"Eight regulations" prohibit luxury. How to ban wedding ceremonies in ancient China

With the full implementation of the spirit of the "eight regulations" of the central government, the prohibition of weddings and funerals has also attracted the attention of the whole society. When did China's wedding begin? In ancient times, how was luxury forbidden in weddings?

In the pre-Qin period, weddings emphasized human feelings rather than extravagance.

In the pre-Qin period, weddings emphasized human feelings rather than extravagance.

"Book of Rites, Special Code of Suburb Sacrifice" records: "People are confused and not polite, and the order of people is also."

Marriage is an important event in life, and it is human nature to hold a wedding. As early as the pre-Qin period, China people realized the importance of wedding. The Book of Rites: "When heaven and earth are in harmony, everything will prosper. The husband is unconscious, and the beginning of the ages is also taken from the opposite sex, so the attachment is far and thick ... "

The ancients regarded marriage as very important, so they also formulated a set of wedding procedures: starting with "receiving gifts", they had to go through six steps, such as asking names, receiving gifts, treating guests and finally welcoming guests, which were called "six gifts".

In the last link of "welcoming relatives", a wedding banquet will be held to entertain relatives and friends. Relatives and friends will also send a gift, which is what people call a "hand gift". This kind of "gift" is also called "red envelope" by ordinary people, and some are directly called "money".

However, in the pre-Qin period, the ancients did not advocate following each other's rituals when getting married. In the Book of Rites, it is said that "courtesy is impolite and people's order is also bad". Moreover, beating is still popular when getting married in rural areas, that is, there is no need for music programs to adjust the festive atmosphere of the wedding. To put it in an old saying, it is called "no pleasure without ceremony".

Why did pre-Qin people demand "rudeness"? They believe that marriage is a kind of "human order", that is, the natural process of life. Therefore, most of the civil weddings in the pre-Qin period are very simple and generally do not take great pains.

Judging from the relevant literature, there were no records of large-scale exercises and large-scale battles among the people in the pre-Qin period. There is a dialogue between Confucius and Ceng Zi in The Book of Rites. When Confucius talked about the marriage customs at that time, he said that people who married their daughters "kept candles for three nights"; People who marry their wives "don't have fun for three days."

Confucius also made his own explanation that the former is missing the separation of flesh and blood, while the latter is sentimental about the impermanence of life and death, so he married a daughter-in-law to carry on the family line. If the wedding was very lively at that time, Confucius would never say "three days of unhappiness"

It was not until the Qin and Han Dynasties that this system of "no congratulations" and "no happiness" was broken.

During the Qin and Han Dynasties, wedding ceremonies became popular.

Liu Bang, Emperor Gaozu of Han Dynasty, issued a prohibition order "No drinking, marriage and eating meat".

In the Qin and Han dynasties, a set of systems in the pre-Qin period was no longer observed, and weddings began to pay attention.

However, in the early years of the Western Han Dynasty, the imperial court still did not advocate grand wedding ceremonies. It is recorded in the Book of Rites that when Liu Bang (Emperor Gaozu) became emperor, he ordered that marriage, drinking and eating meat were forbidden.

Obviously, this is aimed at the phenomenon of wedding ceremony. According to the biography of Chen Hanping, Chen Ping, the founding hero and prime minister of the Western Han Dynasty, was born in a poor family. Seeing his extraordinary appearance, Zhang Fu, a rich man in Huju Township, decided to marry his granddaughter who had been widowed for five times. However, after the engagement, Chen Ping could not arrange the banquet. It was Zhang who gave him "wine and meat money" before he got married.

Chen Ping got married before the establishment of the Western Han Dynasty. It can be seen that wedding and ostentation and extravagance have risen in the Qin Dynasty and become a more serious social problem in the middle and late Western Han Dynasty. "On Salt and Iron and the Deficiency of Dispersion" records: "In ancient times, coke millet ate barnyard grass, and dolphins ate it. Since then, the villagers have been drinking, while the elderly pay more attention to beans, while the young people eat immediately and only drink when traveling. After that, when the guests get married, the bean soup is white rice and the meat is cooked. Today's folk food and wine, food and travel overlap, and there are cases of burning everywhere. Turtle, carp, quail, orange and citron, carp and carp are all mixed together. " This means that in the past, when holding a wedding, guests had to eat meat soup and rice, plus some chopped meat and cooked meat. Now, fish overlap, barbecue is all over the table, big fish and old turtles, deer tires, quails and oranges are not only very rich, but also more and more luxurious.

