What are the customs and traditions of the Han Chinese?

The Han Chinese traditionally believe in Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism, and in the social foundation of Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism are revered! However, unfortunately, in modern times, under the impact of Western culture, people's utilitarianism gradually take over the mainstream form, China's traditional culture and religion is gradually declining, the people have a lot of faith in Christianity, Catholicism and other Western religions.

Architectural Forms

Whether it is the Han people in the south or the north, the *** same characteristics of their traditional dwellings are sitting in the north and facing the south, focusing on indoor lighting; wooden beams to bear the weight of the bricks, stone, earth retaining walls; the center of the hall, with carved beams and decorative roofs, gables and gable ends is a long time ago

Han Chinese music

Han Chinese people are the ethnic group with a tradition of music. a long history and unique creation. Before the Qin Dynasty, the Han ancestors had already created musical instruments and music, and invented music laws. During the heyday of the Han and Tang dynasties, Han music was characterized by songs and dances; after the Song and Yuan dynasties, opera music was the mainstay. Today, the world's most recognized music systems, such as the five degrees of phasing law (the Han people call the three points of loss and gain law), the pure law and the average law, the Han people have invented independently, and their achievements, like the convergence of the spokes of the car, converge into the axis of the world's music theory.

Dietary habits

The staple food of the Han people is rice and wheat, supplemented by vegetables, meat and soybean products, and tea and wine are the traditional beverages of the Han people. Rice is eaten mainly as rice, and there are different kinds of food such as congee, rice flour, rice cake, dumplings, rice cakes, and so on; wheat is eaten as steamed buns, noodles, rolls, buns, dumplings, wontons, doughnuts, spring rolls, deep-fried cakes, and pancakes, etc. The Han people are good at cooking and cooking. Han people are concerned about and good at cooking, different regions of the Han people to stir-fry, burn, fry, boil, steam, grill and cold cooking methods, forming a different local flavor. Han cuisine is generally divided into eight major cuisines, including Sichuan, Guangdong, Fujian, Anhui, Lu, Hunan, Zhejiang and Jiangsu.

The Han Chinese are one of the largest ancient ethnic groups in the world, and because of their long history and developed culture, their customs are colorful and rich.

1. The Han people are an ancient agricultural people, since ancient times, the agricultural population has always accounted for more than eighty to ninety percent of the total population, and the custom of farming has a long history. Since ancient times, the Han people have regarded agriculture as their profession. As early as in the Warring States period, Han Fei put forward the idea of "taking agriculture as the foundation". He said, "The reason why the warehouse endowment is solid is that the basic business of farming is also farming." Han Fei Zi - Gui Envoy Chapter. Under the influence of the idea of agriculture, the Han Chinese society has formed the principle of "men plowing and eating, women weaving and clothing" (Shangjunshu - The Book of Drawing Strategies). "Men plowing and women weaving" can be said to be a typical picture of the customs and people of Han society. It is only in modern times, especially after the liberation, that there have been major changes.

The twenty-four solar terms are an important part of the Han Chinese lunar calendar, and their formation and creation are closely related to the agricultural production practices of the ancient Han Chinese working people. As the climate changed throughout the year, so did the content of farming and agricultural work. The meanings of the names of the twenty-four solar terms themselves clearly reflect this. To this day, Han Chinese farmers are still accustomed to conducting farming and arranging farm work according to the seasons.

Related to the custom of farming is the worship of the land god by the Han people. The Baihu Tongyi (The White Tiger) says, "The earth carries all things, and it is the reason why the earth has been given to the gods." The form of land god worship is "social sacrifice", and the land god is called "She Shen" or "She Lord", and the place where the land god is sacrificed is called "She". Rituals - Suburban Special Adoption" cloud: "Zhuang, sacrifices to the earth, and the main yin qi also ...... Zhuang, so the way of God's land also." Developed later, the Han social layers have social sacrifices. Folk belief in the land god is very extensive, pre-liberation land temple is almost everywhere.

