Hong Taiji
"Hong Taiji" was very rarely used in Manchu sources, because they observed a taboo on the personal names of emperors. In redacted documents, Hong Taiji was simply called the "Fourth "Beile"" or "fourth prince" ("duici beile"), indicating that he was the fourth ranked among the eight "beile" Nurhaci had designated from among his sons. However, an archival document rediscovered in 1996 and recounting events from 1621 calls him "Hong Taiji" in a discussion concerning the possible naming of Nurhaci's heir apparent, a title that the document refers to as "taise". Tatiana Pang and Giovanni Stary, two specialists of early Manchu history, consider this document as "further evidence" that Hong Taiji was his real name, "not being at all connected with the Chinese title "huang taizi"". Historian Mark Elliott views this as persuasive evidence that Hong Taiji was not a title, but a personal name.