Different Living Customs in China and Foreign Countries

Traditional Chinese folklore, as an integral part of traditional Chinese culture, was nurtured, occurred and inherited under the constraints of the Chinese nation's unique natural environment, economic mode, social structure, political system and other factors, and thus traditional Chinese folklore has the ****ness of human folklore as well as a unique personality that is different from that of other countries and nations. Analyzing and revealing the basic characteristics of traditional Chinese folklore is a proper part of folk culture research, and its description with various specific events should be complementary and indispensable for the in-depth study of Chinese folklore. Regrettably, the comprehensive discussion has been relatively silent in recent years. The purpose of this paper is to draw people's attention to this aspect of research. A comprehensive examination of the inheritance and evolution of Chinese folklore reveals that the following characteristics are very obvious.

I. Long-term survival of primitive beliefs

Primitive beliefs and customs have been inherited and popular for thousands of years, which is a major feature of traditional Chinese folklore. Nature worship, animal and plant worship, totem worship, ancestor worship, and witchcraft, divination, prayers for sacrifice, rituals, taboos and other customs are not only centrally manifested in people's faith activities, but also throughout the various aspects of people's material and spiritual life. We do not need to spend ink to describe the various and complicated witchcraft and sacrificial rituals, just look at the faith practices that permeate people's daily life, it is enough to illustrate this problem. For example, in material production activities, spring prayers, autumn reports, seeking rain, avoiding disasters, using divination to predict the climate and the yearly success, as well as a series of taboos formed around agricultural affairs, have long been the traditional customs of agricultural production. The Zuozhuan records, "The two sacrifices of the gods of the earth and grain ...... have been sacrificed since summer and above." [1] The Han Book - Suburban Sacrifice Zhi also recorded: "Suburban sacrifices to the gods of the earth and grain, the never Shang carry on." [2] It can be seen that the sacrifices to the gods of land and grain were popular as early as the indeterminable ancient times. Subsequently, the whole process of agricultural production, always accompanied by a series of beliefs and customs, according to the "Rituals - Monthly Orders" records, in addition to the eleventh and twelfth months of the year, ten months have "praying for the grain", "ordering the people's community", "praying for the coming year" and other fixed sacrifices. In fact, many agricultural festivals were formed as a result of these activities. Such agricultural beliefs and customs have flourished in later times and are still far from extinct today. In terms of hunting, herding, fishing, forestry, transportation, transport, trade and other industries and handicrafts, it is also very common to hold certain witchcraft ceremonies, to worship the relevant gods, and to abide by

certain taboos, etc.

They are also very common.

In food, clothing, housing and transportation, the original faith practices are often reflected. Such as building houses and graves will be closely linked with geomancy, please Mr. Yin and Yang to see the feng shui to choose the house, is the first step before the start of construction. From groundbreaking to the completion of the house into the house, each important link to choose an auspicious day and time, the whole process has a series of witchcraft, rituals, taboo activities. Among them, the beam ceremony is particularly grand, the beam should be affixed "on the beam of great luck", "Jiang Taigong here" and other red paper banners; craftsmen to sing "on the beam text", and then the beam will be steamed buns, scattered money, etc. thrown down to drive away the evil spirits, suppressing the ghosts; and sometimes hang a copper mirror under the eaves to irradiate the demons and evil spirits. Copper mirror, used to irradiate demons. All of these are described in different ways. We can see from the Yinxu oracle bones in the "Divination" records, "Shangshu" in the "Calling Grant", "Luo Grant" two described King Cheng of the Zhou Dynasty to choose the capital of Luoyi when the turtle divination process, Dunhuang documents retained in the "building house text" [3], "Zhenzhai text", [4] and later generations of the endless feng shui books, the creation of the activities of primitive beliefs are The original beliefs in the creation of the activity have a long and continuous history.