2. Respect for Ancestors and the Elderly

Respect for ancestors and the elderly is the ancient heritage of the Han people. Respect for ancestors is the worship of ancestors. In the Shang Dynasty, there was a belief in the unity of God and ancestors, and in the Zhou Dynasty, there was a belief in the separation of God and ancestors, and the worship of ancestors was a more important tradition. The ancestor worship of the Han people is mainly to sacrifice the distant ancestors who have achievements and the close ancestors who have close blood relations.

The custom of venerating ancestors has been practiced until recent and modern times. Folk ancestor worship activities are still very grand, sometimes sacrifices, hall sacrifices, festival sacrifices, year sacrifices, house sacrifices, ancestral sacrifices, etc., on New Year's Day, some of them will also look forward to successive generations of ancestors face to face, in order to show that they do not forget their ancestors, and with the ancestors *** to enjoy the festivities or to seek blessings from the ancestors. Han people worship ancestors of the place called ancestral temple or ancestral temple, ancestral temple, ancestral shrine all over the world.

Related to the custom of honoring ancestors, under the long-term influence of feudalism, the Han people like to live in clusters and regularly compile and repair their genealogies. As a result of living together, the Han people since ancient times, more than three generations of the same house, and up to five generations of the same house, some of the cumulative cohabitation up to several hundred years, it is really "young and old, the wind rituals known". This generation of cohabitation **** wealth of the clan, commonly known as the "right to live" or "right to the door". In the Ming Dynasty, Pujiang County, Zhejiang Province, Zheng's even nine generations live together, the Ming Emperor had an imperial decree to build a special edict Zheng Yi door to give flags. Nowadays, although the family form tends to be small, but three generations of the same family is more common.

The custom of honoring the elderly, which extends from honoring one's ancestors, is y rooted among the Han Chinese. The poem "Shijing - Daya - Both Drunk" reads, "Filial piety is not in short supply, and will always be given to your class." It means that the filial son of filial piety to honor the old is endless, is bound to often influence the whole family, and even the whole nation. Han folk custom of honoring the elderly, along with the present, is worth carrying forward the fine tradition.

3. Surnames and first names

Initially, the Han Chinese surname and clan were differentiated. The original family name was the clan name of a matrilineal clan commune. The word "surname" was a synthesis of the words "female" and "birth". Many ancient surnames have "female" characters, such as Jiang, Yao, Ji and so on. The clan is a branch of the family name. Due to the multiplication of descendants, a family was divided into several branches, scattered all over the world, each of which has a special mark as a symbol, which is the clan. Later, there was not much difference between the surname and the clan.

4. Architectural Forms

The Han people, because of their vast distribution area, have different styles of traditional housing depending on the region. Han people living in the plains of North China, its traditional housing for the brick structure of the cottage, the courtyard for the courtyard style, represented by the Beijing courtyard; living in the northeast of the Han, its traditional housing and North China is basically similar to the difference in the walls and roofs, where the housing is generally very thick, mainly for warmth; living in the north of Shaanxi Province of the Han, according to the Loess Plateau of the soil layer, the characteristics of the low water table digging kiln for the Housing, the kiln is not only warm in winter and cool in summer, and does not take up the arable land area; living in the south of the Han, its traditional housing to wooden houses, pay attention to the eaves and heavy pavilion structure. Due to the different customs and natural conditions in the south, there are differences in the layout of housing buildings. Such as hilly mountain buildings built on the mountain, Jiangsu and Zhejiang water towns are focusing on the front street and the river, Fujian's earth building is huge and beautiful, Suzhou's pavilion is small and beautiful.

Whether the South or the North of the Han Chinese, their traditional residential *** with the same characteristics are sitting in the north to the south, focusing on indoor lighting; wooden beams to bear the weight of the brick, stone, earth retaining walls; to the center of the hall, to the carving of beams and decorative roofs, gables and gables.

