Chinese wedding process

Traditional Chinese weddings are an important part of Chinese culture. In ancient times, it was held at dusk, so it was named because the alternation of yin and yang means gradual. There are six types of weddings in ancient times: nacai, asking for names, naji, nazheng, asking for dates, and personally welcoming.

In the "Book of Rites·Hun Yi", there is a more detailed description of the form and meaning of the evening ceremony in ancient China: "The person who performs the evening ceremony will combine the two surnames, and the upper one will serve the ancestral temple and the lower one will It is to be followed by future generations, so gentlemen pay attention to it. They ask for names, accept gifts, and ask for appointments. They all have a banquet in the temple, greet them outside the door, bow to each other, and obey orders. Weddings are one of the quintessences of traditional Han culture, with red sedan chairs, a mighty guard of honor, worshiping the heaven and earth, lifting headscarves, and wearing "phoenix crowns, harems, and scholar uniforms" in Chinese-style weddings. Cultural roots and paying attention to traditional folk customs have become the new "fashion" of modern people, which is Chinese wedding.

Chinese weddings can be divided into three stages:

Pre-wedding ceremony, that is, "Engagement"

The formal wedding ceremony is the etiquette of "getting married" or "getting married", which means the union of husband and wife

The post-wedding ceremony is the etiquette of "becoming a wife" or "being a wife" Or the ceremony of "becoming a son-in-law", which indicates the roles played by men and women after marriage. In traditional Chinese marriage customs, pre-wedding ceremonies and the main wedding ceremony are the main procedures. These procedures are all derived from the Six Rites of Zhou Gong.

< p>According to the record of "Hunyi" in the Book of Rites: "Those who use Hunli will combine the good of the two surnames, and serve the ancestral temple at the top, and inherit the descendants of the descendants. Therefore, men attach great importance to it, so they use Hunli to accept gifts, ask names, and accept auspiciousness. , accept the levy, and ask for the time, all the masters are waiting outside the door, bowing before going up, and obeying the orders of the temple. Therefore, it is said that the obscurity of etiquette is the foundation of etiquette. ”

The so-called six rites, according to the records of etiquette, are nacai, asking for names, naji, nazheng, asking for an appointment, and personally welcoming. It is said that the six rites were created in the Zhou Dynasty. Some scholars believe that there were six rites in the Zhou Dynasty, but some people did not follow the six rites.

In the third year of Emperor Ping of the Han Dynasty, Liu Xin and others arranged a wedding. In the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, the wedding of the crown prince to the princess was not done without a wedding ceremony. From the Eastern Han Dynasty to the Eastern Jin Dynasty, many weddings did not follow the six rites.

After the Tang Dynasty, the crown prince began to welcome the prince, and the prince's wedding would follow the six rituals. Later, "asking for the name" was combined with "nacai" and "inviting date" was replaced by "nacheng". Therefore, although in concept, it still follows the six rituals. According to etiquette, there are actually only four rites: "Nacai", "Naji", "Nazheng" and "Qinying". However, Zhu Xi's family rituals combined "Naji" and "Nazheng" into one ritual, so there are only four rites. Three rites.