A summary of the research on marriage system and marriage custom in The Book of Songs

The love poems in The Book of Songs were once misinterpreted, but recently they have gradually recovered their original appearance. The euphemistic feelings among them, although thousands of years old, are still impressive, and the marriage customs and customs reflected by them are also of great research value.

I. Monogamy

The ancient marriage system in China experienced primitive group marriage, consanguineous group marriage, sub-consanguineous group marriage and pairing marriage, and then monogamy was formally established. Monogamy began in patriarchal society. A woman left her family, married a man and lived with her husband. Children born are counted according to the paternal line. "Zhou Guan" records: "All men and women who are famous or above are famous. Marry a man at thirty and a woman at twenty. Whoever marries a wife and has children is a book. Zhong Chunyue, the achievement of men and women. So sometimes, runners can't help it. If you don't place an order for no reason, you will be punished. Men and women without husbands will encounter it. " This activity is probably the legacy of the transition from group marriage to pairing marriage. Miao people still have similar social activities such as "study tour". As can be seen from the Book of Songs, monogamy has been established. In Yao Tao, Nan Zhou, the phrase "a son's son should return to his home" is obviously that a woman married a man's home. In Feng Wei's Seeking Self-protection, "If a woman is unhappy, she should do her best. Scholars are also tired, and Germany is also two or three. " They call names, regardless of opposites. "It can be seen that being single-minded about love has become a universal moral concept, and there is an oath to strengthen single-minded love. This concept can only be produced when monogamy is established in patriarchal society. As for the fierce oath of "Death will bring him down" in Bai Fengzhou, it is even more touching. His "Taifeng Drumming" is "rich in life and death, and the son inherits it." Hold your hand and grow old with your son ",and" Zheng Feng is out of its east gate "and" out of its east gate, there are women like clouds. Although there are many clouds, I think of people. Clothes and towels, chatting with my staff, ""tang style shepherd ""Is there no one else? The Death of Wei Zi is undoubtedly a single-minded love view that is very close to modern times.

Two. Wedding system

The Zhou Dynasty had a whole set of wedding ceremonies. According to "Yi Li Wedding", there are six procedures, that is, six ceremonies, to get married in the media industry. Including:

(1) Nacai. The man asked the matchmaker to go to the woman's house to act as a matchmaker. After getting the woman's consent, he sent a messenger to send the goose as a gift and formally proposed to her.

(2) ask the name. The man's messenger asked the woman's birth mother's name to show the difference, and asked the woman's name, rank and date of birth for divination.

(3) Najib. After the man divined, he sent someone to take the goose to the woman's house to report the good news. After Najib's ceremony, the engagement was officially confirmed, and the ominous sign did not need Najib.

(4) collection. Also known as Nacheng, the bride price is given to the woman.

(5) Please invite the date. After the man chooses a good wedding day, he asks the woman for permission.

(6) kissing. On the wedding day, the groom took a black paint car and went to the woman's house to get married.

This system is embodied in The Book of Songs. "Feng Weiman" and "Boer" are not blamed for their health. Use your car to bribe me to move ",which embodies divination and marriage. "Guifeng Dongshan" "Yu Gui's son, the emperor refutes his horse. Kiss the knot, ninety, and remember the wedding. " Captain Zheng Feng's "Parents' Words Are Awesome" describes that women are still afraid of people's words after their lovers are engaged. There are descriptions of media in The Book of Songs. Such as "Qianfeng Fake", "How about Fake? There is no axe to cut. How did you marry that wife? Bandit media can't ","Qifeng Nanshan "and" what about marrying a wife? " You must sue your parents. "The Six Rites of the Zhou Dynasty are closely related to the families of men and women, and there are a series of procedures such as parents and matchmakers. But this is different from the "parents' orders and matchmakers' words" of later generations, which are described below.

3. Year and date of marriage

"Zhou Guan" notes: "Make men marry at thirty and women marry at twenty." Yu Yue's Gou Jian Law stipulates that men get married at the age of 20 and women get married at the age of 17. It is generally believed that 30 men and 20 women are the limit and cannot be exceeded. The marriageable age is 16 men 14 women. When it is necessary to increase the population after the war, you will be punished if you get married early and don't get married when it expires. Let's look at "Calling South with Plum": "With Plum, it is actually seven. Please don't delay my young people's good day. Plums fell to the ground with only three branches. I have a heart to ask my young man not to wait any longer today. Plums fall to the ground, dustpan will dustpan. Please call me a scholar. " Women's mood is so urgent that it can't be simply summarized by "There is a woman who loves spring" ("Calling Na Man with Death").

