Did Chinese officials and attendants change methods of directly addressing the emperor of China between the Qin, Han, Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming, or Qing dynasty? If so what did they say change into through History?

by [deleted]

I was browsing through old Chinese shows that idolized the depiction of various famous emperors, but something that got me thinking was the method each emperor was addressed.

I tried to look up on Wikipedia, and it did give methods an emperor could be properly addressed, but I didn't find anything specific to the the addressing segments.

IntransigentMemorial

Terribly sorry for the late response. Anyhow, the answer is no. From the reign of Qin Shi Huang to the reign of Puyi, the Chinese emperor was always directly addressed as 皇帝 陛下 (huangdi bixia in Standard Mandarin) or simply 陛下 (bixia), 陛下 meaning "under the steps of the throne." As a general rule^1, the imperial register remained mostly constant throughout the two millenniums of imperial Chinese history, although of course they were subject to linguistic changes (for instance, 皇帝 陛下 would have been pronounced *huangdèi bhêihà during the Tang Dynasty). And in fact, the word 陛下 is still used in Japan, where it is pronounced Heika. That's the origin of the term Tenno Heika Banzai - "Long live the emperor."


^1 Exceptions include terms such as guaren, "the bereft," which was in use as a humble way to refer to themselves by the Zhou rulers and their successors but fell out of imperial usage after the Han, although it continued to be used by other rulers such as the Joseon kings of Korea.