Chinese traditional dress, according to the provisions of the ritual system, must be compatible with a certain faith activities, so there is the so-called "sacrificial clothing". In addition, the folk are also popular to avoid many clothes and accessories, such as five poison undershirt, five incense bag, shoes, jade pendant, amulets and so on. In the dietary life, the boat family eating fish avoid turning over, not called "chopsticks" but "chopsticks"; Henan people cooking taboo said "less", "no "no", "light", "rotten", "finished", "not enough", etc.; Northeasterners make dumplings. Northeasterners dumpling taboo not pinch folds, because pinch the light side like "monk head", inauspicious, and wrapped into the dumplings taboo set into a circle, must be set up horizontal and vertical rows, to be able to financial success, these taboos and customs are we often heard of the common. In fact, the diet of primitive beliefs were prevalent early, such as the Han Dynasty, there are "said: Thunder shall not be sauce, thunder has been sounded for sauce, people inside the belly thunder." "said: waxing on the first day of food to get doddering patellas, the name of the day fortunate, rewarded with cold wine. Fortunately, good sample, people auspicious." Such records [5]. According to the "Mountains and Seas Classic" records: "Zhaoshuang of the mountains ...... have wood, its shape such as the valley and the black reason, its Hua four light, its name is called fan @ ① gǔ, Pei do not fan. There is a beast, its shape is like Yu and white ears, ambush pedestrian walk, its name is @ ② @ ② (orangutan), eat the good walk." "On the mountain of Twisting Yang ...... there is a beast whose shape is like a horse with a white head, whose writing is like a tiger with a red tail, whose voice is like a ballad, whose name is Deer Shu, and which it is good to wear for the sake of one's children and grandchildren." "In the柢山 ...... there is a fish, whose shape is like that of an ox, which lingers, with a serpent's tail and wings, whose feathers are under @③, whose voice is like that of a lingering ox, and whose name is @④, which dies in winter, but is born in summer, and which does not suffer from swellings and diseases when eaten." [6] This concept of eating and wearing something

can achieve some practical effect is the concept of simulated sorcery, and the later prevalence of what to eat to make up for what, such as "ate a bear's heart and leopard's guts" to describe the boldness of other people, is obviously in the same vein. As for the custom of pouring the dregs of Chinese medicine on the road after drinking it, it is clearly related to exposure to witchcraft.

When it comes to traveling, partying and other family or social activities, people also often use divination, dreaming, seeking signatures, and measuring characters to predict good and bad luck and decide what to do. In the book "Mozi", it is written: "Zi Mozi north of Qi, met the sun. He said, 'The emperor kills the black dragon in the north today, and the color of the gentleman is black, so he can't go north.' Zi Mozi do not listen to, so north, to Zishui, not attempt and against it." [7] that is, Cong Chen accounted for the method of predicting the travel of one example of good and bad luck. In folklore, even washing hair, clothes also have all kinds of customs to avoid bad luck. For example, the "On Heng" recorded: "" Mu Shu " said: Zi day Mu, people love; d day Mu, people white head. ...... Tailoring has a book, the book has good and bad luck, bad day making clothes will have trouble, good day will have good luck." [8] In addition, a variety of omen superstitions are also prevalent in folklore. "Shangshu - pastoral oath" in "the ancients have said, said: female chicken no morning, the morning of the chicken, but the family of the rope." Records show that, as early as before the Zhou Dynasty, people already believe that the hen morning is a precursor to the decline of the family. In Zuo Zhuan, there are also many records of solar eclipses as an omen of disaster. There are especially many superstitions of omens recorded in the Shanhaijing, such as "The mountain of Changrui ...... has a beast, whose shape is like Yu and four ears, whose name is Changrui, whose voice is like a chant, and when you see it, you will see a great deal of water in the counties." [9] "Hepatitis Hepatitis ...... has a beast that looks like a pig with a human face, a yellow body and a red tail, its name is He Weaksaksauce, and its sound is like a baby. ...... See then the world is in great water." [10] In later times, popular in various places of the omen superstitions, such as "crows call evil, magpies call auspicious", "owls call filial piety", "the left eye jumps blessing, the right eye jumps disaster", "Chickens on the house omen evil", "sneeze omen disaster", "light flower omen joy", etc., are all familiar to us.

In the life of civil society, sacrifices to ancestors and village community protection god has always been the major affairs of the family, the village, and social exchanges, to some kind of faith ritual or betting and swearing to bind each other, take the faith, is also often used by the people. In life rituals, primitive beliefs penetrate especially y. For example, around the birth of children, there are a variety of fertility worship, praying for children's interest in the custom and maternity, maternity taboo, as well as a series of rituals for the blessing of the baby. Marriage to welcome the bride, there are also many witchcraft activities, sprinkle grain beans hustling three deaths at least in the Western Han Dynasty has been popular [11], to bow and arrow to suppress evil spirits, hanging copper mirror to drive away Chong, etc., as early as in the Tang and Song dynasty literature has been recorded [12]. Funeral because of the concept of ghosts and ancestors worship associated with the belief that the activities are more complex form, many names. From the hilltop caveman in the bones of hematite powder to the "ritual - Shi funeral rites" in the relevant records, a variety of funeral beliefs and customs continue to develop and evolve, long-term continuation.

