Wedding Customs in the Book of Songs

Marriage customs in the Classic of Poetry: the concurrent phenomenon of marriage rituals and customs of the Zhou Dynasty embodied in the order of parents, the words of matchmakers and the love of the last six Guo Feng era marriage poems in the marriage customs show a colorful nature, both the legacy of the ancient society, but also with the development of the times and progress of the emergence of the new content: there are the order of parents and the words of matchmakers, and the freedom of the love of the last six; both the cumbersome wedding procedures, and easy ways of marriage, and the wedding of the first two. There are both cumbersome wedding procedures, and there is a simple way of marriage. Zhou Dynasty on the one hand, the implementation of a set of strict rules and procedures for marriage to maintain its political dominance, on the other hand, due to geographical differences, far from the political center of the region by the Zhou rituals are weaker, but also retained their own ancient wedding customs. From the "Classic of Poetry" (诗经?) The marriage poems collected from the "State Winds", which express the folklore of different places, can clearly find the coexistence of rituals and traditional folk customs in the marriages of the Zhou Dynasty.

(1) Parental order, matchmaker's word

The Book of Rites emphasizes time and again the importance of parental order and matchmaker's word. Parents' orders, matchmakers' words? Men and women who do not have a matchmaker, not well-known; non-received coins, not to be handed over to the relatives. Therefore, men and women without a matchmaker do not meet, no money do not see each other, fear of men and women are not different. It can be seen that there is no parents' order, matchmaker's words of marriage at that time is not polite, illegal, is not recognized by the family, family and others in society. Under this way of choosing a spouse, the man and the woman hardly had the right to decide on their marital happiness through free love. We can see from the poem "The Classic of Poetry" (诗经?), which is a poem about marriage. We can realize the importance people attached to this marriage custom at that time from the poems on marriage in "The Winds of the State". First of all, look at the important role played by parents in marriage: "Men do not marry exclusively; women do not marry exclusively. Men do not marry exclusively, women do not marry exclusively? As? On to serve the temple, down to the next generation? Marriage, of course, its conclusion from the family interests, so men and women in the marriage before the parents must agree, recognized. For example, "Qi Feng? Nanshan" has? How to get a wife, you must tell your parents? , illustrating the importance of parental orders; "Zheng Feng? will be Zhongzi"? I will not take the love, afraid of my parents. Zhong can also be pregnant, parents' orders, can also be afraid of? which demonstrates the importance of obeying parents' orders; and "Yong Feng? The name of the song is "Bozhou". Mother is not only unforgiving, but also unforgiving of others. The poem is about a woman who fell in love with a young man, but her mother forced her to marry someone else, and she refused to do so. It can be seen that under the arranged marriage system, the women to be married are in a passive position, and they have lost the right to choose their lovers freely. rainbow"? A woman's behavior is far away from her brothers and parents. The woman who is as a woman as a woman, and who is looking forward to marriage, has no faith and does not know her destiny. , this poem is a strong rebuke and accusation against women who boldly pursue freedom of marriage and destroy the marriage rituals. In addition, the matchmaker also has an important role in the process of marriage, no matter a man or a woman needs to get married, he or she has to pass through the matchmaker. If there is no introduction of the matchmaker, then men and women will lose the important conditions on which the marriage is based. Zhou Dynasty marriage customs? The best illustration of this is that the abandoned woman was not allowed to marry. is the best illustration, such as the abandoned woman poem "Wei Feng? The best illustration of this is the poem of the abandoned woman, "Wei Feng? The poem of the abandoned woman "Wei Feng? This phrase reveals that the root cause of a woman's failure in marriage is the lack of a good matchmaker. There is no good matchmaker. This phrase reveals that the root cause of a woman's marriage failure is that she does not have a good matchmaker, and does not have the necessary conditions for marriage; "Qi Feng? Nanshan"? Analyze the salary as what? The "Qifeng" (South Mountain), which is a poem about the "Nanshan" (South Mountain). How about marrying a wife? The matchmaker is not allowed? The book also repeatedly emphasizes the important role of the matchmaker in marriage; and the Bin Feng? The Bin Feng? How about the "Falcon"? The "Binfeng" (豳风), which repeatedly emphasizes the important role of the matchmaker in marriage. How to get a wife? The matchmaker will not be allowed to take a wife. The marriage system of the ancient times was established in the form of a matchmaking system. From the above list of "Shijing" marriage poem chapter we can find that the ancient marriage system formulated? Parents' orders, matchmakers' words? If this condition of marriage is missing, it will be condemned or lead to tragedy.

