In the pre-Qin period, weddings emphasized human feelings rather than extravagance.
In the pre-Qin period, weddings emphasized human feelings rather than extravagance.
The Book of Rites records that "people are chaotic and not polite, and people are in order."
Marriage is an important event in life, and it is human nature to hold a wedding. As early as the pre-Qin period, China people realized the importance of wedding. The Book of Rites: "Harmony between heaven and earth makes everything glorious. Unconscious, the beginning of the ages is also taken from the opposite sex, so attachment is far and thick ... "
The ancients regarded marriage as very important, so they also formulated a set of wedding procedures: from the beginning of "receiving gifts", they had to go through six steps, including asking names, receiving gifts, inviting guests and finally welcoming them, which were called "six gifts".
In the last link of "welcoming relatives", a wedding banquet will be held to entertain relatives and friends. Relatives and friends will also send a gift, which is what people call "accompanying gift". This kind of "gift" is also called "red envelope" by ordinary people, and some are directly called "money".
However, in the pre-Qin period, the ancients did not advocate following each other's rituals when getting married. In the Book of Rites, it is said that "courtesy is impolite and people's order is also bad". Not only that, it is also popular in rural areas to blow when getting married, that is, music programs that do not need to be used to adjust the festive atmosphere of weddings. To put it in an old saying, it is called "no pleasure without ceremony".
Why did the pre-Qin people demand rudeness? They believe that marriage is a kind of "human order", that is, the natural process of life. Therefore, most of the civil weddings in the pre-Qin period are very simple, and generally do not take great pains.
Judging from the relevant literature, there were no records of large-scale exercises and major operations among the people in the pre-Qin period. There is a dialogue between Confucius and Ceng Zi in The Book of Rites. When Confucius talked about the marriage customs at that time, he said that the family who married his daughter "kept the candle for three nights"; People who marry their wives are "unhappy for three days."
Confucius also made his own explanation that the former is missing the separation of flesh and blood, while the latter is sentimental and impermanent, so he married a daughter-in-law to carry on the family line. If the wedding was very lively at that time, Confucius would never say "I didn't like it for three days"
It was not until the Qin and Han Dynasties that this system of "no congratulations" and "no happiness" was broken.
During the Qin and Han Dynasties, wedding ceremonies became popular.
Liu Bang, Emperor Gaozu of Han Dynasty, issued a prohibition order "No drinking, no marriage, no eating meat".
By the Qin and Han dynasties, a set of systems in the pre-Qin period had been broken, and weddings began to pay attention.
However, in the early years of the Western Han Dynasty, the imperial court still did not advocate grand wedding ceremonies. According to the Book of Rites, when Liu Bang (Emperor Gaozu) was emperor, he ordered that marriage, drinking and eating meat were forbidden.
Obviously, this is aimed at the phenomenon of wedding ceremony. According to the biography of Chen Hanping, Chen Ping, the founding hero and prime minister of the Western Han Dynasty, was born in a poor family. Zhang Fu, a rich man in Huju Township, saw his extraordinary appearance and decided to marry his granddaughter who had been widowed for five times. However, after the engagement, Chen Ping could not arrange the banquet. It was Zhang who gave him "wine and meat money" before marriage.
Chen Ping got married before the establishment of the Western Han Dynasty. It can be seen that the wedding ceremony and ostentation and extravagance have risen in the Qin Dynasty, and it has become a serious social problem in the middle and late Western Han Dynasty. "On Salt and Iron, the Deficiency of Dispersion" records: "In ancient times, there was a burnt millet to eat barnyard grass and a dolphin to eat it. Since then, the villagers have been drinking, while the elderly pay more attention to beans, while the young eat immediately and only drink when traveling. After the guests get married, the bean soup is plain rice and the meat is cooked. Today, folk food and wine, food and line overlap, full of focal cases, turtles, carp, quail, oranges and citron, carp and carp, all kinds. " This means that in the past, when holding a wedding, guests used broth and rice, plus some chopped meat and cooked meat. Now, fish overlap, barbecue is full of tables, big fish, old turtles, deer tires, quails and oranges are not only rich, but also more and more luxurious.