Then from the Chinese traditional festivals, but also most of the origins of the ancient sacrifices, although many festivals in the evolution of later generations, or fused into a multi-component integrated festival, or changes in the nature of the festival, but the content of the sacrifices are still retained to a greater or lesser extent, such as spring, summer, autumn and winter, in addition to a variety of years of farming festivals, but also to worship the Green Emperor Jumang, Red Emperor Zhu Rong, White Emperor Matsui, Black Emperor Xuanmei; the Mid-Yuan Festival, the winter solstice, and New Year's Eve, there are rituals to honor ancestors.

Primitive faith practices have always shown a strong sense of mystery in their transmission, and people feel that these practices are inscrutable and unexplainable, and the fear and awe generated in the mysterious and enigmatic atmosphere then leads to the folkloric behavior of blind faith. This is a marked difference from many other countries and nations of the world where folklore is y influenced by religion.

There are many reasons why primitive beliefs have continued in China for so long.

First, traditional Chinese culture was nurtured and developed in a relatively closed geographic environment, and has remained uninterrupted throughout thousands of years of history. This uninterrupted cultural system determines that the transmission of Chinese folk culture is unimpeded, and the more conservative cultural character caused by geographic environment and other factors will not easily change the ancient customs in the inheritance. Therefore, the primitive beliefs as the main body of primitive folklore can be retained in large quantities and passed on for a long time in later generations.

Secondly, Chinese culture, which emerged from an agrarian economy and a patriarchal society, was characterized by pragmatism and a focus on real life and worldly relations, and thus primitive beliefs never developed into a religion for all. For example, Taoism, a religion indigenous to China, not only failed to become a dominant "state religion", but was also permeated with ancient elements of witchcraft and rituals. As for some foreign religions, such as Buddhism, they can only survive under the constraints of China's specific social and cultural conditions, and cannot replace the original beliefs and customs.

Third, China is a multi-ethnic country, the historical development of the various ethnic groups is not balanced, when the Han region has entered the feudal society, many ethnic minorities are still in the clan tribalism or more primitive stage of society, and thus the original beliefs and practices in the minority groups is a large number of existence. When some minorities into the central plains, or in the central plains when the establishment of the regime, but also inevitably bring many primitive beliefs and customs, such as Liao, Jin, Yuan, the establishment of the Qing regime will bring the northern peoples of the shaman jumping to God's custom.

This feature of traditional Chinese folklore reminds us that we cannot ignore the influence of primitive beliefs in our research, and that even the study of foreign religions should pay attention to the many changes that have occurred in the conflict and fusion of foreign religions and native primitive beliefs.

Second, patriarchal concepts have a far-reaching influence

As many scholars have pointed out, the patriarchal system centered on the father and the head of the family, which was built on the basis of the agricultural economy, was the social structure on which traditional Chinese culture was based. In the long course of history, despite all the changes that have occurred in Chinese society, the patriarchal system and its remnants and variants, which are sustained by blood ties, have been preserved for a long time. This social structure, characterized by patriarchy, has had a long and significant impact on folk customs.

From the perspective of traditional social psychology, the high value people place on blood relations clearly reflects the influence of patriarchal concepts. Scholars of folklore have noted that the Chinese kinship title system is very complicated and fine, it is not only like other countries and nations, vertical distinction between upper and lower generations, but also in the parental line, the first commoner, the eldest and youngest, and other horizontal aspects of the same generation, there are extremely strict and subtle provisions. Such as my previous generation of male elders have uncle, uncle, uncle, aunt, aunt and so on, female elders have aunt, aunt, aunt, aunt, aunt and so on. This endless variety of titles is in fact derived from a patriarchal society that emphasizes blood affinity and lineage. In social life, the rights and obligations of family members, their relationships with each other, and the inheritance and distribution of property are determined by the blood relationship expressed in the titles and the different statuses of superiority and inferiority, of men and women, and of young and old, which are established as a result. This was the intention of Confucius when he emphasized the "correct name" and demanded that people strictly abide by the hierarchical order of "ruler, minister, father, son".

