"MacArthur's Great Defeat of Korea" Why were sedan chairs used in ancient marriages? Where did the custom of the sedan chair come from?

Why were sedan chairs used in ancient marriages? Where does the custom of the sedan chair come from? Interested friends over to take a look.

Nowadays, the society generally adopts the western style wedding, but there are a few people will choose the Chinese traditional wedding, but seldom in a sedan chair. So why did women in ancient China get married in a sedan chair? When did the custom of sedan chair begin?

In ancient times, when people got married, there was naturally a connection to welcome their wives, because picking up the daughter-in-law was the same as entering one's own home, and from then on they became a family. So in ancient times, the only way to welcome a daughter-in-law was in a sedan chair, because there was no caravan, no transportation. So the sedan chair became the first choice.

There were many kinds of such transportation. In the Song Dynasty, this custom reached its peak. The sedan chair used for wedding banquets at this time was big red, because in the eyes of the Chinese, red stands for joy and red stands for good luck, so the sedan chair we usually see is big red. It means to welcome such a marriage with red color.

But there is a lot to learn about this sedan chair, so I'll explain it to you one by one. First of all, there are also three names for this kind of sedan chair: bright sedan chair, bright sedan chair and pressure sedan chair, each with a different accent. The bright sedan chair means that the sedan chair must be placed in front of the man's house on the day of the wedding, which means that the bride will be welcomed today, which is also a sign of a good day. In addition, carrying the sedan chair back is celebrated with a shooting hunt, which also shows the importance of the marriage.

The second way to follow the sedan chair is to circle the sedan chair with oil lamps at auspicious times, meaning to dispel the ghosts and gods around and make a fortune. Of course, at this time, there will be a fire pit in front of the palanquin for the bride to cross over to make her life more prosperous in the future.

The third way to press the palanquin is to have a young boy sit in the palanquin so that when he comes, the palanquin is empty of values. This is also an idiom. These three steps are necessary for weddings and mean good luck and happiness. In some places, such customs have been passed down.

But in ancient times, not everyone could ride in such a sedan chair. For example, divorced widows who remarried could not ride in a sedan chair. Instead, cotton sedan chairs were used. This cotton sedan chair was much worse than the class sedan chair and looked very different from the sedan chair. The sedan chair is not beautiful and the wedding is not exciting. Because in ancient times, a woman could only sit in a sedan chair once in her life, which was a reflection of her own rightful home. As for the concubines and women from poor families, they were not so busy. This custom is also the ancient women's bondage.

So how did the custom of the sedan chair come about? The earliest record of the sedan chair is Sima Qian's Records of the Grand Historian. During the Tang Dynasty, sedan chairs were used only by the royal family or senior officials appointed by the emperor. It was not until we passed Lin'an in the south that the ban on sedan chairs was lifted. The sedan chair developed into a means of transportation for people and became more and more popular. Thanks to Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty, the sedan chair could become a wedding sedan chair.

In the twentieth year of the Qianlong reign in the Qing Dynasty, Emperor Qianlong traveled south to Jiangnan. One day, Ganlong was enjoying the lotus at the pond outside the Zhongmu County Office. Coincidentally, a wedding reception team came from Ganlong that day, dressed in red and wounded. When the emperor was here, ordinary people had to make a detour so as not to disturb the emperor's interests. Therefore, the leaders of the county government ordered them to take another road. However, the one who got married that day was Liu, the most famous and talented woman in Zhongmu County.

Lorian sat on a donkey and listened to make way for herself, but she refused. The chief shouted, "The emperor is coming, Buoy, make way." Lorian said very calmly and confidently, "Marriage only happens once in a lifetime. On this beautiful day, I will not give in even if I meet the Emperor!"

The Qianlong Emperor was secretly surprised to hear these words. He didn't expect the tiny Zhongmou County to have such a woman with personality. Gan Long looked at Luo Lin for a moment and said, "You can't let go of this road, but I have one condition." Lan Ruo asked, "What condition?" Gan Long said, "I'll write the first couplet, you write the second, and then you write a poem. If you write a good poem and write a good poem, I will not only cure you of offending the Great King, but I will also let you ride in my sedan chair and send you to your in-laws' home to get married. What do you think?" Roland smiled at Gan Long's words, "A deal is a deal, please leave the top league."

Gan Long thought for a while and said, "This is a lotus flower in the pond. This crazy butterfly must be picked." Ruolian heard the words of the top line and immediately said, "It's hard to get angry when you're drawing fairies." Hearing this, Gan Long clapped his hands and said, "That's right! That's right. Miss, how about writing a poem about a buffalo lying on the bank of the Yellow River?"

Lorian was born in a bookish family. She had loved poetry and books since she was a child, and was good at poetry and painting. She sang a poem without any panic: "Kangxi built iron oxen, dammed and stored water for decades. The wind is still blowing, the rain is full of sweat. Grass is hard to get in, cordless blackmail arrogant. The shepherd boy can't take it anymore. He will stay forever for thousands of years."

Gan Long was overjoyed when he heard the poem and exclaimed, "Miss is not only handsome and outstanding, but also has a quick mind and is good at writing poems. It's rare to have such a talented woman in little Zhongmou! Rare!" Then, Gan Long personally lifted the curtain of Ruolian's sedan chair, invited her to get into the sedan chair, and wrote down the words "the first time for a big girl to sit in a sedan chair" to praise Ruolian.

Since then, the sedan chair custom became popular and most women began to get married in sedan chairs. In traditional wedding customs, the sedan chair is the most indispensable prop, which gives rise to a series of red tape such as loading the sedan chair, boarding the sedan chair, drinking from the sedan chair, accompanying the relatives, turning the mirror, pushing the road, and lowering the sedan chair, which climaxes the whole wedding festivity.

Even today, once a marriage is registered, it is protected by law. Many brides still consider it an irregular marriage if they don't ride in the car. This send-off car, which as usual wears colorful flowers, is actually a variation of the traditional sedan chair.