(B) on the love

"Poetry" produced in the era, because the Zhou Dynasty society, after all, not far from the ancient times, the new concept of marriage is not yet entrenched, the ancient marriage legacy still stubbornly exist, men and women in love is still relatively open. At the same time, since the ancient period people's activities mainly centered around agriculture, ? plowing in spring, plowing in summer, harvesting in autumn and storing in winter? were the laws of agricultural production.? The life of farmers can be roughly divided into two main seasons: from February of the old calendar, they went into the field to plow the land, and did not end their field life until September when they harvested the crops. From October until the end of January of the following year,

they lived mainly in their homes.? When people live in their own homes, they seldom come into contact with the outside world, thus reducing the opportunities for men and women to meet and fall in love. Once spring arrives, everything sprouts, people begin to labor in the fields, so it also increases the opportunity for men and women to meet, over time, it has formed a lot of fixed customs and festivals. Coupled with the ancients are very concerned about the induction of man and nature, that March 3 when the yang is flourishing, yin and yang and harmony, all things flourish, the human world at this time should also be in line with the sky should be married to marry, give birth to children, so that human beings and the natural world between each other to send, and promote each other. So many customs in the old calendar in February or early March, on the Si is one of the important auspicious customs.

On the Si: originally set for the first half of March (mid-spring) a Si day (so called on the Si), the old custom of this day in the water to purify the ominous, also known as the semi-annual ceremony of purification, but after the Cao Wei, the festival is fixed for March 3rd. According to the remnants of "Han poetry":? Zheng State custom, March on the Si, in two water (Qin and Wei) on the soul renewed, whisking away the ominous. Whenever the Spring Festival, men and women have to bathe in the water to wash away the ominous gas. At the same time in this time men and women are very open and free, so that the two sides have no scruples and taboos, especially for women, singing love songs passionate and unrestrained, subject to their own will and emotions, unrestrained, bold and spirited, so this is also the time for men and women to love. Such as "Zheng Feng? River River":? Qin and洧, Fang Lax Ruoxi. Shi and female, Fang Binglanxi. Wei Shi and women, Yi its banter, gifted with peony. Meaning: men and women express their love for each other in the river Qin and洧, and the gift of peonies indicates that they would like to be married to each other; "Zheng Feng? The "Zheng Feng" (The Wind of Zheng)? Zi Hui Si I, Jian Shang wade Riverpark. Zi not I think, there is no one else? The same describes the Qin water side of the men and women in love poem.

In terms of wedding customs, the Zhou Dynasty society is the first set of rituals and the ancient style of the era still exists, the formation of wedding customs reflect the social life at that time. The wedding customs reflected the social life at that time. The first time I saw this, it was a very good time for me to go back to my old life. The first time I saw this, it was a very good time to be a part of the family. He was in charge of the judgment of the people. All the men and women who have been married since they became famous, all the names of the year, month and day will be written in the book. A man marries when he is thirty and a woman marries when she is twenty. Anyone who marries a wife and gets a son will be written in the book. In the month of mid-spring, the men and women were invited to meet. The time of the year is also, running around is not prohibited. If a person does not use the order for no reason, he will be punished. It can be seen that there is a correspondence between the regional division in the poetry of marriage and the difference in the content of the poetry, and it is inevitable that there are poems about the performance of the rituals and the singing of the poetry of marriage in the political center of the Zhou Dynasty, which shows a kind of orthodox social life under the statute of the Zhou rituals. However, there also existed the phenomenon of love and wild atmosphere of marriage and love in violation of the Zhou rites, mostly concentrated in Zheng, Wei, and Chen, among which the love poems in Zheng were the most lively and vivid, and Zheng's new relocation to the eastern countries, where the ancient customs met with the new people, naturally resulted in the intermingling of the new people, and became more energetic.? The rites of the evening are the basis of the rites of passage.? The completion of the rites of husband and wife is the key to the stabilization of other social relations. The purpose of the Zhou Dynasty's establishment of a rigorous marriage rite system was to regulate the chaos of primitive marriages, to arouse shame, to establish stable family relationships, and to achieve the efficacy of ruling the country with rites. Under the Zhou Dynasty's vigorous implementation, weddings were highly valued by all vassal states and all classes. Poetry of the wedding poem reflects the understanding and implementation of the wedding of the vassal states also showed a high degree of consistency, the more rigorous implementation of the orthodox wedding, matchmaking system, and strive to maintain the solemnity of the wedding and prudent; at the same time also truly reflects the promotion of etiquette is not the same process, Zheng, Wei, Chen, and other places by the Zhou dynasty etiquette less influence on the indoctrination, and tenaciously retained their own local customs and traditions. This shows that there was indeed a parallel phenomenon of rituals and customs in the Zhou Dynasty.

