Analysis on the Development of Chinese Marriage Custom 浅析中国婚俗的发展.doc

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1、Analysis on the Development of Chinese Marriage Custom 浅析中国婚俗的发展 浅析中国婚俗的发展摘要：人的历史，国家的历史，从一定意义上说便是婚姻的历史。无论是在制度意义上还是私人情感生活意义上，它都是家庭的基本单位，从而构成了人类社会。婚姻于人类，其重要性几乎超过了任何一种社会现象。它在受文化深刻影响的同时也全面的反应了社会文化。中国是一个拥有自己文明和悠久历史的国度，因而它具备很多独特的风俗习惯。其中婚俗从古至今历经了多元长期的发展，这一发展从古代复杂的婚礼仪式发展到现代自由的婚礼形式。本文将通过研究中国婚俗的发展来研究中国中国文化的发展

2、状况及未来的发展轨迹。中国是一个多民族国家，本文将会集中探索汉族的婚俗轨迹。本文的目的亦有，人们应当尊重自己的国家的文化传统。关键词：文化；婚俗；变迁8Analysis on the Development of Chinese Marriage Custom Abstract: The history of human being and a nation, in some terms, is a history of marriage custom. Because no matter in personal aspect or in institutional aspect, it ca

3、n act as the foundation stone of family, which is the smallest component part of society. The importance of wedding is beyond any other social phenomenon. It reflects a nations culture; meanwhile, it is influenced greatly by culture. China is a country with ancient civilization, a long history and m

4、any customs. The wedding custom goes through various and long stages of development from ancient complex ceremony to the modern free marriage custom. This paper will study the development of wedding ceremony in China to find the tendency and actuality of the civilization of the whole society. In Chi

5、na these are many nationalities. This paper will focus on Han nationalitys marriage custom. This paper will also propose that people should respect the civilization of their own nation. Key words: culture; wedding custom; tendencyAnalysis on the Development of Chinese Marriage CustomIntroduction As

6、a union of man and woman and a family formation stage, marriage includes not only being married but also the culture significance. For example, the main purpose of getting married in China is to continue the male offspring. The so called “there are three forms of impiety of which the most serious is

7、 to have no heir” reflects the importance of serving ancestors and the filial piety virtues in traditional China. It includes not only marriage but also the preparation phase for the marriage and the performance stage after the festivities. It runs through the whole process of life. These customs, a

8、s a national symbol and cultural development, plays a very important role in culture and ethnic studies. I.The Marriage Custom of Feudality1. The Precondition of Marriage From Qin to Qing Dynasty, the feudal system dominated over two thousand years. During this period, the significance of getting ma

9、rried was far more important than a person finding his better half. Chinese people once thought that marriage was a way to increase families offspring and protect and enhance familys reputation and position. Thus to choose an ideal partner was vital for both the individuals and the families. The two

10、 families intending to get married must be equal in social status. What else taken into consideration were wealth and the authority of their families. Marriage would add a girl of a clan other than ones own. So the love between the man and woman was not the first condition of marriage. The wealth po

11、ssession and the social status were taken into consideration to help both the families develop their relation and promote the two families up to a higher social status. The marriage of the young people was under the control of their parents. They had no freedom in making decision of their own marria

12、ge. In the old times, girls almost had no chance to step out of her house, not to mention meeting the suitable boy and fell in love with him. Another reason was, in old China, children must follow their parents decision and respect their meaning absolutely. There is an old saying: if the parents are

13、 still alive, the children shouldnt leave them to seek their future. The filial piety was a moral character of a person. The basic rule of filial piety was obedience. This traditional marriage custom was influenced deeply by Confucianism. This phenomenon was also caused by the traditional Chinese cu

14、lture. Under this kind of education, young people naturally had to hand up their own right of deciding their own marriage to their parents. Concluding the marriage custom in traditional marriage, matchmakers played a pivotal role in marriage from the very beginning to the end. Only after a matchmake

15、rs introduction and when parents considered the two families condition was similar and the two could be matched, would the marriage procedures go forward. 2. The Procedures of the MarriageThere were many procedures in Chinese marriage custom. The common one was “three letters and six etiquettes”. Th

