What do the six rites of ancient weddings mean? China ancient marriage customs sharing.

What does the ancient wedding ceremony mean?

The "Six Rites" in ancient marriage were first formulated in the Book of Rites of the Western Zhou Dynasty, which had a great influence in the history of China, and the provisions on marriage also lasted for a long time. Six rites are divided into six aspects, which are also the six procedures of marriage.

(1) Nacai: This is the first stage of proposing marriage. After the man asked the media to propose, the woman agreed to propose. The man prepared a gift to propose to the woman's family. The gift is a goose, and it must be alive. Why use geese? Wild goose is a migratory bird, symbolizing the meaning of yin and yang. Later, it came up with a new idea, saying that the geese lost their spouses and would never pair up for life to gain their loyalty.

(2) Name-asking: A ceremony to ask the matchmaker about the date, month and name of the woman's birth after marriage proposal to prepare for marriage.

(3) Najib: It is a ritual to inform the woman of the good news of marriage after asking the name. Also known as "subscription". This is the main ceremony at the engagement stage. In ancient customs, geese are used as a token of marriage as usual. Later, it was developed to use rings, jewelry, colored silk, gift cakes, gift candles, and even sheep and pigs, so it was also called sending or hiring.

(4) Briding: After the engagement, the man sends the bride price to the woman's house, which is a ceremony at the wedding stage. This kind of wedding is also commonly known as the end of employment or big employment, big gifts and so on. Later, this ceremony also adopted the practice of returning gifts, returning part or all of the food in the dowry; Or after being hired, the wife will give the man a coat, hat, shoes and socks as a gift. The number of betrothal gifts and the names of items are auspicious and wishful, and the number is double taboo table.

(5) Date of invitation: After the bride price is delivered, choose the wedding date, prepare the gift to the woman's home, and obtain the consent of the ceremony. Goose is used as usual in ancient customs, and gifts are generally simple. Bridal gifts are often combined with bride price, and the wedding date and gift money are decided at the same time.

(6) Kissing: It is a ceremony for the newly married husband to greet his wife. This ceremony is often regarded as the main procedure of the wedding, while the first five items are regarded as transitional etiquette such as marriage negotiation and engagement. Some of these forms are out of the need of social relations, such as going to the woman's house to "make up makeup", going to the man's house to "make a face" and "make a wedding", all of which are rituals to establish social relations. This ceremony is purely a part of the wedding. Generally, sedan chairs are used, which are divided into double roofs or single roofs. The "seeing the bride off" to help the bride get on the sedan chair and the "seeing the bride off" to accompany the groom to the woman's home have their own requirements, such as getting off the sedan chair, returning to the horse, welcoming the car, getting off the sedan chair, paying homage to heaven and earth, entering the bridal chamber, etc ... There are several to a dozen forms in each process, and most of them express their wishes. The wedding season is generally in spring, and the country is founded by agriculture, which coincides with the slack season and bumper harvest, just in time for marriage.

Every procedure, the man should send a wild goose, because the wild goose is a migratory bird, so it is punctual and trustworthy, the wild goose is faithful, and the widowed one is single. It turns out that officials send lambs, doctors send geese and scholars send pheasants. Later, they were all unified into geese. If you want to send more goods, you can send more when you receive them. Other procedures to send geese are only symbolic.

The marriage procedure of Six Rites is very complicated, ordinary people have no time and financial resources to bear, and only officials and nobles strictly abide by it. However, folklore also uses this as a reference to merge some procedures, for example, the first and second can be completed at one time, and the third and fourth can also be merged. The folk wedding customs can still see the influence of the Six Rites in the Western Zhou Dynasty.

After receiving the bride from her husband's family according to the "Six Rites", a formal wedding ceremony should be held-it is most important to pay homage to the bride and tie the knot. Visiting the church, also known as heaven and earth, the new couple worships the god of heaven and earth, seeks the righteousness of human relations, worships ancestors, respects relatives, worships flowers and candles, worships couples, and the woman becomes a member of the man's family.

Divide a vessel into two parts, and then combine them to form a new container, that is, an assembly. Newcomers will use this container to pour wine into their mouths, and the same one will be divided into two parts and connected by wires, suggesting that the wedding will bring two people together and become one. Wine will make wine bitter in rebuttal, which shows that two people are willing to share joys and sorrows.