby: a baby under one year old.

Fang: One year old.

Onomatopoeia, the voice of a baby learning to speak. Like babbling, it also means that children begin to learn words in this process. Qing Yuanmei's Ode to Sisters: "After your death, you gave birth to two female fangs." Zhou Xi refers to a baby's first birthday.

Childhood: refers to children who are still in infancy when they just learn to laugh, and refers to children aged 2-3.

Others write "children's bags" or "raising children". There is a sentence in Han Yu's poem that "the two families have children, raising children and caring for each other."

First year: the girl is seven years old.

First year: the boy is eight years old.

Tongbi [chèn]: Bi, in Shuowen, there is a saying that "the male was born in August, but he was eight years old; A woman has teeth in July and dies at the age of seven. It can be seen that children's deciduous teeth fall off and grow permanent teeth, which is called "Chen." Childhood "often refers to people's childhood and adolescence." There are also some people who say that they are "princes", such as "The Biography of Dong Zhuochuan in the Later Han Dynasty": "Although their descendants are princes, women are princes. "

General angle: refers to childhood.

The words in The Book of Songs, such as Feng Wei's Self-protection, General's Mansion and Feng Qitian's Mansion, are all from the perspective of General's Mansion. In the future, it will be called childhood "total angle". Preface to Tao Yuanming's Poem Murong: "The general angle hears the Tao, and the white poem achieves nothing." Ancient children tied their hair into two knots on the top of their heads and tied it into a bun, which looked like an angle, so they also used "total angle" to refer to people's early childhood. Borrowed from childhood. Here, "total" means coalescence. A good friend I have known since I was a child. The total angle is eight or nine years old to thirteen or fourteen years old.

Look down: refers to childhood

In ancient times, boys were not crowned and their hair drooped, so "crying" was used to refer to childhood. Pan Yue's "Borrowing Land Fu": "Being shaken by Brown is always looked down upon."

Cardamom: refers to a thirteen-year-old woman.

Cardamom is thirteen or fourteen years old to fifteen or sixteen years old (Cardamom is a plant that blooms in early summer, but not yet in midsummer, which means that people are still underage, so it is called "cardamom youth"). Du Mu's "Farewell" poem says: "Flowers are more than thirteen, and cardamom is the first in February."

Bundle hair: refers to teenagers

The ancients regarded 15 years old as the age of adulthood, tied up their hair and put it on their heads. Hair was tied when a man was fifteen (when he was fifteen, a man would dissolve the original corner and tie it into a bundle). Generally speaking, it means 15 years old. At this time, you should learn all kinds of skills. Dai Fu Bao: "Let's go to college, learn great arts and complete the festival."

In addition, children are called:

Kindergarten: ten years old

(The Book of Rites. "On Quli": "Ten years of life, learning at a young age." Because there were no punctuation marks in ancient Chinese characters, people intercepted the word "kindergarten" as a proxy for ten years old. )

Foreign Fu Zhinian: The child is ten years old.

Chai Jin Year: The girl is twelve years old.

Dancing at night: Teenagers are thirteen to fifteen.

The Year of the Dancing Elephant: Teenagers are fifteen to twenty years old.

Adult: 15 years old or later.

Zheng Xuan: "An adult child is over 15 years old".

Nine: Nine.

Yellow button: under ten years old.

Index year: the child is nine years old.

Teaching age: refers to a nine-year-old child.

Year of foreign happiness: refers to a ten-year-old child.

Dance spoon year: refers to the age of thirteen for children.

The above three are all surnamed Ji.