Ancient Chinese marriage has those customs

In the old days, men and women were not close, and women were even more out of doors, not to step out of doors, deep in the boudoir, it is difficult to see the face. After the matchmaker, the man will generally put forward the idea of taking a look at the matchmaker under the leadership of the woman's home first visit to the activity is called blind date.

There were two ways to meet in ancient times, one was to visit the woman's home on a certain day by the man's parents or aunts and uncles. Women's parents usually call their daughters out to show their faces, such as pouring tea, the man's family to look down the woman's appearance, figure, posture, demeanor and so on. Sometimes matchmaking but also look at the prime minister, but will not be as fortune-telling to see the prime minister so exaggerated, generally just according to the woman's palm of the soft, hard, thick and thin to judge the woman's fortune, soft palms, thin skin, that is a good life. Skeletal prominence, muscle stiffness, skin roughness, it is evil, many places are also very taboo woman is broken palm, that broken palm hard life, destined to kill her husband, the man is thought to be broken palm to be a big official. The other is a man by the matchmaker or is a respected elder brought to the female family matchmaking, general matchmaking days proposed by the man, the matchmaker to decide the time and notify the men and women, both sides should be prepared, the man should bring some gifts, gifts are not in more than one, the table table only, if you can impress each other's parents of course, the heart of the better. As the protagonists of the two men and women should try to clean up and dress up demure and beautiful, in order to get each other's favor. The man is observing the woman, but also accepting the woman's scrutiny. However, the man and the woman do not sit and talk for a long time, the woman just shows up a little bit and then hides in the inner room, leaving the woman's parents and other relatives to talk with the man. If the woman leaves the man to entertain her, it generally means that he has been recognized by her parents and the woman. If the man is satisfied, there will be some indication, usually to give the woman a small red envelope, commonly known as "meet gift", or even other members of the woman's family must also take a share.

Na Cai

Na Cai, that is, the man asked the matchmaker to the woman's family to explain to the conclusion of the marriage request, is one of the traditional rituals and customs of the program, known as the current "proposed marriage", "matchmaking". In old China, arranged marriages were practiced, and young men and women had no autonomy, and "when a man is old enough to get married, when a woman is old enough to get married" was their only choice. In later times, the prevailing condition for marriage is the "door-to-door match" that people often hear about. "In addition to the social status of the family, there are also economic conditions, family lineage, occupation, etc. The conditions of the parties to the marriage themselves are also taken into account.

Despite being the first step in the marriage ceremony, the Na Cai is also a gift to be carried. In ancient times, geese were used, so this ceremony is also called "Dien Yan". Na using geese, there are certain instructions: "geese wait for the yin and yang, to be lifted, winter, south, summer and north, you have its own". Geese are migratory birds that fly to the south in winter and live in the north in summer. The adoption of geese, in fact, is the same as to tell the female family, "men are big when the marriage, women are big when the marriage", should be like the geese to choose their place at the right time.

After the city of Nacai gifts greatly enriched, sometimes up to more than 50 kinds of. Such as the Han Dynasty Nacai gifts have mandarin ducks, nine children bushes (or ink), double stone, colorless silk, long life wisps, bushes with, cotton wool, rolled cypress, Jiahe, Agaricus, dry lacquer, fish, deer and so on. These gifts are accompanied by pioneering texts mentioning the symbolic meaning of these gifts. Folklore classifies these symbolic gifts into four categories:

(1) those that express good luck, such as "Xiang" for sheep and "Lu" for deer;

() those that are associated with good marriage and good luck, such as "Lu" for sheep and "Lu" for deer;

(2) those that express good wishes for good marriage and good luck for husband and wife; and (3) those that are associated with good marriage. (2) and husband and wife good luck auspicious objects, such as the harmony of glue and lacquer, the phoenix's harmony, mandarin ducks and singing;

(3) symbolize the male-dominated relationship between husband and wife, such as waiting for geese yin and yang metaphor for the wife from the husband, to cattail metaphor for women's suppleness, attached to the top of the mountain, submissive cypress metaphor for the women's obedience;

(4) expressed the general virtues, such as the Sharp Beast, clean and humble, the beasts of blessing, the body of the heart of the kindness of the crow to feed, filial piety, the crows. The raven is rebellious and filial.

Ask for the name

Ask for the name, i.e., ask the matchmaker to ask for the woman's name and her birth date, so as to go back to the divination of good and bad luck, which is equivalent to the later generation's "ask for the eight characters". Ancient beliefs such as yin and yang concept is very important, there are five elements of the said, and there are phases of the said that the collision and collision. If one thing doesn't match, there is no hope for the marriage to succeed. Whether the ancient rituals or later generations, the choice of spouse is not only to consider the above-mentioned fate and so on, and therefore ask the name also includes the woman for whom the birth, is born or adopted, is the main room or the birth of the next room. Ask the name also carry gifts, the ancient rituals also use geese, probably Nachee, ask the name is a time, the later Nachee, ask the name is so. In some places, after the questioning of the name, both the man and the woman's family have to exchange "straw posts", that is, they notify each other of their situation.

