When did Chinese etiquette begin? Who first proposed it?

Mengzi was the first to propose it.　

1. The budding period of etiquette (50,000 B.C.-10,000 B.C.

Etiquette originated in the period of primitive society, in which human beings were gradually enlightened during the history of primitive society, which lasted for more than one million years. The germ of early rituals appeared in the middle and late periods of primitive society (about the Paleolithic period). For example, the Shandingdong people of Zhoukoudian in Beijing, who lived about 18,000 years ago, already knew how to dress themselves. They used pierced animal teeth and stone beads as ornaments to hang around their necks. And their deceased clansmen sprinkled hematite powder beside their bodies for primitive religious ceremonies, the earliest burial rituals ever found in China.

2. The Ceremonial Grassroots Period (10,000 BC - 22nd Century BC)

Around 10,000 BC, mankind entered the Neolithic period, when they not only made fine polished stone tools, but also began to engage in farming and animal husbandry. Over the following thousands of years, primitive rituals took shape. For example, at the Half-slope site near present-day Xi'an, the communal **** grave of the Half-slope village people, who lived about 5,000 years ago, was discovered. In the cemetery, the pits were arranged in an orderly manner, and the status of the deceased was differentiated, with the burial of the back body with martyrdom, and the burial of the body without martyrdom, etc. In addition, other sites of the Yangshao culture period and related data show that people at that time had already paid attention to the order of honor and inferiority, and men and women were differentiated. The elders sit on the upper seat, the younger generation sits down; men sit on the left, women sit on the right and other etiquette is becoming clear.

3. The Formation of Etiquette (21st Century B.C. - 771 B.C.)

About 21st Century B.C. to 771 B.C., China entered into the Bronze Age from the Golden Stone Age. The use of metal tools enabled agriculture, animal husbandry and handicraft production to leap to a new level. As the standard of living improved, the wealth of the society was surplus to consumption and gradually concentrated in the hands of a few people, resulting in the emergence of class antagonisms and the disintegration of the primitive society.

The Xia Dynasty, which lasted from the 21st century BC to the 15th century BC, began the transition from the end of primitive society to early slave society in China. During this period, god-honoring activities heated up.

In primitive society, people did not understand some natural phenomena due to lack of scientific knowledge. They guessed that the sun, which shines on the earth, is a god, the wind has a wind god, and the river has a river god....... Therefore, they feared the "gods of the sky" and sacrificed to the "gods of the sky". In a sense, early etiquette contains some of the norms of human life in primitive societies, and is a product of religious beliefs in primitive societies. The traditional Chinese character for ritual, "Li", represents God on the left, and on the right are offerings made to God. Therefore, Xu Shen, a scholar of the Han Dynasty, said, "Rites, fulfillment is also, so to serve the gods to achieve happiness."

The Yin people, who centered their activities around the Yin ruins, were active in China from the 14th to the 11th centuries BC. They built China's first ancient capital, Yindu, in what is now Anyang, Henan province, and their achievements in wedding customs were overshadowed by their fervor in honoring gods and believing in ghosts.

The Yin dynasty, and the Zhou dynasty that replaced it, did a lot of work on etiquette. In particular, the Duke of Zhou, the brother of King Wu of Zhou and an auxiliary to King Cheng of Zhou, played an important role in the establishment of the ritual system of the Zhou dynasty. He created rituals and music to bring people's behaviors and mentalities into an orderly pattern of superiority and inferiority. The Rites of the Zhou, a comprehensive introduction to the Zhou Dynasty system, is the first etiquette monograph handed down in China to this day. The Rites of the Zhou (also known as the Zhou Officials) was originally a list of official positions, which was later organized into a book about the Zhou Dynasty's rules and regulations. There were originally six chapters in the Zhou Li, detailing the names of the six types of officials and their powers, five of which are now extant, and the sixth is made up by the Kao Gong Ji. The six officials were called the Heavenly Officials, the Earthly Officials, the Spring Officials, the Summer Officials, the Autumn Officials, and the Winter Officials. Among them, the heavenly official was in charge of palace affairs, property and goods, etc.; the earthly official was in charge of education and municipal affairs, etc.; the spring official was in charge of the five rites, music and dance, etc.; the summer official was in charge of military and border defense, etc.; the autumn official was in charge of criminal law and diplomacy, etc.; and the winter official was in charge of civil engineering and construction, etc.

