First of all, simply study the origin of white wedding events.
First of all, the "white" in the "white wedding" should be related to the widespread use of white as the main color in funerals. In China people's minds, bright colors such as "red and green" have long been formed to symbolize happiness, while plain colors such as "black and white" represent sadness. This should come from the agricultural civilization characteristics of observing astronomy, observing geography and working in four seasons in ancient China. People who have worked in the natural environment for a long time naturally learn from nature, and they get an understanding from the spring and summer series of nature: the red flowers and green leaves in spring are full of vitality, indicating the hope of bumper harvest; In winter, the snow closes the mountain and the black wood dies, which means the end of production. People bring the enlightenment from this production activity to people's social activities, such as wearing red and green at weddings to set off the festive atmosphere, which has accumulated a living foundation for people to call marriage a "red happy event" later; In contrast, in people's funeral activities, people wear linen and mourning clothes to set off their sadness and mourning, which also accumulated a living foundation for people to call funeral activities "white wedding events" later.
The definition of "white" as a special color for funeral is also directly related to the Confucian etiquette culture, especially the formation of its funeral. Although historical data show that as early as the pre-Qin period before the formation of Confucian funeral rites, white had been used as the color of funeral activities. "It is still dark, and the events are faint, and the military affairs are based on Li, and the sacrifices are mysterious. Yin people are still white, big things take days ... sacrifice is white. Zhou people are still red ... "○1But this is only spontaneous and accidental, and has not been consistently customized in plain text. It is the Confucian school that, based on its etiquette thought, refines and sorts out the existing customs of predecessors in funeral activities, formally writes "mourning is still white" into their etiquette thought, and gradually implements it to people. Because the funeral activities can best reflect its main color is the mourning clothes people wear, and the appearance of mourning clothes is a late thing, which is also the contribution of Confucianism. "Mourning refers to the special clothes worn when mourning the dead ... not very early, and it was still not recorded until the Xia and Shang Dynasties. During the Western Zhou Dynasty, although ancient documents were occasionally involved, they did not form a complete ritual system, and there were more and more records in the Spring and Autumn Period ... Finally, Confucianism established a complete five-grade funeral system with reference to the Zhou Rites to restore kinship under the patriarchal clan system. " ○2 More importantly, the mourning advocated by Confucianism is plain white, and the "Three Rites" (Zhou Li, Yi Li and Li Ji) in Confucian classics stipulate that plain white should be worn when mourning. "Losing parents ... is short ... and short-lived ... living in bed ... plain linen." ○3 Relevant experts demonstrated in detail: "... the color of mourning clothes advocates originality, so all mourning clothes are not dyed, keeping the true color of hemp (white). This is also the difference between mourning clothes and auspicious clothes. " ○4 The formation of the white funeral system was promoted by the government that adopted Confucian etiquette theory to govern the country. Wearing white mourning clothes has formed a fixed pattern in people's minds, which is still observed and pursued by China people. This is the origin of "white" in white wedding events, from which we can know that this proverb "white wedding events" should appear after the Spring and Autumn Period.
Secondly, the appearance of white wedding events is also related to "elegy" entering funeral activities, in which "happiness" comes from people mourning the dead in the form of "singing and music". Although in human childhood, human beings are as ignorant about death as they are about other human activities and nature. "If they are close to death, they will be entrusted to the valley." However, the affection of caring and caring for each other cultivated in the long-term life with relatives, as well as the phenomenon of "sheep kneeling on the chest and feeding back gracefully" inherent in nature, have caused people to "stop all physiological activities such as talking and laughing" to their relatives. Therefore, in the early funeral activities, people naturally used "mourning" to vent their feelings about the death of their loved ones. It is on this basis that Confucianism wrote "mourning" into the funeral. "Now that the body is dead ... there are scholars crying in the hall ... foreign women lead foreign families to cry in the hall ... whoever cries in the room, the master will cry second hand." ○5 "Living in a cabin ... crying for a day and a night ... worrying ... crying for a while. I practice ... I have been crying. " ○6 Even based on this sad "rational" requirement, many complete funeral systems have been stipulated, from diet to daily life to speech. This is another story for the time being, but "mourning" has become a widely recognized funeral requirement, and mourning is used to express filial piety.