The ancients attached great importance to the "eight characters of the birth date", which is the master of the decision of men and women to enter into marriage. It is because of the belief that the eight characters can determine a person's fate, so many parents after the birth of their daughters to hurry to ask the fortune-teller to find a good eight characters, so as not to grow up in the future when the marriage can not be combined. In this way, many women are born with a false year, month and day.

Naji

Between asking for a name and naji, there is a not-so-simple "underground work", namely, marriage, which can also be seen as part of naji. China's traditional marriage is not only "parents' orders, matchmaker's words" as the basis, but also the "light of the gods" as the basis for the work after the name, is through a variety of ways to examine the possibility of marriage between the two sides. This series of activities is the marriage, later commonly known as "bazi". Whether or not the marriage can be established, this is the most important hurdle.

There are many popular folk rhymes about the combination of the eight characters, such as "green rabbit and yellow dog, red horse and yellow goat, black rat and yellow ox, black ox and black pig, dragon and chicken ......". "Snake dish rabbit, must be rich"; do not have "golden chicken afraid of jade dog, monkeys and pigs not to the head", and so on and so forth. It can be seen that the social harm of the "approved eight characters" is very great. If you collect these sayings from all over the world, you will find that there are many contradictions.

After Naji, the marriage was finalized, and the two parties exchanged posts similar to marriage certificates in later times. Thereafter, both men and women are bound by social ethics, and the termination of a marriage is no longer a casual matter, but has to be negotiated by both parties or mediated by outsiders. At the same time, the man has to give gifts to the woman on New Year's festivals, some places called "decorative festival", and also to provide the woman with four seasons of clothing. It is because of this special significance of Naji, people on its symbolic representative - post, pay special attention to a lot of places called it "dragon and phoenix post".

Nazheng

Nazheng, is a man marrying a woman must go through the procedures, that is, the later generations of the gift, send dowry, under the bride price. Nalanzheng, the north is called "over the gift", also known as "complete recruitment", "big recruitment". The man's family to send bride price to the woman's family must choose an even number of auspicious days, by the matchmaker and the man's parents and relatives (mainly the man's aunts), etc., with bride price to go to the blind date. The bride-price includes two pairs of gold flowers (hairpins), one pair of gold rings (gold bracelets), one pair of gold rings (a gold one and a copper one), dolphin meat, wine, goat, cake, two feet four inches of red silk, seven feet of silk, four pairs of candles, firecrackers, two handfuls of incense, two pairs of ear ornaments, ginger flowers, gift cakes, etc. The bride-price is displayed at the end of the marriage. The bride-price, are displayed in the two carried by the large food box, and then in order to blow the drummer before, the matchmaker escorted, blowing along the street, sent to the female home.

The woman's family, who received the bride price, took out part of it and returned it to the man's family with twelve other gifts as a gift in return. The woman's family then offers tea to the man's family, and finally the man's family accepts the woman's family's offer of a banquet. The man's family who receives such a sumptuous banquet is required to give silver money to each table as a token of appreciation.

At this time, both the man and the woman have to invite their friends and relatives to the banquet to show that the two families have formed a bond of friendship.

Fixing the alliance

The ceremony of fixing the alliance is also known as wending, or small hiring, which is now known as engagement. To send the bride price to the woman's home, the man's family chooses an auspicious day. Bride price for: red silk (with gold letter A Geng don't in the red silk or An gold letter in the post), gold flowers, gold rings, gold earrings, sheep, pigs, gift candles, gift incense, gift guns, gift cake, even move flower pot (take the meaning of even the birth of a noble son lucky omen), pomegranate flowers (take the meaning of the child), and so on. The matchmaker and the parents of the man's family or his relatives accompanied the trip. The woman's family accepts most of the bride-price, twelve items are prepared to give back, the gift cake is given to relatives and friends, as a notice of the engagement, which is called "split cake". The recipient of the gift friends and relatives, must later give a wedding gift.

Choose a date

Traditional concepts, the day of marriage is very important, must be treated with caution, in order to avoid bad luck. In people's eyes, pick a good day to get married, the new couple can be a lifetime of happiness, good luck, therefore, choose what kind of day to get married since ancient times are people's most concerned about the problem.

In the past, the selection of the wedding date is very complex, the need for men and women to let fortune-tellers project the eight characters of the birth of the auspicious day of the zodiac, drawing up the wedding date, there can not be any offenders and criminal. In addition, there are some forbidden wedding date saying also affects some people. No spring year, also known as the widow year, blind year, "widow" word will make people think of "widow", which is obviously "inauspicious". Then there are two spring days within a year is lucky? Not exactly. Some places, "double spring double happiness" saying, meaning that the year of the double spring wedding "double spring rushed double happiness". Leap month, refers to the year in the lunar year, there are thirteen months a year. Because "leap" has "nourishing", "harvest" meaning, symbolizing the couple love nourishing, love and harmony. If you have a double spring and a leap month, you'll be even happier.

In short, no matter what kind of saying, and how a kind of talk, in the final analysis, all reflect the good wishes of the people to avoid bad luck and seek good fortune in the core of the unknowable things to avoid. After the wedding date is determined, both parents can send out invitations to invite friends and relatives to attend the wedding, friends and relatives received invitations, generally speaking, even if you can not go, but also to send gifts.