On the Origin of Sedan (1)
It is said that this wind originated from the illegal activities of the northern gentry in the Tang Dynasty. Since the Eastern Han, Wei and Jin Dynasties, most of the surnames of the gentry relied on their own noble families, and their children's marriages were carried out in small circles, and they were ashamed of intermarriage with different surnames. Among them, the most prominent and stubborn are Taiyuan Wang, Lu, Xingyang Zheng, Qinghe, Boling Cui Shi and Zhaojun Li ... Tang Yuanzhen's Huizhen Collection records that Cui's mother relies on Boling's famous family and despises the other family, which is a portrayal of this situation. When he was in Tang Gaozong, Li Yifu, who was born in poverty, was an official prime minister. He wants to marry a daughter-in-law for his son among the seven surnames, but he runs into a wall everywhere. Xiang Li was disgusted with this, so he persuaded the emperor to write a letter forbidding the seven children from marrying each other. At the same time, he sent someone to rebuild the Genealogy, stipulating that no matter his family background, anyone who got five grades in official positions was a scholar. Since then, the seven churches have severed their marriage in order to maintain their "bloodline". But these noble families don't want to be bound by this, so they still secretly discuss marriage. Just because he didn't dare to openly offend the emperor's imperial edict, he canceled all the public and lively ostentation and extravagance, such as sending the bride with horses and chariots, but played with fans and got an "eaves" covered with gauze after dark to carry the bride to the man's house for marriage. In this regard, both Tang Gaozong and Tang Wenzong had posthumously granted imperial edicts forbidding people to ride "Stefanie" to prevent these people from cheating, but they were all effective for a while, but after the limelight, they would make a comeback. After the middle Tang Dynasty, "Yan Zi" actually became a status symbol, and even others except the seven surnames were vain and imitated one after another. In the Song Dynasty, the ban of the previous dynasty was abolished, and the "Swallow" was married and turned into public ownership. Because it was too simple, it was deliberately decorated, commonly known as "Hua Yanzi", and later became a sedan chair. Since then, the concept of "flower eaves" or sedan chair, which represents a certain social status, has been deeply rooted in people's hearts, and it seems that it has not been recognized and respected by public opinion, and the taboo that concubinage, widow remarriage and other marriage activities are not allowed to sit in sedan chairs has also derived from this.