Marriage customs in the Book of Songs: the teaching of women and patriarchal society in the context of fertility

The Zhou dynasty entered a society in which matriarchy was dominated by patriarchy. Women entered a tragic phase of world historical significance, when they lost their high status. The loss of women's original high status, in addition to the economic power manipulation in the hands of men, is mainly due to a series of rituals and concepts of male superiority and female inferiority formed by the patriarchal system of the Zhou Dynasty. In order to consolidate the ruling order of slavery, the Zhou Dynasty established a more systematic patriarchal system than that of the Shang Dynasty, making use of the patriarchal relationships that had evolved from the blood-based clan organization. Marriage under the patriarchal system was nominally monogamous, but actually polygamous. Because of polygamy, the status of the first wife was recognized and the right of succession of the first-born son was confirmed. Under the patriarchal system, male inheritance system, first of all, the first-born son is emphasized, no matter the power and the family business are inherited from father to son, the man is not only the ruler of the country, but also the manipulator of the family, which will inevitably form the ideology of patriarchalism and inferiority of men, and the girl will be discriminated against in her lifetime. The marriage system practiced by the patriarchal Zhou Dynasty actually eliminated women's right to self-determination in marriage even more harshly. As a result, women fell from the dominant position in the matriarchal period to a dominated position, becoming subordinate to men and thus losing the helm of the ship that steered their lives and destinies. Through the poems of marriage and love in the Book of Songs? The concept of marriage in the marriage poems of "The Winds of the State", which emphasizes on the education of women and the importance of childbearing, can be a strong illustration of the situation of women under the patriarchal society at that time and their own social status.

(1) Teaching women

The Book of Rites? The Forty-fourth Book of the Righteousness of the Faint? In the ancient times, when a woman was married for three months, before the destruction of the ancestral temple, she was taught in the public palace; after the destruction of the ancestral temple, she was taught in the clan room. They were taught about women's virtue, women's speech, women's appearance, and women's performance. If you teach a woman's virtue, woman's speech, woman's face and woman's work, and if you teach a woman's sacrifice, you use fish for livestock, but when you look at apples and algae, you become a woman who is obedient. Due to the development of primitive agriculture and primitive animal husbandry at that time, which not only promoted the development of social productive forces at that time, but also caused the decline of women's status due to the change of production mode and women's own physiological condition, society gradually changed towards a slave society. At that time, women had already become private property under male domination and had gradually lost their social status. However, some people may wonder why there are so many poems in the Book of Songs that describe and praise women. In fact, we will find that the beautiful images of women in the Book of Songs are shaped through the eyes of others, and their praises are no longer for their contributions to the development of history, but only for their virtues and the singing of their hard work. For example, the bride in "Name Wind? The bride in "Yan Yan" is a woman whose outer and inner beauty are unified, ? Zhong's Ren only, whose heart is stuffed with abundance. The bride in the poem is a woman of unity between external and internal beauty. The bride in the poem meets both the ancient requirements for a woman's appearance and the image of a daughter-in-law in traditional Chinese society; and in Zhou Nan? Tao Yao" in ? In Zhou Nan? Tao Yao, the son of a woman who returns to her home, it would be appropriate for her to have a family. Repeatedly urged to marry the girl, looking forward to the woman to the husband's family after the peace of mind, the heart of the housekeeping, hard work, so that the husband's family members and family business is thriving.

(B) heavy fertility

In the sparsely populated, famine and epidemic epidemic, science is not developed in ancient times, reproduce the population, childbearing and childrearing become a victory over nature, the development of production, the survival of the maintenance of racial continuity of the necessary conditions and guarantees that the heir of the prosperity of the population has become the forefathers of a desire and the pursuit of a long time formed into a fixed concepts, habits. The Book of Rites? The forty-fourth book of the "Rites of Coma"? The "coma ritual", will be combined with the good of the two surnames, the upper to serve the temple, and the lower to succeed the next generation also, so the gentleman important. Marriage is an important matter of honoring the ancestors and renewing the heir, which is related to the inheritance and prosperity of the family. Patriarchal Zhou Dynasty attaches importance to the birth of heirs has its own reasons: on the one hand, because China has always been a country based on agriculture, and the development of agriculture in ancient times relied on the prosperity of people, especially men to maintain; on the other hand, because the Zhou Dynasty is a patriarchal system of law centered on the patriarchal system of society, and therefore the birth of male heirs to continue the clan is very important. For example, "Zhou Nan? Pesticide" depicts a scene in which women collect psyllium, a plant that can be used to treat infertility, reflecting the importance they attached to fertility. In addition, as the Zhou Dynasty adapted to the needs of survival and development, the reproduction of the species was in an extremely important and sacred position, and thus the forefathers developed an exhaustive worship of the phenomenon of reproduction. Many animals and plants described in the Book of Songs are symbols of fertility worship, such as the "Zhou Nan? The katydid and the katydid Inquire into the katydid's feathers! Inquire about the katydid's feathers and inquire about its progeny. The katydid, a highly fertile locust, was regarded as a fertility god by the ancient ancestors. The poem was popularized in southern Zhou, where during the Shang and Zhou dynasties there were the Tenghuang clan in the Tushan area, who took the locust as their totem. This poem is undoubtedly the song they sang in honor of the katydid, and its theme is purely a plea to the god of protection to help them procreate. Why are plants used as symbols of fertility worship? According to some research? From the appearance, petals, leaves can be shaped like a female yin; from the connotation, the plant blossoms and fruits once a year, countless leaves, with unlimited reproductive capacity. Therefore, the ancient ancestors will be blooming flowers, branches and leaves, fruitful plants as a symbol of the female yin, the implementation of worship, in order to pray for their own reproductive prosperity, reproduction. For example, "Zhou Nan? suggests that the plant is a symbol of the female yin, in order to pray for one's own reproductive prosperity. The female of the Zhounan (周南), for example, suggests that the peach is suitable for her family. The female of the Zhounan (周南), for example, suggests that Peach is the most beautiful and the most beautiful of all. The Chinese idiom of "The Peach" suggests that a woman should have her own house and family, like the peach, which is full of leaves and fruits; and "Tang Style" suggests that a woman should have her own house and family. Pepper Chat The fruit of the pepper chat, reproduction surplus rise. His son, a huge and boundless? The metaphor of a woman is the pepper chat with many children. Since marriage, procreation has been an important expectation of society for the relationship between men and women, and in the era of the Zhou Dynasty, this expectation has become even heavier.

