Renaming document

The Renaming Document (更名令, krang-mying-ringh) was a Themiclesian law issued in 1386 that changed the names of the monarch and a number of government offices in response to Yi-Menghean demands to relinquish the imperial title.

Background

In the late 13th century, Menghe recovered from a period internal turmoil and entered an expansionary phase, which brought it into conflict with Themiclesia's maritime empire in Meridia. While the Yi navy, fielding gunpowder weapons, unexpectedly conquered Portcullia in the battle of 1325, Themiclesia refurbished her forces and established a new base in what is now Naseristan. A second battle in 1352 ensued in waters there resulted in yet another defeat for Themiclesia, for which many of the polities previously disposed to Themiclesia re-aligned with the Yi court.

The Themiclesian fleet was rebuilt again to protect access to Maracaibean gold, but Yi ordered Cho Myeong-won to attack Themiclesia itself in 1385, riding over the vast Dzhungestan desert and laying siege to Kien-k'ang. Her standing armies occupied in Columbia and unable to communicate with the outside world, Themiclesia was forced to surrender and negotiate terms of peace. One of the Menghean demands was for Themiclesia's ruler to abolish the title gwang-tegh, usually translated as "emperor" in Tyrannian. The court assented to these terms and issued instructions for a number of names to be changed.

Issuance

The edict that contained the Renaming Document was issued on March 5, 1386 and was the final edict using the title of emperor until the title was resumed in 1634. This edict was issued to every government department, military unit, prefecture, and county so that the entire country would perceive the change, and it may have been a measure to assure the Yi court of Themiclesia's compliance, in case spies remained in the country.

Contents

The original document consisted of a series of instructions in the form "do not write X, write Y" (勿書X，書Y), with the former being the names that by treaty the Themiclesian ruler agreed to abandon and the latter those to replace them.  There was no explicit reason given in the renaming document itself, but at least two original copies survive and (surprisingly) are given with the old seal that bears the title of "Emperor". While most things were simply renamed to remove references to the imperial title, the term "imperial hall" was replaced with "gwryeng-gwai-ntenh", the name of a specific building.

Before			After
Shinasthana	Transliteration	Translation	Shinasthana	Transliteration	Translation
皇帝	hwang-tai	emperor	伯王	ghwyang	hegemon prince
皇后	hwang-hoh	empress	王君	ghwyang-qur	prince's lady
皇太后	hwang-dai-hoh	empress-dowager	帝君	tiks-qur	agnate lady
皇帝室	hwang-tai-syit	imperial house	公室	qeng-stit	patriarchal household
皇帝宮	hwang-tai-kyung	imperial palace	公宮	qeng-kyung	patriarchal palace
皇帝殿	hwang-tai-tinh	imperial hall	光和殿	gwryeng-gwai-ntenh	The Hall of Eternal Peace
皇帝所	hwang-tai-syo′	emperor's location	公在所	qeng-dzeq-skraq	king's present location
陛下	prai-gra′	your majesty	殿下	ntenh-gra′	your serene highness
以制	tyaih	by edict	以公令	qeng-ringh	by order
京兆	kyeng-tryaw′	capital region	內史	nups-sreq	Inner Region
京兆尹	kyeng-tryaw′-yun′	capital magistrate	內史	nups-sreq	Inner Administrator

Observations

One quirk of the edict is the first statement that "We hereby revert to the title of 'Hegemon Prince'" (今朕更伯王稱), which implies that such a title had always existed.

Reversion

The Yi empire disintegrated in 1518 due to the Menghean Black Plague, which had already ravaged Themiclesia in the 13th century. The king ordered his court to discuss reclaiming the lost title, but the result, led by the President of Tribunes, was in the negative. Leading jurists argued that changing the sovereign's title was prejudicial to stability and juridical references, since the last title chagne resulted in years spent in editing all the laws to remove references to an emperor.  

In 1634, King Hor (桓王) of the current dynasty declared that he would use the title emperor again, which met opposition from his courtiers. They said that emperor was simply a title, without which his country functioned perfectly well and made many advances. Hor responded that if recanting the title could save an invasion, then he should proclaim it first and then remove it as one of the terms of peace; if he did not use this title, he would have to give up something more substantial. Some of the courtiers were convinced by this line of thinking, but others argued that taking the title was a source of unwanted conflict in the first place, and those that he could waive simply by removing the title would not have occurred if he did not use the title anyway.

In order to reduce the trouble of editing all the laws to reflect changes in titles, only the titles "emperor" and "empress" were resurrected.

In translation

The Sylvanate style of the Themiclesian monarch varied from time to time, as it was used solely in foreign correspondence. There is no observed trend in the styles used during the period when Themiclesia officially stopped using the title "emperor" domestically, and the word imperator was very infrequently used. In 1398, a diplomatic note to Sylva used the title Rex et princeps dominorum Thimiensibus, "king and first amongst Themiclesian lords".

See also

• Themiclesia