Was the Tang Dynasty monogamous?

The basic form of marriage is monogamy of ordinary people. On the other hand, rich and powerful monogamy has always existed. According to the Tang system, there can be three to 10 officials with five or more products, and there can be no limit to concubines. Like Shu Ren, the law allows concubines to be widely placed. Women usually get married around 15 years old, early 13 years old and late 17 years old. At the beginning of the Tang Dynasty, due to the decrease of registered permanent residence, the government encouraged early marriage and many children. At that time, the government forced marriage not to get married. The remarriage of young widows is not only unrestricted, but also encouraged by the government.

The basic system of marriage customs in Tang Dynasty is the same as that in the previous generation. Both parties to a marriage must strictly obey their parents' orders. As the matchmaker said, parents allow their children to choose their own husband and wife, which is only an individual case. Influenced by the gentry's worship of family status, the upper class in Tang Dynasty attached great importance to marriage. The old gentry got married because of their family status. Emperor Taizong once prohibited them from intermarriage, which was called the forbidden marriage clan. People with the lowest family background often have to pay a high price to accompany them. But, what about Li? Even in the Wu Zetian period, marrying the daughters of the gentry, such as Wang of Taiyuan and Li of Zhaojun, was pursued by cruel officials such as Lai Junchen, although public opinion and court ministers accused them of humiliating the country. But until the late Tang Dynasty, the children of the gentry were still the first choice of the royal family. Up and down, the marriage of ordinary people is concluded, so it is natural to pay attention to the position.

Judging from the procedure of marriage conclusion, the first is to discuss marriage. According to the ancient ceremony, the man is the main one, and he must accept lottery, roll call, Naji, recruitment, invitation and personal welcome. When preparing to propose marriage, the man asked the woman to propose marriage through an intermediary, and the woman agreed that the man would prepare a gift to formally propose marriage in order to win the lottery. There are nine colors in Dondenaz: Albizia Albizia, Jiahe, Jiuzipu, Zhu Wei, Shuangshi, cotton wool with long exposure and dry paint. Glue paint takes its solidity, cotton wool takes its softness, Puwei takes its softness, Jiahe is a blessing, and double stones are strong. Later, the man asked the matchmaker to ask the woman's birthday, and some even asked her mother's name. Then, find someone to divine the woman's situation. If the result is lucky, you can engage in betrothal and take it. After that, the families of both men and women set the wedding date as the invitation period. On the due date, the groom must kiss the bride, which is a kiss.

Before the Tang dynasty, weddings were held at dusk, while in the Tang dynasty, weddings were held at dawn during the day. At the wedding reception, the groom rides a horse and the bride rides a car. The color of the car changes with the groom's social status. The wedding ceremony is to fill three liters of millet in the mortar, build a foot mat in the well, plug the stove with three pounds and insert three arrows in the door. When the bride enters the door, her in-laws and family members go out from the side door, and then the bride comes in from the main door, which means stepping on the bride's footsteps and not letting her go back, expressing the bride's wish to live with her husband forever. After getting started, the bride worships her ancestors and her in-laws, and then she worships the pigsty and the stove kang in order to live a rich life.

Compared with the previous dynasties, the marriage customs in the Tang Dynasty were grand and warm. Although marriage is a family affair, it is not as formal and open as before. Accordingly, there is an atmosphere of ostentation and extravagance in the wedding. For example, in Yongzhou, which was remote at that time, there were financial guests at the wedding, numbered' broken wine', and they gathered around the clock, with hundreds of people at most and dozens of poor people; If you are weak, you will not be satisfied, and you will go to prostitution. The concept of chastity in the Tang Dynasty was relatively indifferent, and women's infidelity before marriage did not constitute the difficulty of marriage. The provisions on divorce in the Tang Law are aimed at both men and women, and there is no discrimination in divorce and remarriage. In the Tang Dynasty, 23 princesses remarried, including 4, with few civil restrictions.

The funeral customs of the Tang Dynasty were also inherited from the previous generation. The funeral ceremonies of the emperor and the civil and military officials are strictly customized and must be carried out with ceremony. Most funerals of ordinary people depend on customs.

When a person is dying, the critically ill patient must be moved to the first room, which is called natural death. After a person's death, the immediate family members must scrub the body to show that he has been there, and then put on a burial suit for burial, enter the coffin, cover the face of the deceased with a face coat, and stop in front of the coffin for a funeral.

When the funeral is auspicious, you can't go on the road before the time. The Tang people followed the ancient system of one coffin and one coffin. In front of the hearse, there are soul-inducing banners, soldiers sing elegies, and filial sons and grandchildren hold high inscriptions. Ming Jing's length is 9 feet above grade three, 8 feet above grade five and 7 feet below grade six, and his official name is written on it. Ordinary people have no official seal. After the hearse is a funeral procession of various mourning clothes. During the burial, there are road sacrifices along the way: one person is sacrificed every half mile, and tents are set up along the road, with sacrificial plates, fake flowers and fruits, pink sheets and so on. In the early Tang dynasty, the curtain was no better than the abbot, and later it became more and more luxurious. The tent is dozens of feet high, and the sacrifice is very clever. There are even wood carvings as sacrifices in ancient dramas. The hearse was out of date, and the undertaker pulled the curtain to watch the excitement, losing the original intention of the road sacrifice.

In the coffin of the deceased, coupons should be placed from time to time, while on the outer coffin, there are epitaphs about the family, door, career and life of the deceased. Put the funerary objects in the grave. Since the middle Tang Dynasty, thick burial has become a custom and is prohibited. Hua Biao was erected in front of the tomb of the deceased, and group carvings were set up in front of the tomb and on the tomb road to indicate the identity and rank of the deceased. In the Tang dynasty, the four gods prevailed as funerary wares. There are two tomb beasts at the entrance of the tomb, and a pair of tomb figures are placed behind the tomb beasts, which look like kings. After Kaiyuan, the custom of burying the figurines of the zodiac became popular. Generally, there is a sleeping room for sacrifice and sweeping in a cemetery. Trees such as cypress and poplar are planted around. In the Tang dynasty, houses were often built in front of tombs, and pine and cypress were planted to show filial piety and mourning.

Bureaucratic and powerful families have high funeral expenses, while poor families have people who can't be buried or even buried in fields. Therefore, the Tang government stipulates that those who cannot be buried are allowed to sell Yongye fields. After the mid-Tang Dynasty, the land equalization system was destroyed, leaving the poor with no place to stand and no place to be buried. Ordinary people's funerals can only be simple and simple.

Those who die in other places are generally buried in their hometown, and those who die outside and return to the city with coffins are not prohibited; Even the sinner was demoted first, but unfortunately he was demoted, and his feelings were not evil. He was appointed by the Ministry of Punishment and promised to be buried. However, there are people who don't want to be buried. For example, after the death of the dignitaries in Roda, Beijing, they were buried in Beimang Mountain. Wang Jian's poem "North Mang Xing" says that there is little idle soil on the top of North Mang Mountain, which is all the old graves of Luoyang people. But strictly speaking, it is neither polite nor illegal to die in a foreign land.

There are also customs and ceremonies related to funeral. Relatives of future generations mourn for the dead, and they are still divided into five kinds of mourning clothes according to their closeness, namely, beheading, qi, meritorious service, small meritorious service and numbness, which are called five clothes; You can't get married or have fun during the funeral; When an official resigns, he is called Ding You and will be reinstated after his term expires. Choose a cemetery to see feng shui and atmosphere. Buddhists also invite monks to recite scriptures and turn over the dead, and perform various ceremonies such as July 7th, Xiaoxiang and Daxiang according to their own economic situation.