The five rites in charge of the spring officials, i.e., the auspicious rites, the ferocious rites, the guest rites, the military rites, and the jia rites, were an important aspect of the ceremonial system of the Zhou Dynasty. Auspicious rites refer to the ceremonies of sacrifices; ferocious rites mainly refer to funeral and burial rites; bing rites refer to the ceremonies of the vassal's pilgrimage to the Son of Heaven and the alliances between the vassals; military rites mainly include the ceremonies of military parades and the departure of the army; and jia rites include the ceremonies of crowns, weddings, and the ceremonies of countryside drinking and wine drinking, and so on. It can be seen that many of the basic rituals have been basically formed in the end of the Shang and the beginning of the Zhou Dynasty. In addition, the I Ching, which was written at the time of the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, and the Book of Songs, which was largely finalized during the Zhou Dynasty, also have some content related to etiquette.

In the Western Zhou Dynasty, bronze ritual objects were a symbol of personal status. The number of ritual objects represented the status of the person, and the size of the form showed the level of power. At that time, the aristocrats wore groups of ornamental jade as a trend. The ceremony of meeting and wedding (including the "six rites" such as "Nacai", "asking for the name", "Naji", "Naji", "invitation", and "kiss") became stereotypical and popular among the people. In addition, respect for the elderly and love for children and other etiquette, has also been clearly established.

4, the development of etiquette, the period of change (770 BC - 221 BC, the Eastern Zhou period)

The end of the Western Zhou Dynasty, the royal family was in decline, and the vassals rose up to fight for supremacy. In 770 BC, King Ping of Zhou moved east to Luoyi, which was called the Eastern Zhou. The Eastern Zhou dynasty, which succeeded the Western Zhou, was no longer able to fully adhere to the traditional rituals, and the so-called "rites and music were in tatters".

The Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period was a period of transition from a slave society to a feudal society in China. During this period, giants of thought such as Confucius, Mencius and Xunzi emerged one after another, developing and revolutionizing the theory of etiquette.

Confucius (551 BC-479 BC) was a great thinker and educator in ancient China, who pioneered the style of private lectures and broke the monopoly of education by the aristocracy. He made important contributions to the organization and preservation of history and culture by deleting the Poetry and the Book, defining the Rites and the Music, praising the Zhou Yi, and repairing the Spring and Autumn Annals. He compiled the Rites of Passage, which recorded in detail the various rituals and ceremonies of the life of the nobles before the Warring States period. The Rites of Passage, together with the aforementioned Zhou Rites and the Records of Rites compiled by the Confucian scholars, are known as the "Three Rites", the earliest and most important works of etiquette in ancient China

Confucius believed that "there is no way to establish oneself unless one learns the rites of passage" (Analects? (The Analects of Confucius? (Ji's Chapter) "Quality over text is wild, and text over quality is history. The quality of the text is refined, and then the gentleman." ("Analects? Yong also") He asked people to use moral norms to constrain their behavior, to do "not polite do not see, not polite do not hear, not polite do not speak, not polite do not move." (The Analects of Confucius? Yan Yuan"), he advocated "the benevolent love others", emphasizing the need for compassion between people, to care for each other and respect each other. In short, Confucius systematically elaborated on the nature and function of rituals and etiquette, raising the theory of etiquette to a new level.

Mengzi (ca. 372 BC-289 BC) was a major representative of Confucianism during the Warring States period. In terms of political thought, Mencius developed Confucius' idea of "benevolence" and put forward the doctrines of "the way of the king" and "benevolent government", as well as the idea that the king is more important than the people, advocating that "In terms of moral cultivation, he advocated "sacrificing one's life for righteousness". （In terms of moral cultivation, he advocated "sacrificing one's life for righteousness" (Mengzi? In terms of moral cultivation, he advocated "sacrificing one's life for righteousness" ("Mengzi?"), and emphasized "cultivating one's moral character" and "cultivating the spirit of magnanimity".