There are also rules about marriage. "Xunzi Outline": "Frost rebelled against his daughter first, and the ice pot killed her." Ancient farmers lived in cities in winter and in the wild in spring. Tian, especially San. Therefore, marriage must start from the end of autumn. All the way to beginning of spring, geese come as gifts, and geese come to worship Gao Media, which can be regarded as the wedding season. "Media": "Runners in spring can't help themselves. If you can't get dizzy with time, you will be short of money and you can kill it. " (Lv Simian's History of the Pre-Qin Dynasty) In the poem Feng Weimeng, "When I was robbed, my son had no good media". There is no anger in the child, and autumn lasts. "The wedding date proposed by the heroine is autumn. Among the six ceremonies, geese should be used as a gift when receiving gifts, asking names, receiving gifts, inviting guests and welcoming relatives. It is said that flying wild geese from south to north is suitable for yin and yang, symbolizing the harmony between yin and yang, and some people say it symbolizes love and loyalty. But I think its original source is still related to the season. Taking geese as gifts limits the wedding season. As Mr. Lv Simian analyzed, late autumn to early spring is the off-season. Because of the bumper harvest, there is money for weddings. It can be seen that the ritual system was not stipulated out of thin air, but adapted to the social situation at that time. (Feng Gang case: I think of Sima Qian's summary in the Book of Rites of Historical Records: "Courtesy is human, courtesy is human.". In fact, the ceremony is not the "formalism" assumed by modern people, but has a deeper connotation. ) Here, I would like to add that according to the records of the ancient books "Runners Must Run" and "Meet Men and Women", the communication between men and women was relatively free at that time, which was confirmed in a large number of love poems in the Book of Songs. From Feng Wang's Don't Think, Don't Be Afraid to Run, we can also see the situation of young people at that time. At that time, "parents' orders, matchmakers' words" were different from the situation suppressed by later generations' ethics and today's imagination, and children also had certain autonomy. The significance of complex wedding is to notarize the men and women involved, confirm the future children, property distribution and other issues, and protect both parties, which is undoubtedly of social progress significance. This is quite different from what later generations imagined.

Marriage, ancient writing is faint. Weddings are always held at dusk. "Take a rainy day in Tang style" and "Three stars in the sky" indicate that the wedding is held at night. Some people think that Martin Young at the East Gate is about meeting men and women outside the city, but it should actually be about getting married. It's time to get married. Choosing to get married at dusk is a legacy of predatory marriage in ancient times. Predatory marriages always rob women in the dark. Later, this marriage system died out, but this custom still exists.

Step 4 pick, sing and give gifts

There are many poems collected in The Book of Songs, which form an attractive motif of collection. For example, "Picking ears without weaving baskets" (Nan Zhou's ears), "Picking Ge Xi" (Feng Wang's picking Ge) and "Picking green to the end" (Xiaoya's picking green) and so on, and most of them are for fun. I think this belongs to real writing. Picking used to be the main labor of clan commune. Although farming began in the Book of Songs, picking continued. In "The Ear Roll", "It is not enough to collect the ear roll." Well, I'm pregnant with someone, so I'll go there for a look. "It should be because the protagonist misses people far away and works slowly, so' money is not enough'. The same is true of "picking green". "In the end, picking green is not profitable. A song to the bureau, a sparse speech to the mu ",are full of feelings in the scenery, write the feelings of missing in labor." From the picking, we can see the social life at that time.

