Reflections | As Japan prepares to mark end of an era, a look back at how China started the system
Era names were first adopted by emperors in ancient China, later by the countries that came under the nation’s sphere of influence, including Korea, Vietnam and Japan
With the expected abdication of Emperor Akihito on April 30 and ascension of his eldest son Naruhito, the following day, the 31st year of Heisei (“achieving peace”) will end and the first year of Reiwa (“beautiful harmony”) will begin. Era names (nianhao, in Chinese) started in China, but they’re no longer used there, nor in countries that historically came under China’s cultural sphere of influence such as Korea and Vietnam. Japan is the only country among them that still uses era names.
Before the time of the Western Han dynasty’s Emperor Wu, years were numbered according to the number of years the ruler had reigned. The system of era names began with Wu, who ruled from 141BC to 87BC, but there’s still uncertainty as to the date the first era name was adopted. According to one theory, the emperor caught a one-horned beast during a hunt in the 19th year of his reign and his ministers suggested that the auspicious event be commemorated by using it as a reference for counting years. They coined the era name Yuanshou (“first hunt”) and designated that year as the 1st year of Yuanshou.
By the end of Emperor Wu’s long reign, the era name system had become established and it was used in China for the next 2,000 years. A new emperor would introduce a new era name, usually words of felicitous connotations, to signal the legitimacy of his reign and aspirations for its success.
Most rulers had multiple era names within a single reign, either as special commemorative markers or a “reboot” of sorts to herald a new beginning. For example, Emperor Zhao, Emperor Wu’s son and successor, had three era names in his 13-year reign, while the Tang period’s Empress Wu Zetian had an incommodious 18 era names in her 21-year rule between 684 and 705. Emperors ceased to have multiple era names in the Ming dynasty (1368–11644), whenceforth emperors had a single era name for the duration of their reigns.
The last officially recognised era name in China was Xuantong (“proclaiming the imperial enterprise”), which lasted from 1909 to 1912 during the reign of the last emperor of the Qing dynasty, Aisin Gioro Puyi. However, several era names appeared briefly on Chinese soil in the chaotic decades of the early 20th century: Hongxian (“to herald the constitution”) in the first three months of 1916, when president Yuan Shikai tried to restore the monarchy with himself as emperor; Datong (“grand union”) from 1932 to 1934, and Kangde (“peace and virtue”) from 1934 to 1945, in the puppet state of Manchukuo, where the hapless Puyi was installed as regent and then emperor by the Japanese.