In Imperial China and every monarchy within its cultural orbit (including Japan, Korea, and Vietnam), the majestic imperial pronoun was expressed by the character "zhèn" () (Old Chinese: "*lrəmʔ"). This was in fact the former Chinese first-person pronoun (that is, 'I'). However, following his unification of China, the emperor Shi Huangdi arrogated it entirely for his personal use. Previously, in the Chinese cultural sphere, the use of the first-person pronoun in formal courtly language was already uncommon, with the nobility using the self-deprecating term "guǎrén" 寡人 ('lonely one') for self-reference, while their subjects referred to themselves as "chén" 臣 ('subject', original meaning 'servant' or 'slave'), with an indirect deferential reference like "zúxià" 足下 ('below [your] foot'), or by employing a deferential epithet (such as the adjective "yú" (), 'foolish'). While these practice did not affect the non-Chinese countries as much since their variants of "zhèn" () and other terms were generally imported loanwords, the practice of polite avoidance of pronouns nevertheless spread throughout East Asia. . This still persists, except in China, where, following the May Fourth Movement and the Communist Party victory in the Chinese Civil War, the use of the first-person pronoun 我 "wǒ", which dates to the Shang dynasty oracle inscriptions as a plural possessive pronoun, is common.