China's Basic Etiquette

Etiquette and ceremony in China. In ancient China, there were five rituals: auspicious ceremony, wedding ceremony, guest ceremony, military ceremony and funeral ceremony. According to folklore, etiquette includes four kinds of life etiquette: birth, coronation, wedding and funeral. Actually, etiquette can be divided into politics and life. Politics includes offering sacrifices to heaven, land, ancestral temples, sages of teachers, drinking ceremony in the hometown of respecting teachers, meeting ceremony, military ceremony and so on. Life includes five sacrifices, high sacrifice, Nuo ceremony, birth ceremony, crown ceremony, food etiquette, gift etiquette and so on. Xunzi said that there are "three books" in this section, namely "the foundation of heaven and earth", "the foundation of ancestors" and "the root cause of teachers" In etiquette, the funeral is the earliest. Funeral for the dead is to appease their ghosts, and for the living, respecting the old and loving the young, filial piety and virtue have become a kind of etiquette. In the process of establishing and carrying out etiquette, the patriarchal clan system in China was born (see "The Patriarchal Clan System in China"). The essence of etiquette is the way to govern people, and it is a derivative of the belief in ghosts and gods. People think that everything is manipulated by invisible ghosts and gods, and etiquette is to please ghosts and gods for happiness. Therefore, etiquette originates from the belief in ghosts and gods, and is also a special embodiment of the belief in ghosts and gods. The appearance of "Three Rites" (Yili, Li Ji and Zhou Li) marks the mature stage of etiquette development. In the Song Dynasty, etiquette was combined with feudal ethics and moral preaching, that is, etiquette and ethics were confused and became one of the effective tools to promote ethics. Salute serves to persuade morality, and red tape makes full use of it. It was not until modern times that etiquette was really reformed. Both the etiquette of national political life and the etiquette of people's life have become the new content of the theory of no ghosts, thus becoming the etiquette of modern civilization. Chinese Etiquette —— Editor's Note on the Debate of Chinese Etiquette: The Debate of Christian Missionaries on How to Treat China's Traditional Etiquette in17 ~18th Century. The two sides of the dispute are mainly the Jesuits controlled by Portugal and Dominica and the Franciscans controlled by Spain. Jesuit missionaries combined Christian teachings and etiquette with traditional cultural customs in China, allowing China believers to worship Confucius and ancestors, while Dominican missionaries and Franciscan missionaries thought that worshipping Confucius and ancestors was idolatry. To this end, the two sides have submitted a ruling to the Holy See, while still going their own way. The ruling of the Holy See has been repeated several times, the main purpose of which is to prohibit China believers from offering sacrifices to their ancestors. So Emperor Kangxi ordered the expulsion of missionaries who opposed Chinese etiquette, and finally ordered the prohibition of missionary work. It was not until 1939 that the Vatican lifted the ban on Chinese etiquette at that time. Chinese Etiquette-History Editor: China is a country of etiquette that has been passed down for thousands of years, and its teachings are spread overseas. According to legend, more than 3,000 years ago, during the Yin and Zhou Dynasties, the Duke of Zhou put forward the program of propriety. Later, after Confucius and the seventies, as well as the advocacy and improvement of Mencius and Xunzi, the ritual and music civilization became the core of Confucian culture. After the Western Han Dynasty, as the theoretical form of ritual and music culture and the source of ancient ritual system, Yili, Zhou Li and Li Ji were successively listed as scholars, which not only became the classics that ancient scholars must read, but also became the basis of ritual system in past dynasties, and had a far-reaching impact on China culture and history. With the formation of Confucian cultural circle in East Asia, ritual and music culture has naturally become an important feature of eastern civilization. Undoubtedly, to understand the traditional culture of China, we must understand the etiquette culture of China. The development of etiquette culture has its historical origin. Can be traced back to the distant past. It should be said that when the first page of the history of the Chinese nation is opened, etiquette is accompanied by human activities and primitive religion. Etiquette system is formulated to deal with three relationships: man-god, man-ghost and man-to-man. With the development of human social life, people's activities of expressing awe and offering sacrifices have become increasingly complex, gradually forming various fixed patterns ... and finally forming etiquette norms. From the emergence and development of etiquette, we can see that etiquette is the need of the development of human social life and the inevitable requirement and reflection of human social relations. This can also be further proved by the formation and changes of etiquette norms in the historical development of China. According to archaeological data, there are large altars, temples and stone piers. Hongshan Culture site found in Kazuo, Liaoning Province is a place for holding large-scale sacrificial activities. The ceramic statue of a naked pregnant woman may be the goddess of fertility worshipped by her ancestors. Earlier images of worms on painted pottery of Yangshao culture and the heads of the dead lying to the west in the tomb also revealed some information about the ancient etiquette system. As far as ancient literature is concerned, there are "five rituals that show self-sacrifice; At the time of Yao and Shun, five rites were salty. In fact, the evolution and development of etiquette system has gone through a long and tortuous process, and the truly complete and systematic etiquette system is the Western Zhou Dynasty. Due to the lack of materials and documents, it has been difficult