At that time, some counties and countries promulgated the local version of the "prohibition of alcohol"-"people are forbidden to get married and not to celebrate with wine and food."
However, Liu Xun (Xuan Di), the seventh emperor of the Western Han Dynasty, thought this was inappropriate. In the autumn of the second year of Wufeng (56 BC), an imperial edict was issued, instructing not to be tyrannical.
According to the records in Han Xuan Di Ji, the wedding is considered to be a major event in interpersonal relationships. Eating and drinking friends are used for saluting and having fun. It is not a good idea to educate ordinary people to forbid putting wine and dishes when they celebrate each other's marriage, which is equivalent to abolishing the proper etiquette between relatives and friends in the village and making them unhappy.
Liu Xun also quoted a sentence in The Book of Songs: "People's morality has lost, and they have greed in doing things", and emphasized the correctness of his view of opening and closing the ban. Because this sentence means that people are not at peace with each other, mostly because of poor diet care. Therefore, Liu Xun instructed the prohibition of "prohibition of alcohol".
Liu Xun's original intention may be to make the wedding lively and make the people happy and harmonious through the normal wedding ceremony, but he forgot a basic rule, that is, catering is easy to cause extravagance and waste. As soon as Liu Xun's "drinking order" spread, the wind of luxury among the people rose, and the wedding was not luxurious, just for fear that others would look down on it.
Emperor Xuan Di's "drinking order" not only influenced the wedding customs at that time, but also had a far-reaching impact on the later weddings. It can be said that Xuan Di's "drinking order" is the "first order" of China's ancient wedding.
During the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, there was a "luxury marriage trend"
Xiao Ze, Emperor Wu of the Southern Dynasties, wrote a letter, "If it is violated, it will be brought to justice."
During the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, people paid more attention to weddings, and a "extravagant wedding style" was created. Because the wedding was too particular, many new wedding customs appeared in this period, such as the custom of the bride covering her face with a fan during the wedding, the custom of covering her face with spun yarn after dressing up, and the ceremony of worship between husband and wife, which all appeared in the Jin Dynasty. The custom of "disturbing the bridal chamber" was particularly popular in this period.
In the traditional wedding ceremony, the ceremony of tying the knot in the same room is still retained, but the utensils used are more graded. The so-called "sharing prison" is the custom of newlyweds eating meat together, while "marriage" is the custom of the bride and groom toasting in the bridal chamber. At that time, in the Southern Dynasties, delicious food was served at the separation ceremony, while gold, silver and jade articles were used at the wedding ceremony, and the supplies were extremely luxurious.
According to Records of Emperor Wu of the Southern Qi Dynasty (Volume III), in the seventh year of Yongming (AD 489), Xiao Ze, Emperor Wu of the Qi Dynasty, wrote a letter to curb this unhealthy trend in the wedding, saying that "the late customs are beautiful, the calendar is constant, and all thoughts are punished, but the people don't know how to ban them." This is the price of imprisonment, especially in Huatai. The ashamed abbot had a prince. "
In response to the "luxury wedding style", Xiao Ze instructed the relevant departments to draw up the articles of association and announce them to the public, so as to limit the scale of the wedding banquet, so that the wedding ceremony would not be in debt, and it would also be frugal. Finally, it is emphasized that "if there is a violation, it will be brought to justice."
Later, Emperor Xiao Luan of Qi Ming also organized courtiers to discuss that the utensils used in the wedding ceremony would be changed from gold and silver to pottery.