16、e three letters were the betrothal letter; the gift lists letter and the wedding letter. Six etiquettes were proposing, asking the name, asking for fortune, sending betrothal presents to the girls family, discussing the date of marriage and meeting the bride. 2.1 ProposingProposing was the first eti

17、quette in marriage and the first meeting between the two families. If the boys parents thought that the girl was suitable, they would ask a matchmaker to send the gifts and brought the two parts together. If the gifts were accepted by the girls family, the next etiquette would be followed. 2.2 Askin

18、g NameIt aims to ask for girls name and birthday. In ancient times the girls name would not be known by other people until the girl was in an age of marriage. First, the boys family must have the matchmaker to inform of the mans family through a card containing the information of the boy. And then t

19、he two families exchanged the two childrens Eight-characters. Thus it can be seen that “asking the name” not only meant that the mans family wanted to know the girls name, but also wrote down the womans birthday and Eight-characters (in four pairs denoting the time, date, month and year of a persons

20、 birth, each pair consisting of one Heavenly Stem and one Earthly Branch, used in fortune-telling). If the birthday and Eight-characters would not harm the man, the mans family would send bride-price to the girls family.2.3 Asking for Fortune After asking the name, the boys side had got the girls bi

21、rthday and Eight-Characters and they went to consult a fortune-teller, which was called “asking for fortune”. Usually, the fortune-teller would tell whether the marriage is suitable. 2.4 Sending Betrothal Presents to the Girls FamilyThe significance of it includes two aspects of meaning. One is to t

22、hank the womans parents for feeding her up. The other is to help the womans family prepare for dowry. 2.5 Discussing the Date of MarriageIn the past, the bridegrooms side decided the lucky day and sent the matchmaker to inform of the womans family. People paid much attention to the marriage time. Th

23、ey usually had a person looked at the almanac or asked for fortune. They liked having marriage in spring or autumn because spring was the time that everything comes back to life and when spring was changing into summer it was favor to get pregnant with new life; autumn was the season of harvest. Aft

24、er the labor for a year, people had enough money to hold the marriage. 2.6 Meeting the BrideThe marriage is finally held after the five procedures. In the past, the bridegroom wore wedding suit, riding on a horse, and guided the bridal sedan chair to marry the bride on the day. And the bride wore a

25、red cheongsam waiting for the bridegroom. 3. The Position of Male and Female after MarriageChinese men were hold up as “sky” and women were considered as “earth” in old times. One man could have one wife and several concubines. This decided that women should become an appendage to the men and be sub

26、ordinate to the family interest. It was also characterized by strong feudal political color. Ancient people regarded female virtues as the most important in the gospel of three obedience that were obedience to ones father before marriage, obedience to ones husband after marriage, and obedience to on

27、es son after the husbands death and four virtues: morality, proper speech, modest manner, and diligent work for a woman according to Confucian ethics. In the traditional sexual relations, women were treated as inferior to conform to the moral standard. They were regarded as the accessories of men, t

28、hey did not have the independent personality, also did not have the independent social position. 4. The End of the MarriageIn traditional Chinese, women had no right to stop a marriage. What a woman could do was doing her best to obey her husband and other family members of her husband. If she “made

29、 mistakes” as follows, she would be quitted by her husband. The so-called “seven rules” were not obedient to the parents or her husband, not having given birth to a baby(especially a boy), having sexual relationship with the men beside her husband , having some incurable diseases , having too much w

30、ords and stealing things. When a woman infracted one rule of the seven, her husband could write a quit letter and expelled her out of home. . The Marriage Custom in Republic of ChinaWith the end of the feudal system, the wedding customs experienced some changes. Qing Dynasty was wiped out in 1912, a

31、nd the Republic of China was founded. The politics, economy and culture were totally different with old feudal society. The wedding customs also changed along with it . 1. The Precondition of MarriageThe government advocated loving and marrying freely. Some advanced culture had influenced the intell