to examine the etiquette system before the week. The book Three Rites of Zhou Li, Yi Li and Li Ji, compiled by Confucian scholars, recorded and preserved many etiquette of the Zhou Dynasty. For more than 2,000 years after the Han Dynasty, they have been classic works for the state to formulate etiquette system, so they are called "rites". Now, studying and discussing the ancient etiquette system mainly applicable to the nobility, Sanli is still the most important book. Although there are different opinions on their ideological tendency, many of their expositions are only based on the ideals of later Confucianism, but they still have certain reference value and influence in the cultural history. The so-called etiquette in ancient times includes a wide range of contents and forms, including political system, imperial court decrees, offering sacrifices to gods, praying for good fortune in drought and flood, imperial examinations in schools, military campaigns, administrative divisions, building tombs, and even food, clothing, housing, transportation, weddings, funerals, speeches and manners. It is almost a system that contains all the laws and regulations of the country's politics, economy, military affairs, culture and personal ethics. Until modern times, the scope of etiquette gradually narrowed, and now generally only refers to etiquette and ceremony. China's etiquette culture, with its characteristics of peace and integrity, has had a far-reaching impact on people. However, the culture of any nation can't be consistent all the time, and we can only discard its dross and take its essence with the changes of the times. The factors of excellent culture are often eternal, living in the long river of history for a long time, and constantly affecting the spirit and outlook of the nation. For example, around the 6th century BC, it was the axial age of ancient world civilization, and philosophers such as Confucius, Laozi, Sun Tzu, Socrates, Plato, Sakyamuni and other brilliant classics appeared. For more than two thousand years, they have always accompanied the historical process, and people can feel their existence almost anywhere. In today's highly developed science and technology, people often go back to that era to look for wisdom. People should also look at the culture of rites and music advocated by Confucius. Since modern times, due to the decline of the country and the invasion of foreign powers, China people have been excited by the changes of the times. It is reasonable to accuse the traditional culture of backwardness, but it is not entirely true. Imagine a knowledgeable scholar being beaten by a robber. People can blame him for not being brave in boxing, but they can't blame him for not being knowledgeable. It would be a real tragedy if a scholar lost his books and only practiced martial arts and became a "strongman" without education. Human society will eventually enter a civilized era in which everyone is honest and respectful. Therefore, people should not only practice martial arts and strengthen their health, but also carry forward the existing culture, and the ritual and music culture will eventually have its new use. China's etiquette culture not only played a great role in the Chinese nation, but also had a far-reaching impact on the world. For example, China's traditional etiquette culture has been preserved in Korean and Japanese, and continues to play an active role in social life. Shamefully, in people's native land, its loss rate is very alarming. In people's interpersonal communication, there are fewer and fewer people who know how to show respect with elegant language and manners. As the most common and grand wedding and birthday ceremony among the people, it has increasingly lost its national characteristics and rapidly westernized; Christmas and Valentine's Day are increasingly becoming the main festivals for young people in China. As a symbol of national culture, once the etiquette and festivals are all westernized, it shows that the standard culture has been abandoned by the people and its demise will not be too far away. China people and people of insight should be aware of their worries. China's etiquette culture forged by thousands of years of civilization could have become the strength of tourism economy, but many people in the industry can't even say such kind words as "I'm sorry, thank you, it doesn't matter, please", let alone others. Although hotel restaurants are becoming more and more gorgeous, the quality of service has always been the weakness of tourism development, which makes people sigh. In addition, in recent years, the number of China people traveling abroad is increasing day by day, but there are many people who are vulgar and lack etiquette education. The criticism of overseas public opinion is often seen in newspapers, which greatly damages people's national image as an "ancient civilization" and a "state of etiquette". In order to change this situation, in recent years, the government regards "reciprocity" as an important content of "civic morality", and how to rebuild the etiquette norms that meet the requirements of the times has been put on the agenda. China's traditional etiquette civilization is a valuable ideological resource, which can provide important reference for people. 2 1 century is the century of culture, and the competition between countries and nations will be more and more carried out in the cultural field. Culture is the basic feature of a nation. When culture exists, the nation survives, and when culture dies, the nation dies. Throughout the ages, few ethnic groups really perished in genocide, but countless ethnic groups perished in the disappearance of their own culture. China is the only country among the four ancient civilizations in the world that has never experienced cultural interruption. In the next century, whether Chinese civilization can stand on its own feet among the nations of the world is a basic prerequisite, which is undoubtedly a strategic event. Rites and music culture is the core of China traditional culture, and whether it can develop its essence is very important for the rise and fall of standard culture.