5. Culture and Art

The Han people created splendid culture and art with distinctive features in ancient times. Whether in politics, military, philosophy, economics, history, natural sciences, literature, art and other fields, they possessed many representative figures and works with far-reaching influence. During the Western Zhou period, a perfect cultural achievement was formed, which is the culture of rituals and music, the Zhou rituals are very elaborate, according to the "Zhou Rites" there are five rituals of auspiciousness, murder, military, bingo, and jia, music is very important in the Western Zhou, there are specialized officials to manage the Jinwen also recorded in the music officials. Zhou dynasty music and dance, such as "Dawu" for the king of Zhou Wu Kshang made. The Zhou Dynasty had a relatively perfect education system, such as "rituals", "music", "shooting", "royal", "book", "book", "book", "book", "book", "book", "book" and "book". "book" "number" six arts is the Zhou Dynasty aristocrats of cultural education content, China's earliest classics such as "Zhou Yi", "Shangshu", "Poetry", "Zhouli", "Lejing" (anonymous), "Spring and Autumn Annals" are produced in this period, as well as the Spring and Autumn period of the doctrine of the sons etc.

In the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, the Chinese vassal states appeared a hundred schools of thought, the achievements of various schools of thought, and the ancient Greek civilization at the same time. To the Han Emperor Wu Di (141 ~ 87 before the reign) to implement the "depose the hundred schools of thought, exclusive respect for Confucianism" policy, so to Confucius, Mencius on behalf of Confucianism has become the ruling ideology, ruling the Han ancient thought and culture for nearly 2000 years, at the same time, to varying degrees, affecting other ethnic minorities, and even affect China's neighboring countries. In terms of ancient military theory, as early as the end of the Spring and Autumn Period, there was a military masterpiece, "The Art of War" by Sun Tzu. In the early years of the Western Han Dynasty, 182 military techniques were compiled, especially the Seven Books of Martial Arts, which has been a must-read for martial arts since the Song Dynasty, focusing on the essence of ancient military writings. Focusing on historiography is also a prominent feature of Han culture and history. Since Sima Qian wrote "The Records of the Grand Historian", there have been biographical history books in all generations, and the famous "Twenty-four Histories" has been formed in the Qing Dynasty; the chronicles are represented by "Spring and Autumn Annals", "Zuo Zhuan" and "Zizhi Tongjian"; and other kinds of chronicles and ancient histories, miscellaneous histories, local histories and theories of historiography written by officials and private writers, which have made China the richest country with the richest ancient historical documents in the world, and the vast majority of which are the handwriting of Han scholars. In the natural sciences, astronomy and mathematics achievements, has always been the world's attention, such as Zhang Heng (78 ~ 139), Zu Chongzhi (429 ~ 500), a line (commonly known as Zhang Sui, 683 ~ 727), Guo Shoujing (1231 ~ 1316) has been recognized as a world cultural celebrities. Ancient agronomy often includes ancient science and technology achievements, according to incomplete statistics, more than 2,000 years, including has been anonymous and passed down to the present day agricultural books amounted to more than 370 kinds of, such as "汜胜之书", "齐民要术", "wang zhen nongshu", "nongzhengquanshu", is a representative of the ancient works of agronomy.

