Sedan chair, also called wedding sedan chair, is a special sedan chair used in traditional weddings in China. Generally, the decoration is gorgeous, and red is used to express happiness and auspiciousness, so it is commonly called red sedan chair.
As the saying goes, "it's the first time for a big girl to sit in a sedan chair." Indeed, in traditional wedding customs, the sedan chair is the most indispensable prop, which leads to a series of red tape, such as getting on the sedan chair, getting on the sedan chair, drinking the sedan chair, betraying relatives, turning over the mirror, bumping into the street (bumping into the sedan chair) and dropping the sedan chair, which pushes the festive atmosphere of the whole wedding ceremony to * * *.
Even today, once marriage is registered, it is protected by law. There are still many brides who think that marriage is not formal without a car. This farewell car, as usual, is actually a variation of the traditional sedan chair.
The custom of searching history books and using sedan chairs to marry the bride has not been common since ancient times. First of all, the appearance of "sedan chair" in life was in the late Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties, and it was also officially recorded in ancient books. Its prototype "Yanzi" (Shouyu) was popular as early as the early Tang Dynasty.
Prior to this, regardless of whether the government and the people were married or not, horses and chariots were used to marry the bride. At the same time, during the Tang and Song Dynasties, * * * issued a ban on literati sitting on eaves or sedan chairs, and only the emperor and his authorized senior officials and ministers could use them.
From the works written by people in the Song and Ming Dynasties, such as Dream of Tokyo and Miscellaneous Notes, it can be seen that the custom of "Hua Yanzi" to marry the bride began to be popular in Bianjing area from the middle of the Northern Song Dynasty, and it was not until Song Ting moved to the south of the Yangtze River that the bridal sedan chair became a social fashion, which has been passed down to this day.
In terms of saving manpower, traffic speed and cost, sedan chairs are obviously not as convenient as horses and chariots, and even comfort and ostentation may not be comparable. Because of this, how the transition from chariots and horses to sedan chairs happened has become an interesting question.
In the twenty years of Qianlong in Qing Dynasty, Emperor Qianlong came to Henan for inspecting the construction of Yellow River dikes. In zhongmou county, in the east of Zhengzhou, Gan Long was smiling and strolling in the street. Here, he pays homage to the ancient sages, enjoys the folk customs and observes the rural folk customs, and has a high interest.
On this day, Gan Long stood in front of a pond outside zhongmou county, looking at the lotus flowers, lotus leaves and fields in the pond filled with fragrance, weeping willows by the pond, and the breeze was blowing gently. He was ecstatic, so he casually recited a poem by Ouyang Xiu, a great writer in the Northern Song Dynasty, and recited the West Lake: "Han Qingxiang painted Agfu, which made you forget Hangzhou."
Twenty-four bridge months, in exchange for ten hectares of autumn in the West Lake. "As luck would have it, just as Qianlong was immersed in poetry and painting, a group of wedding procession came on, beating, firecrackers, awards and injuries, and laughter, which was very lively.
It turns out that today is the day when Miss Liu Ruolian, a famous talented woman in the county, got married. She just passed by the county government and happened to meet Emperor Qianlong. Because it is not offensive for the emperor to stay here, the leader ordered the wedding procession to make way, and even if she sat on the donkey to make way for herself, she would never agree.
The official said loudly, "The emperor is coming, ordinary people, make way quickly." Ruolian said very calmly and confidently, "Marriage is a once-in-a-lifetime event. On this auspicious day, even if I meet the current emperor, I will not give in! " "
Ancient women married in sedan chairs.