How did China's ancient rites exist?

The Ministry of Rites is one of the most important government agencies in ancient China. After the Sui Dynasty, it became one of the six central administrative agencies, and its status can be imagined. The Ritual Department is responsible for etiquette system and school imperial examination. Sui to Song Dynasty belongs to Shangshu Province; Yuan dynasty belongs to Zhongshu province; In the Ming and Qing dynasties, it was directly under the command of the emperor.

If we use the institutions under the current political system, the Ritual Department is almost a combination of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Education, the Ethnic Affairs Management Committee and other departments. Moreover, the position of Ritual Department in the six departments is second only to that of Official Department and Household Department. China used to attach great importance to etiquette, so the etiquette department had a higher status. Some departments in the three provinces and six departments system were established as early as the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, while the etiquette department only existed in the Southern and Northern Dynasties.

After the Northern and Southern Dynasties, the Ministry of Rites became a very important department in the imperial court, just like the choice of an auspicious day for the emperor's wedding, and the date of the army's expedition needed to be reviewed by the Ministry of Rites. Later, with the development of the times, there are more and more aspects that the Ministry of Rites is responsible for, and the power of the officials of the Ministry of Rites is also increasing, which is why some people set up another department to divide the functions of the Ministry of Rites. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the power of the rites department was directly under the responsibility of the emperor and was not managed by others.

In addition to its importance in etiquette, the ritual department also occupies an absolute dominant position in the imperial examination. In ancient times, the imperial examination was a very important thing. Every time, countless children from poor families go to carp yue longmen through the imperial examination, so the officials in charge of the imperial examination are also the teachers of future officials to some extent, which forms a very complicated network. However, if you want to be an official of the Ministry of Rites, you don't have to be completely familiar with etiquette, because in ancient times, the choice of six departments was not your specialty.