Ancient Chinese Etiquette?

In ancient China, there was a saying of "Five Rites". Sacrifice is auspicious ceremony, wedding ceremony is a blessing ceremony, guest ceremony is a guest ceremony, and military service is a guest ceremony. It is a military ceremony, and a funeral ceremony is an ominous ceremony. Folklore circles believe that etiquette includes four life rites: birth, crown, marriage, and funeral. In fact, etiquette can be divided into two major categories: politics and life.

The political category includes sacrifices to heaven, earth, ancestral temples, sacrifices to ancestors and saints, drinking ceremonies in honor of teachers, meeting ceremonies, military ceremonies, etc. According to Xunzi, the origin of life etiquette has "three roots", namely "the foundation of heaven and earth", "the ancestors are the foundation of humankind", and "the king and teacher are the foundation of governance". Among the etiquettes, funerals were the earliest. For the deceased, the funeral ceremony is to appease their ghosts, while for the living, it is a ritual that honors the elder and the younger, and fulfills filial piety and upholds human ethics.

In the process of the establishment and implementation of etiquette, the Chinese patriarchal system (see Chinese Patriarchal Law) was born. The essence of etiquette is the way to govern people and is a derivative of the belief in ghosts and gods. People believe that everything is controlled by invisible ghosts and gods, and performing rituals is to please the ghosts and gods for blessings. Therefore, etiquette originated from the belief in ghosts and gods, and is also a special manifestation of the belief in ghosts and gods.

The emergence of the "Three Rites" ("Rites", "Book of Rites", and "Zhou Rites") marks the mature stage of the development of etiquette. During the Song Dynasty, etiquette was integrated with feudal ethics and moral teachings, that is, etiquette and etiquette were mixed, and became one of the effective tools for implementing etiquette. Etiquette serves the purpose of persuading virtue, and red tape is used to its fullest extent. Ancient Political Etiquette

①Sacrifice to Heaven

The Sacrifice to Heaven, which began in the Zhou Dynasty, is also called Suburban Sacrifice. It is held on the southern outskirts of the capital on the day of the winter solstice. The ancients first paid attention to the worship of entities, and the worship of heaven was also reflected in the worship of the moon and the worship of the stars. All these concrete worships, after reaching a certain amount, were abstracted into the worship of heaven. People in the Zhou Dynasty worshiped heaven, which developed from the worship of "emperors" in the Yin Dynasty. The supreme ruler was the emperor, and the power of the king was granted by God. Sacrifice to heaven served the supreme ruler. Therefore, the popularity of worshiping heaven did not end until the Qing Dynasty.

②Sacrifice to the Earth

The summer solstice is the day to worship the Earth, and the etiquette is roughly the same as worshiping the Heaven. In the Han Dynasty, the God of Earth was called Earth Mother, saying that she was the goddess who blessed mankind and was also called the God of Society. The earliest sacrifice to the ground was a blood sacrifice. After the Han Dynasty, the belief in Feng Shui that it was inappropriate to break ground became prevalent. The etiquette of offering sacrifices to the land also includes offering sacrifices to mountains and rivers, to the gods of earth, to the gods of grains, to the gods of crops, and to other things.

③The Ancestral Temple Sacrifice

The ancestral temple system is the product of ancestor worship. The ancestral temple is the residence built by people for the souls of the dead in the mortal world. The emperor's ancestral temple system is seven temples for the emperor, five temples for the princes, three temples for the officials, and one temple for the scholars. Common people are not allowed to build temples. The location of the ancestral temple was that the emperor and princes were located on the left side of the door, while the officials slept on the left and right sides of the temple. For common people, there are ancestral shrines next to the kitchen hall in their dormitories. During the sacrifice, divination is also required to select the corpse. The corpse is usually played by the grandchildren. The main deity in the temple is a wooden rectangular parallelepiped, which is placed only for sacrifices. The sacrifices cannot be called by their names. Nine prayers are performed during the sacrifice: "Ji Shou", "Dun Shou", "Empty Shou", "Zhen Shou", "Ji Shou", "Obsession", "Qi Shou", "Praise Prayer" and "Supreme Prayer". Sacrifices in ancestral temples also include sacrifices to previous emperors. According to the "Book of Rites·Quli", all previous emperors who have contributed to the people such as Emperor Ku, Yao, Shun, Yu, Huangdi, King Wen, King Wu, etc. must be sacrificed. Since the Han Dynasty, cemeteries and temples have been built to worship ancestors. Taizu of the Ming Dynasty initiated the establishment of temples for all emperors in Kyoto. During the Jiajing period, a temple for emperors of all dynasties was built in Fuchengmen, Beijing, to worship the thirty-six emperors of the past.

④Sacrifice to the first teachers and saints

After the Han and Wei dynasties, Zhou Gong was regarded as the first saint and Confucius was the first teacher; in the Tang Dynasty, Confucius was regarded as the first saint and Yan Hui was the first teacher. After the Tang and Song dynasties, the "Shi Mian" ceremony (recommended food and drink was set up for sacrifice, with music but no corpse) has been used as a scholar ceremony and as a ceremony for worshiping Confucius. During the Southern and Northern Dynasties, memorial ceremonies were held twice a year in the spring and autumn, and temples of Confucius and Yan were also set up in various counties and schools. In the Ming Dynasty, Confucius was called "the most holy teacher". In the Qing Dynasty, there was a Confucius Temple in Shengjing (Shenyang, Liaoning Province). After Beijing was established as the capital, a Confucian Temple was established with the Imperial Academy of the Capital as the Imperial Academy. Confucius called him "the most holy master of literature and propaganda in Dacheng". Qufu's temple system, sacrificial vessels, musical instruments and etiquette are based on Beijing Taixue. The rural drinking ceremony is the product of offering sacrifices to ancestors and saints.

