Traditionally, when a new dynasty was born, its title generally came from its sources, such as "Tang" in the Tang Dynasty and the title of "Tang Guogong" before Tang Gaozu Li Yuan. The "Song" in the Song Dynasty came from "Songzhou", and the original buffer region was located in Zhao Kuangyin, Song Taizu, which is related. On the other hand, Zhu Yuanzhang is not. Before the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, his title was "King of Wu". But he didn't use "Wu" as a title, but invented the word "Daming" out of thin air. Why?
Because Zhu Yuanzhang did not explain the reason, later researchers could only guess. According to Professor Mao Peiqi, a famous historian in Ming Dynasty, the origin of Zhu Yuanzhang's title of "Daming" is probably related to the legendary "Five Virtues at the End".
The concept of "Five Virtues in the End" originated in Zou Yan during the Warring States Period. He called "golden wood fire, water and earth" the "five virtues" and used them to correspond to dynasties in history. This theory was once very prosperous. For example, the Qin dynasty thought it was water virtue, so it advocated black. In the Han Dynasty, it was thought that it was water virtue, and later it was fire virtue (Han Yan), so red was advocated. However, with the development of the times, this theory gradually declined. In the Yuan Dynasty, it was not even clear what kind of "virtue" it was. Therefore, this historical problem also made Zhu Yuanzhang spend a lot of brains.
However, after some consideration, Zhu Yuanzhang still determined his own virtue: "Fire virtue." So a piece of music played at a big banquet (state banquet) in the Ming Dynasty was accompanied by lyrics like this:
The essence of inflammation is luck.
Daming is an emperor, far from Yutang.
He Qinghaiyan, Wu Kang.
-from "Da Ming Hui Dian"? Grand banquet movement? Play a song about inflammation and good luck.
The "essence of inflammation" in the poem refers to fire, which shows that the Zhu family has at least semi-officially certified its own fire virtue attribute. Moreover, the legendary Vulcan Zhu Rong Ancient Ruins was located in Nanjing, the capital of the Ming Dynasty. "Flame" and "light" can naturally be linked together, so using "Daming" as the country name can just correspond.
The second reason mentioned by Professor Mao Peiqi is really related to Zoroastrianism, which involves another mysterious religion in the history of China-White Lotus.
The theory of Bailian religion is chaotic, and its origin and origin cannot be written on a piece of paper. Here, we just need to make it clear that White Lotus has indeed absorbed some Zoroastrianism (or Manichaeism) theories, and there is a saying that "Ming Wang was born, Maitreya was born". "Ming Wang" is the embodiment of Maitreya Buddha and will save the people from suffering.
The Red Scarf Army system closely related to Zhu Yuanzhang is the believer of this theory. Therefore, Han Liner, the nominal leader of the Red Scarf Army, was given the title of "Wang Xiaoming", and Zhu Yuanzhang has long been a vassal of Wang Xiaoming. A large number of people who resisted Zhu Yuanzhang, many of them were related to the Red Scarf Army. After Han Liner sank and drowned in Guabu (now Guabu, Liuhe District, Nanjing), the title of "Wang Xiaoming" no longer exists, but his influence cannot be ignored. Therefore, at the beginning of the founding of People's Republic of China (PRC), in order to show that he was the legitimate heir of Wang Xiaoming, Han Liner, Zhu Yuanzhang naturally continued to use his word "Ming" to appease the people. Moreover, in order to overshadow Han Liner, he deliberately changed "Xiao Ming" to "Da Ming" and abruptly overshadowed Han Liner.
Moreover, since the White Lotus Sect used the slogan "Wang Ming was born" to encourage the people to rebel, Zhu Yuanzhang's slogan "Wang Ming" was no longer needed, so he directly occupied the word "Ming" and became the "Maitreya Buddha incarnation" in the mouth of the people-Wang Daming. Is this slogan of encouraging rebellion useless? In this way, the White Lotus Sect lacks an inspiring slogan for no reason, but Zhu Yuanzhang's position has been deified. Isn't it beautiful to kill two birds with one stone?
Zhu Yuanzhang's abacus was really successful. After a long time in Wanli, it was said among the people that Emperor Zhu Jiajian was "the secular Buddha in charge of Gankun", which shows Zhu Yuanzhang's foresight.
Moreover, before the Ming Dynasty, the title of the Yuan Dynasty came from the sentence "Great wealth and great efforts, the beginning of all materials, and the unification of heaven" in the Book of Changes. But don't forget that after this sentence, there was another sentence: "Daming began at the end, and six people made great achievements, taking six dragons to rule the sky", and after "Dayuan" was "Daming", which was simply an act of god and logical. I'm afraid it's hard to say.
As for why Zhu Yuanzhang didn't use his title of "King of Wu" as the country name at the beginning, it is actually very understandable. First of all, Zhu Yuanzhang was born in Haozhou, today's Anhui; His ancestral home is Xuyi, Sizhou, which is today Xuyi County, Jiangsu Province. Neither birthplace nor ancestral home has anything to do with the land of Wu, so Zhu Yuanzhang's sense of identity with Wu is not high. As for Sun Quan, the emperor who used to use martial arts as his country name, Zhu Yuanzhang once said, "Sun Quan is also a good man, so keep him as a gatekeeper." Since everyone regards Sun Quan as a favorite to guard his tomb, he certainly disdains to reuse what Sun Quan used.
And Zhang Shicheng, Zhu Yuanzhang's sworn enemy, also claimed to be the prince of Wu. In this case, how could Zhu Yuanzhang still use "Wu" as the country name? Is it in honor of Zhang Shicheng?
Therefore, under the comprehensive action of various factors, Zhu Yuanzhang finally gave up the title of "King of Wu" and established "Daming", which laid an unshakable foundation for the Ming Dynasty.