In the development of ancient Chinese literature, the development of poetry plays a prominent role, such as the Classic of Poetry, Chu Rhetoric, Lefu, Tang poetry, Song lyrics, etc. There are many writers and works of great artistic achievement, and Qu Yuan (about 340 ~ 278), Li Bai (701 ~ 762), Du Fu (712 ~ 770), Liu Yong (about 987 ~ 1053), Su Shi (1037 ~ 1101), Lu You (1125 ~ 1125), and Lu Shih (1037 ~ 1101). , Lu You (1125-1210), and Xin Qiji (1140-1207) are names and works that not only shine in the history of Chinese literature, but are also recognized as famous in the history of world literature. Prose has the famous Qin-Han ancient literature, to the middle and late Tang Dynasty, by Han Yu (768-824), Liu Zongyuan (773-819) and other advocates of the restoration of the Qin-Han ancient literature movement, to Ouyang Xiu (1007-1072), Su Xun (1009-1066), Zeng Gong (1019-1083), Wang Anshi (1021-1086), Su Shi, Su Zhe (1039-1112), the ancient literature movement won a great success. The ancient literature movement won a great victory and was called the "Eight Greats of Tang and Song". Novel writing, to the Ming and Qing Dynasties to obtain great development, long masterpieces such as: "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", "Journey to the West", "Water Margin", "Confucianism"; short stories such as: "Liaozhai Zhiqi" are renowned. There are also many writers from ethnic minorities who write in Chinese, resulting in many famous writers and masterpieces, of which Dream of Red Mansions is the most outstanding masterpiece. In other areas such as painting, calligraphy, arts and crafts, music, dance, theater and opera, there are many famous artists who have achieved marvelous artistic accomplishments both at home and abroad. In the development of these arts, the Han people, in particular, showed that they were good at learning and absorbing the strengths of other nationalities in order to develop their arts and form their own unique styles. There is also a long history in the compilation of some of the great works of class books. In the Tang and Song dynasties, the "Beitang Shuji", "Art and Culture Class Gathering", "Taiping Yulan", "Book of Yuan Turtle", etc., especially the "Yongle Dada" and "Book Integration" of the Ming and Qing dynasties can be called the world's famous and ancient encyclopedias.

6. Han music

The Han is a nation with a musical tradition, and Han music has a long history and unique creation. Before the Qin Dynasty, the Han ancestors had already created musical instruments and music, and invented music laws. During the heyday of the Han and Tang dynasties, Han music was characterized by songs and dances; after the Song and Yuan dynasties, it was dominated by opera music. Nowadays, the world's most recognized music systems, such as the five degrees of phasing law (the Han people call it the law of three points of loss and gain), the pure law and the average law, were invented independently by the Han people, and their achievements, like the convergence of the spokes of a cart, converged on the axis of the world's music theory.

7. Dietary habits

1). Staple food

The staple food of the Han people is mainly rice and wheat, supplemented by vegetables, meat and bean products; tea and wine are the traditional drinks of the Han people. Rice is eaten mainly as rice, but also as congee, rice flour, rice cake, dumplings, rice cakes and other different foods; wheat is eaten as steamed buns, noodles, rolls, buns, dumplings, wontons, doughnuts, spring rolls, deep-fried cakes, pancakes, etc. The Han people are very good at cooking and cooking. Han people are concerned about and good at cooking, different regions of the Han people to stir-fry, burn, fry, boil, steam, grill and cold cooking methods, forming a different local flavor. Han cuisine is generally divided into eight major cuisines such as Sichuan, Guangdong, Fujian, Anhui, Lu, Hunan, Zhejiang and Jiangsu.

2). Tea Drinking

Wine and tea are the two main beverages of the Han Chinese. China is the home of tea, and China is also one of the first countries in the world to invent brewing technology. The cultures of wine and tea have a long history in China and have formed an integral part of Han Chinese dietary customs for thousands of years, and have had a wide influence in the world.

The tea drinking of Han Chinese is said to have begun in the age of Shennong, which is more than 4700 years ago. Until now, the Chinese Han people still have the custom of tea instead of gifts. The Han Chinese tea preparation is diverse: there are Taihu smoked bean tea, Suzhou flavor tea, Hunan ginger salt tea, Chengdu's Gai Bowl Tea, Taiwan's frozen tea, Hangzhou's Longjing Tea, Fujian's Oolong Tea and so on.

The Han Chinese have a basic dietary structure with grain crops as the staple food and a variety of animal foods and vegetables as side dishes. This is a sharp difference from the dietary structure of the western peoples and the Tibetan and Mongolian peoples in China. In addition, the customary dietary system of three meals a day has been formed in the long-term development of the ethnic groups. Three meals a day in the staple food, dishes, drinks with the way, not only has a certain **** homogeneity, but also due to different geographic and climatic environment, the level of economic development, production and living conditions, the formation of a series of specific features.