The Zhou Dynasty, in order to maintain its rule, became a patriarchal society with a system of succession centered on the first-born son as the core of the political system. Men became the masters of society, and marriage had evolved into a ? The first is a monogamous marriage, and the second is a monogamous marriage. This is, of course, in contrast to the mixed marriages that existed when there was no customized system. In short, a man has at least one wife, i.e., he has to have one wife. Monogamy from the very beginning had its own special character, making it monogamous only for women, not for men. It is evident that nominal monogamy was practiced in the Zhou dynasty, and Engels also says ? What distinguishes a monogamous family from a dyadic marriage is that the marriage bond is much stronger, and this bond cannot now be dissolved at the whim of the parties.? [6] But from the marriage poems of the Book of Songs, "Zhaonan? Hsing Lu"? Who says that a finch has no horns, why does it penetrate my house? Who says that a woman has no home? Why should I be quickened in prison? An indictment of the behavior of bride kidnapping,? We can see that monogamous marriages are still interspersed with many other practices. But for the Western Zhou period, Mr. Yang Xiangkui said: ? Zongzhou early years of the transition from clan society to class society soon, it retains a lot of clan society customs, in the life of men and women, the marriage form is free and lively and permissive, in the early stage of monogamy, the remnants of the pair marriage system still exists. In the Spring and Autumn period, as Mr. Gu Jiegang said, "the marriage system was only for the sake of the division of the lords. The productive forces and relations of production were not the same in all countries, so there were different systems, customs and ideas among countries. Some retained more of the remnants of the previous society, while others nurtured more of the components of the latter society, i.e., as far as the marriage system is concerned, there are examples of group marriages, dyadic marriages, and monogamous marriages, but the mainstream of the system is always transitioning towards strict monogamy, which is an undoubted fact. [9] The Zhou dynasty practiced nominal monogamy but actual polygamy, as in the Book of Rites? The Forty-fourth Book of Faint Meaning? In ancient times, the Son of Heaven set up six palaces, three wives, nine concubines, twenty-seven lineage women, and eighty-one imperial wives after him to listen to the internal rule of the world, and to make clear the chapter of women's obedience, so that the world was at peace internally and the family was in order.? Under such a system, some chapters in the marriage poems of the Book of Songs clearly reflect the unequal social conditions of patriarchal Zhou Dynasty society, in which men were superior to women, under the patriarchal system.

In summary, through the "Shijing? We have briefly analyzed the marital status and social reality of the Zhou Dynasty through some marriage customs in the marriage poems of "The Winds of the State". On the one hand, in love, men and women still retain part of the right to free choice; on the other hand, society has begun to set up a system of rituals and laws for the union of men and women, as well as the marriage life. The way of choosing a spouse? Parents' orders, matchmakers' words? The marriage pattern of monogamy, multiple concubine and concubines was fixed, and the status and authority of men were raised, which bound women, especially after marriage, and gradually reduced them to the subordinate and reproductive tools of men. Although the Zhou Dynasty was in a transitional stage, various systems were gradually being established and perfected, and many concepts had been gradually formed. In fact, it reflected a whole set of social and cultural norms of men marrying women and establishing a new family from the husband's residence after marriage. and did have a long-lasting impact on future generations.