posthumous name

posthumous name (plural posthumous names)

1. (historical) A respectful alias used in Chinese or sometimes more broadly East Asian contexts to refer to a dead person, particularly royalty.

   Coordinate terms: art name, courtesy name, era name, temple name

   The posthumous names of early Chinese rulers were often variations of a few words like "the martial one" 武 (wǔ), "the literary one" 文, and "the filial one" 孝 (xiào), but by the Tang they had become so long that people began using rulers' temple names or era names instead.