China is the hometown of tea, tea, tea has been thousands of years of history, a collection of famous products, the main varieties of green tea, black tea, oolong tea, flower tea, white tea, yellow tea. The Chinese tea ceremony is well known in the world, and was introduced to Japan in the Tang Dynasty, forming the Japanese Tea Ceremony.

The Han Chinese drink tea, focusing on a "product" word. Whenever guests come, the etiquette of making and honoring tea is essential. When a guest visits, you can seek advice, choose the most suitable for the guest's tastes and the best tea to treat the guest. Tea to honor the guests, the appropriate mix of tea is also necessary. Masters in the company of guests drinking tea, pay attention to the guests cups, pots of tea residue, generally with a cup of tea, such as has been drinking half, we must add water, drink with the addition, so that the concentration of tea is basically to maintain the same before and after the water temperature is appropriate. When drinking tea can also be appropriate with tea food, candy, dishes, etc., to regulate the taste and the effect of snacks.

Tea culture in the life of the Han people, very important. King Wu of the Zhou Dynasty, tea has been used as tribute. Late primitive commune, tea became goods exchange items. Warring States, tea has a certain scale. Pre-Qin "Poetry" general collection of tea records. Another example is in the Han Dynasty, tea has become a Buddhist "sitting meditation" special tonic. Wei Jin and North and South Dynasties, there has been the wind of drinking tea. Sui Dynasty, universal tea drinking. Tang Dynasty, the tea industry flourished, tea became "people can not be one day without", the emergence of teahouses, tea banquets, tea, advocating the guest to tea. Song Dynasty, the popularity of tea, tribute tea and tea and so on.

The Han Chinese people drink tea, is said to have begun in the Shennong era, at least 4700 years. Until now, Chinese Han compatriots still have the custom of tea instead of gifts. The Han Chinese tea preparation is diverse: there are Taihu smoked bean tea, Suzhou flavor tea, Hunan ginger salt tea, Chengdu's Gai Bowl Tea, Taiwan's frozen tea, Hangzhou's Longjing Tea, Fujian's Oolong Tea and so on.

The Han Chinese have a basic dietary structure based on grain crops as the main food and various animal foods and vegetables as side dishes. This is a sharp difference from the dietary structure of the western peoples and the Tibetan and Mongolian peoples in China. In addition, the customary dietary system of three meals a day has been formed in the long-term development of the ethnic groups. Three meals a day in the staple food, dishes, drinks with the way, both with a certain **** homogeneity, but also due to different geographic and climatic environment, the level of economic development, production and living conditions, the formation of a series of specific features.

3). Wine

Rice wine, also known as wine, sweet wine. In the old days, it was called "sweet". Brewed from glutinous rice, it is a traditional Han specialty wine.

Wine is not only a drink that can satisfy the physiological needs of refreshment, fatigue, medical treatment, etc., but also an important cultural media, which occupies an important position in the long-term dietary culture of the Han people. In feudal society, it was an indispensable and important offering to gods and ancestors, and in such ceremonies it played the role of a medium for communicating between man and god. In important Han festivals, wine is an indispensable necessity. There is a saying among Han Chinese that no feast is complete without wine. Wine can help to cheer up and increase the atmosphere of joy, and still popular in many areas of drinking "guessing", "wine order", "wine song" and other activities, is both a drinking custom, but also a kind of national amusement and folk wisdom, it has the ability to liven up the atmosphere and eliminate the effects of alcohol. It has many functions, such as enlivening the atmosphere, eliminating the power of alcohol, and displaying and exercising the intellect. Some drinking activities form unique cultural customs, such as drinking tusu wine on New Year's Eve, xionghuang wine on Dragon Boat Festival, chrysanthemum wine on Chungyang Festival, etc., which are widely spread among Han Chinese people, and contain deep natural and humanistic concepts of Han Chinese people, which are still praised by people today. Wine is a medium for the Han people to convey their feelings and strengthen their ties in their daily lives and various social activities. In many areas of the Han people, before a girl gets married, she has to drink wine before her departure, and the bride and groom have to drink wine in the bridal chamber, etc. All these drinking customs are part of the Han people's culture. All of these drinking customs, are the Han people in the past and now the organic part of the diet and living customs.