32、igentsia. Under this condition some young intelligentsia had freedom in deciding their marriage. Some advanced western cultures supported this development very much. A few students had the chance to study aboard. They accepted the western education and were deeply influenced by the western freedom c

33、onception. So they didnt want to be controlled by their parents or the matchmaker. They believed that love was the foundation of marriage, not the wealth or social status. Among these intelligentsia, the beautiful girl Lin Huiying was a typical example of love and marrying freely. But this kind of f

34、reedom was so limited that in most area of China the marriage of young people were still controlled by their parents. Another typical example was the writer Lu Xun, he accepted the advanced culture and conception and was famous for enlightening the young people to fight against the feudal confines a

35、nd hampers, to struggle for their freedom to pursuit the better life. But he couldnt escape from bad fortune. He was forced by his mothers committing suicide to marry a country girl he never met before. The common situation of marriage could be reflected by his position. 2. The Procedures of Marriag

36、eIn this period, there were two kinds of wedding customs. Because the development and the spread of advanced civilization were not balanced in every place, and the economic condition was totally different in various areas, the wedding customs couldnt be developed equally. The first was the western s

37、tyle which was applied by some intelligentsia in urban area. The other was traditional wedding customs applied in countryside, which was the same as what people followed in the feudal society. 2.1 Modified Western Marriage CustomThe male and female intending to get married must be above the legitima

38、te age. After both agreed on this marriage, they could choose the date to have an engagement, in which the engagement letter should be written down. After engagement, if one side of the prepared couple wanted to get married, he or she should write a letter to the other one and propose the date. If t

39、his letter was accepted and replied, the marriage could continue. After fixing date, the male and female were required to have a medical examination. Only when both of the people were healthy would the marriage go forward. The next procedure was sending invitations to witness introducer and relative

40、s. In the wedding ceremony, the couples wore modified western wedding dresses. Compared with traditional procedures, these procedures had some development. The first was the females parents couldnt ask for betrothal present or money from male. The second was during these procedures, the young people

41、 themselves had some right instead of being totally controlled by their parents. The third was in this period each man was allowed to have only one wife. And the last was the importance of matchmaker was weaker, and was renamed as introducer. This change would help two families recognize more of eac

42、h other. Thats because in old times, some matchmakers distorted the reality of the male and female with the aim to promote more marriages and earn more money. 2.2 The Traditional Marriage CustomAs time went by, wedding customs had experienced various changes, but “six etiquettes” as the basic patter

43、n had not been changed much. It was still essential and core in marriage custom. 2.3 The Position of Male and Female after Marriage In this period, men and women were more equal in marriage than before, especially in urban areas. Women had the equal social status with men. But in countryside women w

44、ere still regarded as a tool to give birth to baby and look after her husband and the husbands parents. 2.4 The End of the MarriageThe freedom of marriage contains two parts. The one is the freedom to get married, the other is the freedom to end the marriage. Compared with before, in this period peo

45、ple enjoyed more freedom in ending marriage. In old times, the female almost had no right to quit her husband. The freedom of ending the marriage was totally under the control of the male or males family. After the divorce law was put into force, the female was offered the right to divorce her husba

46、nd. But this development was limited, because this law did not offer the right to female as equal as male. Only when the male did not obey the law and was put into prison the female could divorce her husband. This phenomenon reflected that under the influence of traditional moral conception, the gov

47、ernment tried to avoid more divorce through this way. And also under this influence, only some intelligentsia and bourgeoisie got a divorce through the law procedures. In most areas, the divorce was still in old fashion, which was the male wrote a quit letter. What we can get from the marriage custo

48、m of this period is that the spread of new civilization was weaker in countryside than in urban areas, the economic development was unbalanced; the marriage custom in different areas was different, the common tendency of the wedding custom was simplified in this period, the controlling force of the

49、parents on marriage was weaker than old times and the females social status was higher than before but still below the males. . The Marriage Custom in New ChinaThe thorough development happened only after the found of New China. 1. The Precondition of MarriageThrough long time bondage, young people finally have the freedom to choose their spouse. They tend