Xunzi (ca. 298 BC-238 BC) was a great thinker at the end of the Warring States period. He advocated the importance of ritual and law, and emphasized both. He said, "Rites are those which equalize the noble and the lowly, the young and the old, the rich and the poor, and the light and the heavy." (Xunzi? ) Xunzi pointed out: "The rites of a proper state are like the weights and balances of lightness and heaviness, like the straightness and curvature of rope and ink. Therefore, people cannot live without rituals, things cannot be accomplished without rituals, and the country cannot be peaceful without rituals." (Xunzi? (Strategy) Xunzi also proposed, not only to have the rule of etiquette, but also the rule of law. Only by respecting the rites and the rule of law, can the country be peaceful. Xunzi attaches importance to the influence of the objective environment on human nature, and advocates learning to be good.

5. The Period of Strengthening Rituals (221 B.C.E.-1796 A.D.

In 221 B.C.E., King Ying Zheng of Qin finally annexed the six kingdoms, unified China, and established the first centralized feudal dynasty in Chinese history. Qin Shi Huang introduced "the same text," "the same track," and "the same line of conduct" throughout the country. The centralized system of power established by the Qin Dynasty became the basis for a feudal system that lasted more than 2,000 years.

In the early Western Han Dynasty, Shusun Tong assisted Liu Bang, the Gao Emperor of Han, in formulating the rituals of the imperial rites, highlighting the development of the rites of passage and etiquette (3. "Chancellor Liu Luoban"). The Western Han thinker Dong Zhongshu (179-104 B.C.) systematized the theory of feudal autocracy and put forward the theory of "Heaven-Man Induction", which states that "Only the Son of Heaven is commanded by Heaven, and the whole world is commanded by the Son of Heaven". (Han Shu? Dong Zhongshu's biography"), he summarized the Confucian etiquette as "Three Outlines and Five Constants". The "Three Principles" are: "The ruler is the program of the minister, the father is the program of the son, and the husband is the program of the wife." The "Five Constants" are benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom and trust. Liu Che, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, adopted Dong Zhongshu's proposal to "depose the hundred schools of thought and revere only the Confucians," making Confucianism customized.

During the Han Dynasty, the Book of Rites, compiled by the Confucian school, came out. The Book of Rites*** consists of 49 chapters, including the rich. Among them, there are "Qu Li" (Part 1), which talks about ancient customs; "Li Yun" (Part 9), which talks about the evolutionary overview of ancient food and living; "Nei Zi" (Part 12), which records family etiquette; "Yu Yu" (Part 13), which records the system of dress; "Xue Ji" (Part 18), which discusses the relationship between teachers and students; and "Xue Ji" (Part 18), which teaches the ways and means for people's moral cultivation, i.e. "Cultivating one's moral character, regulating one's family, ruling the country, and calming the world" (42nd), etc.. In short, the Book of Rites can be said to be a collection of ancient rituals, a collection of rituals from the slave society and feudal society, and the main source of rituals in the feudal era.

During the Tang Dynasty, the Book of Rites was elevated from a "record" to a "scripture" and became one of the three books of the Book of Rites (the other two being the Zhou Rites and the Rites of Passage). (Li Bai: "Li Bai will be traveling in a boat."

During the Song Dynasty, there was a science of reasoning based on Confucianism and compatible with the ideas of Taoism and Buddhism, with the Cheng Yi brothers and Zhu Xi as its main representatives. Er Cheng believed that "Father, son, ruler and minister, the theorem of the world, nothing escapes between the heavens." (Ercheng shuishu, vol. 5) "Ritual is also reason." （Zhu Xi further pointed out that "there is no greater benevolence than the father and the son, and no greater righteousness than the ruler and the minister, which is the essence of the three principles and the basis of the five constants. The most human and heavenly reason, nothing escapes between heaven and earth." (Zhu Zi Wenji? Not the dying arch of the rituals? Zhu Xi's exposition of the two Cheng, "the reason for heaven" said more rigorous, more refined.

The fruitful study of family etiquette is another feature of the development of etiquette in the Song Dynasty. Among a large number of works on family etiquette, the "Blossom River Family Etiquette" by Sima Guang (1019-1086 AD), a historian of the Northern Song Dynasty who made his name by compiling the book "Ziji Tongjian", and the "Zhu Zi Family Etiquette" by Zhu Xi (1130-1200 AD), a rationalist of the Southern Song Dynasty, who made a name for himself with his book "The Annotations to the Four Books", are the best-known.