From the point of view of traditional Chinese social life, most of the folk activities of kinship groups and even village communities are centered on the axis of blood relations. Much has been said about this aspect, so let us look at the other side. Since the Tang and Song dynasties, a noteworthy phenomenon is that, with the many changes in social and cultural conditions and the continuous expansion of social activities, some people broke through the scope of the family and the village, according to their own beliefs, expertise, aspirations and special needs, interacting with each other, regrouping, and the formation of a number of new activity groups. Such as the Song Dynasty literature on such families, villages outside the folk association, association has a lot of records [13]. It should be said that these outside the family of social interaction and civil organizations reflect a new interpersonal relationships, but people still believe in the power of blood. Friends of different surnames often through the "righteousness" way to form "righteous brothers", Hong Mai of the Song Dynasty has talked about this phenomenon: "from the outside into the non-positive is said to be righteous, righteous father, righteous children, righteous brothers, righteous clothing and so on is also. " [14] Yuan, Ming Dynasty drama, novels have friends "righteousness" description, such as "single knife will", "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" according to Liu Bei, Guan Yu, Zhang Fei's history of a perfunctory "Peach Orchard, three righteousness" story, and in later times became the "brothers of different surnames". The story of "Three Brothers in the Peach Garden" has become a model of "brothers with different surnames" in later times. In the old days, there were "Ten Brothers" in Zhejiang, and "Jinlan Club" in Guangzhou. Ming and Qing Dynasty folk party also often simulate the family form, to alliance way into the club, master and disciple to father and son, the disciples to brothers. The above phenomenon shows that people have always believed that non-blood

relationships transformed into symbolic blood relations through some kind of rituals can produce a strong binding force and cohesion. The importance attached by the folk to blood ties is evident here.

Another major manifestation of the social psychology under the influence of patriarchal concepts is that, for thousands of years, the sentiment of "filial piety" has always occupied a supreme position in social concepts. One of the major things that folk repeat from time to time is to pay solemn tribute to the deceased ancestors and worship, in order to pray for the ancestors to bless the descendants of the prosperous, family prosperity. People believe that other gods are not as honorable as their ancestors, and therefore ancestral halls and family temples are built everywhere, and each family enshrines their ancestors' tablets, and the regular rituals of ancestor worship are the most important folk belief activities. In traditional Chinese society, there is no place for a person who does not worship his ancestors. Another manifestation of "filial piety" is absolute obedience and filial respect to the living elders. In people's minds, "filial piety" is the core and mother of all moral norms, just as the "Classic of Filial Piety" says, "filial piety is the scripture of heaven, the righteousness of the earth, and the behavior of the people. standing" [15], therefore, "filial piety is the first of all good deeds" has become a socially recognized norm, while "fatherless and childless" and "disowning all six relatives" are The first is the "the first of its kind", and the second is the "the first of its kind".

By honoring ancestors and filial piety and derive a general psychological stereotype, that is, extreme respect for tradition, and therefore the formation of a thick ancient and thin, conformist ideological tendencies. People treat the ancient tradition of the system is always cautious to adhere to, do not dare to easily abandon the attitude, in the evaluation of things, always in line with the "ancient law", whether or not the inheritance of the standard, put forward a certain point of view, but also always have to quote the ancients, the words of the former to strengthen their own weight, folklore, folklore, often long circulated proverbs and sayings is a powerful method of admonishing others. Proverbs and sayings that have long been passed down in the folklore are often a powerful weapon in admonishing others. Folk three hundred and sixty lines, all walks of life have their own belief in the "ancestor", are concerned about the "family law", "division", and "ancestor "Starting a business to teach the art of magical legends. If the carpenter does not boast of "master skills", Langzhong does not show off "ancestral secret recipe", it will be difficult to win the trust of others.

The influence of the patriarchal system and patriarchal concepts is also manifested in all aspects of people's material and social lives in the form of etiquette. Historically, the hierarchical etiquette system has not only taken the norms of the "Three Principles and Five Constants" as the moral connotation, but also taken the hierarchical distribution of consumer goods as the substantive content. Successive dynasties have regulated the social order by the ritual system, and people lived according to their rank status, not the amount of property, so as to guarantee the moral credo of the impenetrable superiority and inferiority of the nobility and the inferiority of the inferiority and the superiority of the nobility. To the use of daily necessities, the system of etiquette have made a detailed and complete provisions, such as clothing, clothing, furniture, car and horse riding, daily miscellaneous goods, etc., things are no big and small, its type, shape, texture, style, color, etc., there is a strict hierarchy of differences, and even as small as the number of door pegs, belt decorations, there are certain specifications, the noble and the lowly can not be confused. In social life, interpersonal relationships, social exchanges, weddings and funerals, good luck and bad luck, etc., there are a series of etiquette. Successive rulers also often have the "right rituals and customs" move, the use of the legal system, philosophy, education and other means of folk customs into the track of etiquette. In the constraints of etiquette, people can not go beyond their own status to enjoy the goods should not enjoy, to make the behavior of the etiquette, so molded into a ritualistic rules, the national character of the peaceful and self-contained, the formation of a formal, conservative, frugal, simple folk customs.