⑤Meeting Ceremony

Subordinates should bow to each other when they meet their superiors. Officials should bow to each other. Dukes, marquises and consorts should bow to each other twice. People in the west pray first, and the superiors stay in the east and answer the prayers. When common people meet each other, they salute according to their elders and younger ones. Do four bows when you are outside, and bow when you are near.

⑥Military ceremony

Including conquest, taxation, hunting, construction, etc. Ancient Life Etiquette

①Birth Ceremony

From a woman's request for a child when she was not pregnant to the baby's first birthday, all etiquette revolves around the theme of longevity. The sacrifice of Gaozi is the etiquette of begging for children. At this time, an altar was set up in the southern suburbs, and all the concubines and concubines participated. During the Han and Wei dynasties, there were sacrifices to Gaozi. During the Tang and Song Dynasties, the etiquette for the sacrifice of Gaozi was formulated. In the Jin Dynasty, Gaozi was used to worship the Qing Emperor. A wooden square platform was built in the north of Yong'an Gate in the east of the imperial city, with a statue of Gaozi under the platform. . In the Qing Dynasty, there was no Gaohu sacrifice, but there was a "rope-changing" ceremony with the same meaning. Birth ceremonies have tended to favor boys over girls since ancient times. Birth ceremonies also include "three dynasties", "full moon", "hundred days", "one year old", etc. "Three Chaos" means that a baby receives gifts from all aspects on the third day after his birth. "Full Moon" shaves the fetal hair when the baby is one month old. During the "hundred days", the uncle's recognition ceremony and naming ceremony are performed.

The "Zhao Zhou Ceremony" is performed when the child is "one year old" to predict the child's life destiny and career success.

② Coming-of-age ceremony

Also called the crowning ceremony, it is the crowning ceremony for men who enter the ranks of adults. The crown ceremony evolved from the initiation ceremony that young men and women participated in when they matured, which was popular in clan society. The Han Dynasty followed the Zhou Dynasty's crown ceremony system. During the Wei and Jin Dynasties, Jia Guan began to be accompanied by music. The crown ceremony was practiced in the Tang, Song, Yuan and Ming dynasties, but was abolished in the Qing Dynasty. Many ethnic minority areas in China still retain ancient rites of passage, such as tooth extraction, tooth dyeing, wearing skirts, pants, and hair buns.

③Food Etiquette of Yanyan

The feast is held in the Ancestral Temple, and the food is cooked to drink for the guests. The emphasis is on the etiquette exchanges rather than the food. Yan is a banquet, and the Yan ceremony is held in the palace. Guests can drink as much as they want. Yanli has a profound influence on the formation of Chinese food culture. Festival banquets form festival food etiquette in Chinese folk food customs. Yuanxiao is eaten on the 15th day of the first lunar month, cold rice and cold food are eaten on the Qingming Festival, rice dumplings and realgar wine are served on the Dragon Boat Festival in May, mooncakes on the Mid-Autumn Festival, Laba porridge, dumplings on New Year's Eve, etc. are all part of the festival rituals. Eating specific foods on specific festivals is also a dietary etiquette. The seating arrangements at the banquet, the order in which dishes are served, and the etiquette of drinking and toasting all also have requirements on men and women, superiority and inferiority, elder-younger relationships, and taboos in praying and praying in social customs.

④Best courtesy

It is mainly a courtesy to guests. There are hierarchical differences in gift-giving etiquette when interacting with guests. When a gentleman meets his guest, he should treat the host as a pheasant; when a lower-level official meets, he should treat a goose as a zhi; when an upper-level official meets, he should treat a lamb as a zhi.

⑤Five Sacrifice

Refers to offering sacrifices to the door, household, well, stove, and middle (middle room). In the Zhou Dynasty, households were worshiped in spring, stoves in summer, Zhongliu in June, doors in autumn, and wells in winter. During the Han and Wei dynasties, five sacrifices were performed according to the seasons. In the third month of Mengdong, there was a "La Wu Sacrifice", with a total of one sacrifice. In the Tang, Song and Yuan Dynasties, the theory of "seven sacrifices to the emperor" was adopted, including worshiping Siming (little god in the palace), Zhong, Guomen, Guoxing, Taili (wild ghost), Hu, and Zao. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, five sacrifices were still held. After the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty, the special sacrifices at the door, door, middle, and well were abandoned. The stove was only worshiped on December 23, in conjunction with the folk legend of the Kitchen God, who spoke to the sky on the 24th of the twelfth lunar month. According to the story, the national sacrificial ceremony adopts the folk form.

⑥ Nuo ritual

Originated in prehistory and became popular during the Shang and Zhou dynasties. The Nuo ritual of the Zhou Dynasty was to expel evil spirits and drive away epidemics throughout the four seasons. Zhou people believed that the movement of nature was closely connected with the good and bad luck of human affairs. The seasons change, cold and heat change, plagues spread, and ghosts take advantage of the situation to cause trouble, so it is necessary to perform Nuo at the right time to drive away evil. The main god in Nuo rituals is Fang Xiangshi. During the Han Dynasty, twelve beasts matching Fang Xiangshi appeared in Nuo rituals. The Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, Sui and Tang Dynasties followed the Han system, and entertainment elements were added to the Nuo rituals. The roles of Fang Xiangshi and the twelve mythical beasts were played by musicians. The Tujia Nuo ceremony in Guizhou that still remains is the most complete and typical.

Some schools have now joined the Smile Project, which is a project about etiquette.