At the same time, in the Northern Dynasties, the degree of wedding luxury was no less than that in the Southern Dynasties. Due to the serious waste and competition of weddings, the national financial and social stability has been affected. The imperial court and people of insight pointed out the harm of extravagant marriage from time to time and advocated frugal wedding. According to the biography of Tan Chuan, the King of Northern History and Linhuai, Yuan Xiaoyou, the son of the royal family at that time, once said, "Please ask for many blessings. If you marry and bury someone who has given a gift, it will violate the purpose." Cui You, an official of the Northern Wei Dynasty, once put forward a similar proposition of banning luxury. The biography of Zhou Shu Cui Youchuan says that "when the wedding ceremony is abolished, more music is given when the wedding is held", and the rich are "extravagant in clothes". Cui You wrote a letter asking for "prohibition of alcohol", which was approved by the court.
During the Tang and Song Dynasties, the content of wedding was further developed, which was more colorful than that in the Wei and Jin Dynasties. Customs such as urging makeup, stopping cars, making blinds, turning carpets and laying curtains are all on the rise. During this period, the luxury of wedding ceremony was no longer a prominent social problem, but it was officially denied for the first time because it had been emphasized since the Spring and Autumn Period.
In the first year of Song Taizu Kaibao (AD 968), the Southern Tang Dynasty, which was about to die, discussed marriage. After some arguments, Pan You's opinion was adopted by the Tang master-the wedding can be lively. This is the first time since the Spring and Autumn Period that the court explicitly stipulated that music can be used in weddings. It has become a custom for China people to invite trumpeters to entertain them at weddings, which has been popular until modern times.
Wedding in Yuan Dynasty: "Hiring money can't be extravagant"
In the eighth year of Yuan Dade, the imperial court issued an imperial edict, saying, "Celebrate the feast and keep the promise."
In fact, there have been restrictions in all previous dynasties prohibiting big-scale operations, and the system regulations are more detailed and strict, which should be the Yuan Dynasty.
Although the Yuan Dynasty was ruled by the Mongols in the north, the customs of the Han nationality still dominated people's marriage life at that time, and the wind of big marriage still prevailed. "Can't afford to hire money, extravagance and waste more and more. If you go bankrupt, you can't get married, or even get married, you can't get married. " Because they couldn't afford a decent wedding, some men and women failed to get married in time, which shows that the cost of getting married at that time was really too high.
Hu Youti, an official of the Yuan Dynasty, wrote in "On Agriculture, Mulberry and Water Conservancy": "Today, when men marry women, they celebrate both good and bad luck, regardless of family status. For example, luxury and splendor blend together, food and clothing are used by princes, useful silks are sold at a low price, and useless ones are bought at a low price, resulting in ruin and lifelong debt, which is not worth mentioning.
In the face of extravagant wedding customs, the Yuan Dynasty made restrictive regulations on bride price and banquet. In the first month of the eighth year of Dade (A.D. 1304), the Yuan court issued a "wine restriction order" for weddings, and it was clearly required in the imperial edict that "weddings should be attended by relatives and affairs should be saved". The standard (upper limit) of bride price and banquet expenses is as follows-
Shang Hu, gold 1 2, silver 5, 6 pieces of internal and external colored satin and 40 pieces of miscellaneous silk; Zhong Hu, Jin 5 yuan, silver 4 Liang, 4 pieces of internal and external colored satin, and 30 pieces of miscellaneous silk; Next door, 3 taels of silver, 2 taels of colored satin inside and outside, and miscellaneous silk 15. When giving a banquet, the upper household should not exceed three flavors, and the lower household should not exceed two flavors.
At that time, not only did weddings compete with each other, but the wind of dowry ceremony was also very popular. In officialdom, sometimes "money" is simply deducted from everyone's salary (salary), and some money actually makes the monthly salary "ten divided by eight nine". This trend even affects the integrity of officialdom. The imperial court specially stipulated that the gift money should not be deducted from the salary in the future, and offenders will be prosecuted. This provision has also formed a legal provision. "Yuan Zhang Dian" said: "If it is as before, Xu Wei, the supervision and inspection department, will take the stolen goods as a crime."
Disclaimer: The column "One Party Hooks the Sink" was contributed by the famous historian Mr. Ni. Be sure to contact the author himself.