Love poems in The Book of Songs contain a large number of sentences. Zheng Feng, the crow "When you get to know your son, you can give him a gift. Knowing his son's obedience, he asked with mixed feelings. If you know your son's good son, you will be rewarded with miscellaneous gifts, such as "Morning Wind East Gate Post", "Seeing him like a horse makes me hold peppers" and "Zheng Yi" to give him a spoonful of medicine. In "Feng Wei Papaya", it is even more clear: "Give me papaya and give it to Joan. It is always good to repay bandits. You want to send me a peach, and I want to give it back to Qiong Yao. It is always good to repay bandits. You give me wood, and I'll take Joan Jiu in return. It is always good to report. "It can be seen that giving gifts to each other is a token of love for young men and women. This custom still exists today. On the "Sister Festival" in some areas of Miao nationality, the young man asked the girl for "sister rice". If the rice bag is corn, he will buy silk thread in return, or pine needles in return for embroidery needles. Getting a tree hook means that two people are hooked together and don't separate, getting a tree fork means bifurcation, which means staying away from thousands of miles. On the "High Moon Slope Festival", the girl threw a hand-embroidered handkerchief at the boy she liked. The young man took out silk thread, candy or change, wrapped it in a handkerchief and threw it to the girl. Miao people also have the tradition of duet, and there is just such a "Zheng Fengxi Xi" in The Book of Songs. Uncle Xi Bo, who advocates harmonious coexistence with women, describes the scene of harmonious singing between men and women. It is interesting to use existing customs to prove the records in ancient books.

Verb (abbreviation of verb) The meaning of "boat" and "water" in The Book of Songs

Many love poems in The Book of Songs are related to water, such as Qi water, Qin water, sheep fat water and so on. The two images of water and boat are repeatedly linked with the relationship between men and women. The poem "There are bitter leaves in the wind" is a poem that women expect their lovers to propose marriage. The geese and melons sung in the poem show that women want to marry. Goose is essential in the six ceremonies, and cucumber is used in the ceremony. Cut a cucumber into two spoonfuls, and the bride and groom each hold one spoonful and weigh it three times. Melon tastes bitter, and its wine is also bitter, symbolizing a husband and wife, sharing joys and sorrows. The arrival of the geese also shows that it is late autumn, and the wedding day is coming, which makes my daughter want to get married. The sentence "A scholar is like a wife, and ice is not Pan" is consistent with "First frost betrays his daughter, then ice Pan kills her" in Xunzi Outline, which proves that it is time to get married. In the last verse of this poem, there is a "boat". What does it matter if a woman wants her lover to propose marriage to her? The poem's "deep is sharp, shallow is dew" reminds me of Zheng Feng's "Huizi thinks of me, Wan Shang involves Qin" and "Huizi thinks of me, Wan Shang involves Qin", which have similar meanings, but "Wan Shang", "Zheng Yan" and "Feng Wei Fen Ju Xun" are all men's and women's feelings, starting with water. What does the water here mean?

Look at Chen Men: "Under the Hengmen, you can stay overnight. Secretion of the ocean, you can enjoy hunger. Does it eat fish? Is it a river? Is it ginger to marry a wife? " Mr. Wen Yiduo believes that in ancient times, the places where men and women met were generally near mountains and waters, which made it easy to do secret things, so mountains and water were called "dense" and water was called "secrete". "Sea of secretions" contains this meaning. In the poem, "marrying" and "eating fish" are obviously put together. Mr. Wen Yiduo believes that fish representativeness is closely related to reproduction, and water is closely related to fish. "Feng Wang Yang Zhishui", "Yang Zhishui, unpaid". In the cultural interpretation of The Book of Songs, Mr. Ye Shuxian mentioned that salary axes are all related to the media and are closely related to the relationship between men and women. There are three stars in the sky in tang style for a rainy day, and salary is mentioned when you get married. "Qianfeng Fake" "How about Fake? There is no axe to cut. How did you marry that wife? Bandit media can't do it. "The axe is linked to wages and the media. The water here must have some meaning. In my opinion, boat and water are a metaphor of the relationship between men and women, and the source is unknown. Or because the water's edge is a place where men and women meet, or because of the "spring platform" ceremony on the edge of the water shown by Mr. Ye Shuxian, or because of the primitive worship of water, because of the productivity and vitality of water, and so on. In a word, although I don't think the reason can be tested, there is no doubt that a metaphor contained in "water" and "ship" is fixed. Therefore, in Bai Feng Zhou, it is said that "Pan Bai Zhou is in the river", "boat" and "river" all imply the relationship between men and women, and "Qin" and "She" are metaphors. Of course, the boat in Bitter Leaf actually doesn't refer to the boat, but refers to something else, probably another person. This can also explain why there are two white boats (Tai Feng and Yan Feng) and three Yang Zhishui (Feng Wang, Zheng Feng and tang style) in The Book of Songs, which are rarely repeated. Obviously, because "boat" and "water" have acquired a hidden fixed meaning, they are both themes used to celebrate the love between men and women. Only today has lost this meaning, causing confusion to future generations.