During the Ming Dynasty, the rituals of making friends were more refined, while the rituals of loyalty, filial piety, modesty and righteousness became increasingly numerous.

6. The Decline of Etiquette (1796-1911 A.D.

After the Manchus entered the country, they gradually accepted the Han system of etiquette and complicated it, making some of the etiquettes seem vain and cumbersome. For example, in the Qing Dynasty, when a person of low rank pays homage to a person of high rank, he often kneels three times, or three times and nine times in the case of heavier ones. (The Qing Canon). In the late Qing Dynasty, the Qing regime was corrupt, and the people did not want to live. Ancient etiquette flourished and declined. Along with the Western learning, some Western etiquette into China, the Beiyang New Army period of the Army will be used in the Western army, such as raising hands, to replace the anachronism of playing a thousand rituals.

7, modern etiquette period (1911-1949 AD, the Republic of China)

The Qing dynasty fell apart at the end of 1911, and Dr. Sun Yat-sen, who was in the United States at that time (1866-1925 AD), rushed back to his motherland and assumed the office of the provisional president of the Republic of China (ROC) on January 1, 1912 in Nanjing. On January 1, 1912, Dr. Sun Yat-sen was inaugurated as the Provisional President of the Republic of China in Nanjing. Mr. Sun and his comrades broke with the old and established the new, replacing the monarch's power with civil power, and the patriarchal hierarchy with freedom and equality; popularizing education, abolishing the ritual of Confucius and reading scriptures; and changing bad customs, cutting pigtails and banning foot-binding, etc., thus formally pulling back the curtain of modern etiquette.

During the period of the Republic of China, the handshake, which was introduced to China from the West, began to be popular among the upper class, and was gradually popularized among the people.

In the 1930s and 1940s, the Soviet and liberated areas under the leadership of China ****** emphasized the cause of culture and education as well as changing customs and traditions, which in turn wrote a new chapter of modern etiquette.

8, contemporary etiquette period (1949-present)

October 1, 1949, the Chinese people *** and the country was proclaimed, China's etiquette construction has since entered a new historical period. Since the founding of New China, the development of liturgy can be roughly divided into three stages:

(1) Liturgical Innovation Stage (1949 - 1966)

The period from 1949 to 1966 was the innovation stage in the history of China's contemporary liturgical development. During this period, feudal rituals such as "Divine Right and Divine Mandate", "Foolish Loyalty and Foolish Filial Piety", and "Three Obediences and Four Virtues", which severely restricted women, were abandoned, and comradeship, cooperation and mutual assistance, and new social relations between men and women were established. It has established a new type of social relationship between men and women, and the essence of traditional Chinese etiquette, such as respecting the old and loving the young, honoring trust and justice, treating people with sincerity, putting others before oneself and treating one another with respect and courtesy, has been inherited and carried forward.

(2) Degradation of etiquette (1966-1976)

From 1966 to 1976, China underwent the "Cultural Revolution". Ten years of turmoil made the country suffered irreparable serious losses, but also brought a "catastrophe" to etiquette. Many good traditional manners were swept into the garbage heap as "feudalistic" goods. Etiquette has been destroyed, the social atmosphere reversed.

(3) etiquette revival stage (1977-present)

Since the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the CPC in 1978, the spring breeze of reform and opening up blew all over the motherland, and the construction of China's etiquette has entered into a new period of comprehensive revival. From the implementation of civilized and polite language to actively establish a new style of industry, from the development of the "18-year-old adult ceremony education activities" to the development of civilized conventions, all walks of life of the etiquette of the norms have been introduced, job training, etiquette education is becoming increasingly red-hot, civilized, and politeness has become a trend. A number of newspapers and magazines dealing with etiquette, such as "Public *** Relations Newspaper" and "Modern Communication", have emerged, and books, dictionaries and teaching materials introducing and studying etiquette, such as "The Complete Book of China's Applied Etiquette", "Dictionary of Appellations" and "Foreign Customs and Etiquette", have been constantly released. The culture of etiquette is once again hot on the vast Chinese land, and the Chinese nation with its fine cultural tradition has set off a new climax in the construction of spiritual civilization.