4). Festival Food

Festival food is colorful. It often skillfully combines rich nutrients, pleasing art forms and deep cultural connotations into a more typical festival food culture. Can be roughly divided into three categories:

One is used as sacrificial offerings. It occupies an important position in the special rituals and celebrations of the court, government, clans and families in the olden times. In most areas of contemporary Han, this phenomenon has long since ended, and only in a few remote areas or some specific occasions, there are still remnants of some symbolic activities.

The second is the specific food products for people to consume on festivals. This is the mainstream of festival food and food customs. For example, on New Year's Eve, the northern families have the habit of wrapping dumplings, while all over the south of the Yangtze River is prevalent in the rice cake, eating rice cake custom, in addition, many areas of the Han Chinese New Year's feasts are often not fish, symbolizing the "yearly surplus". Dragon Boat Festival to eat zongzi custom, inherited for thousands of years. Mid-Autumn Festival mooncakes, implying the blessing of the reunion of relatives and personnel harmony on earth. Others, such as spring cakes, spring rolls eaten at the beginning of spring, the first month of the 15th Lantern Festival, the first eight days of December of the lunar calendar to eat Lapa congee, cold food festival of cold food, the second day of the second month of the lunar calendar to eat pig's head, biting the broad beans, tasting the new festival to eat the new cereal, the wedding celebrations in the drinking of the cup wine, the longevity of life banquets of longevity peaches, longevity peach, longevity cake and so on, are the festival customs of the special food and food customs with special connotations.

5). Beliefs, taboos in the diet

Han people mostly in the first month of the first, second and third days of the taboo on raw, that is, the annual festival food more than cooked before the old calendar year, the festival three days only to return to the pot. Thought cooked is smooth, raw is inverse, and thus some places before the year will be ready for everything, the festival three days between the immobile knife cut said. Again, some areas of Henan to the third day of the first month for the birthday of the grain, this day avoid eating rice, otherwise it will lead to grain production; the past in the women's reproductive period of the various dietary taboos are more. Such as the Han people in many areas of women during pregnancy to avoid eating rabbit meat, that eat rabbit meat born of the child will be born hare lip; there are places to ban fresh ginger, because ginger shape more fingers, lest the child's hands and feet out of the six fingers. In the past, the Han Chinese women who have not given birth to more than avoid eating dog meat, dog meat is considered unclean, and food is easy to incur obstetrics and so on.

8. Han Clothing

The Han people have their own long and gorgeous clothing, i.e. Hanfu.

In 1683, the Qing army entered Taiwan and destroyed the remaining Zheng Chenggong, from which the Han suit died out completely in the daily life of the Chinese nation. After more than two hundred years of Manchu rule, today's Han Chinese gradually forgot the gorgeous clothes they once owned, and became the only ancient nation in the world without its own national costume. Today, people see the "Tang" and the cheongsam, long coat and waistcoat are not the national costume of the Han Chinese, but the national costume of the Manchu or improved. It is gratifying that today, more and more Han Chinese people are proud to wear their own beautiful clothes, this folk spontaneous revival of the Han Chinese national costume movement, often called "Han Chinese clothing movement".

9. Han Folk Groups

Generally speaking, people of the same folk group live in the same or similar areas and share the same regional identity. The regional identity often becomes the name of the folk line, a typical example is the Chaozhou folk line.

Among the Han folk lines, the Hakka folk line is the only Han folk line that is not named after a region.

For Han Chinese, Yanhuang identity is one of the signifiers and representatives of the spiritual tradition of the nation. Similarly, for the folk lineages under the nation, people in the same folk lineage often have a strong sense of identification with a particular thing, believing that this thing represents certain characteristics and spiritual traditions of the folk lineage to which they belong.