At that time, some counties and countries issued local versions of the "prohibition of alcohol"-"people are forbidden to get married and not to celebrate with wine and food."

However, Liu Xun, the seventh emperor of the Western Han Dynasty (Xuan Di, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty) thought this was inappropriate. In the autumn of the second year of Wufeng (56 BC), he issued an imperial edict instructing him not to be tyrannical.

According to the records in Han Xuan Di Ji, the wedding is considered to be a major event in interpersonal relationships. Eating and drinking friends are used for saluting and having fun. It is not a good way to educate ordinary people to celebrate each other when they get married, which is equivalent to abolishing the proper etiquette between relatives and friends in the village and making them unhappy.

Liu Xun also quoted the phrase "people's morality is lost and they are greedy" in The Book of Songs, and emphasized the correctness of his view of banning. Because this sentence means discord between people, mostly because of poor care in diet. Therefore, Liu Xun instructed the prohibition of "prohibition of alcohol".

Liu Xun's original intention may be to make the wedding lively and make people happy and harmonious through normal wedding ceremony, but he forgot the most basic rule, that is, catering is easy to cause extravagance and waste. As soon as Liu Xun's "drinking order" was handed down, the luxury of the people rose. If the wedding is not luxurious, it is because of fear that others will look down on it.

Xuan Di's "drinking order" not only influenced the wedding customs at that time, but also had a far-reaching impact on the subsequent weddings. It can be said that Xuan Di's "drinking order" was the "first order" of China's ancient wedding.

During the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, "the wind of luxury marriage" appeared.

Xiao Ze, Emperor Wu of the Southern Dynasties, wrote a letter: "Any violation will be punished by law."

During the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, people paid more attention to weddings, and there was a "extravagant marriage wind". Because the wedding was too particular, many new wedding customs appeared in this period, such as the bride's custom of covering her face with a fan during the wedding, the custom of covering her face with spun yarn after dressing up, and the ceremony of paying homage between husband and wife, which all appeared in the Jin Dynasty. The custom of "disturbing the bridal chamber" was particularly popular in this period.

In the traditional wedding ceremony, the ceremony of tying the knot in the same room is still retained, but the instruments used are more graded. The so-called "sharing a cell" is the custom of newlyweds eating meat together, while "getting married" is the custom of the bride and groom toasting and drinking in the bridal chamber. At that time, in the Southern Dynasties, delicious food was provided at the ceremony of sharing prisons, while gold, silver and jade articles were used at the wedding ceremony, and the supplies were extremely luxurious.

According to the Records of the Emperor Wudi of the Southern Dynasties (Volume III), in the seventh year of Yongming (AD 489), Xiao Ze, the Emperor Wudi of the Qi Dynasty, wrote a letter at the wedding to curb this unhealthy trend, saying that "the late customs are beautiful, the calendar is constant, and all thoughts are punished, but the people do not know what to ban." This is the price of imprisonment, especially in Huatai. Shame. The abbot has a prince. "

In view of the "luxury wedding style", Xiao Ze instructed the relevant departments to formulate a law and make it public, and limit the scale of the wedding banquet, so that the wedding will not be delayed and the wedding can be frugal. Finally, it is emphasized that "if there is a violation, it will be brought to justice."

Later, Emperor Xiao Luan of Qi Ming also organized courtiers to discuss that the utensils used in the wedding ceremony would be changed from gold and silver to pottery.

At the same time, in the Northern Dynasty, the luxury of wedding was not inferior to that in the Southern Dynasty. Due to the serious waste and competition of weddings, the national financial and social stability is affected. The imperial court and people of insight pointed out the harm of extravagant marriage from time to time and advocated frugal wedding. According to the biography of the Northern History King Linhuai, Yuan Xiaoyou, the son of the royal family at that time, once said, "Please be self-sufficient. If you marry and bury someone who has a gift, it will be against heaven." Cui You, an official of the Northern Wei Dynasty, once put forward a similar proposition of banning luxury. In the biography of Cui You in Zhou Shu, it is said that "when the wedding ceremony is abolished, there will be more music when the wedding is held", and wealthy families are "luxuriously dressed". Cui You wrote to ask for "prohibition of alcohol" and got the approval of the court.

During the Tang and Song Dynasties, the content of wedding was further developed, which was more colorful than that in the Wei and Jin Dynasties. Customs such as urging makeup, stopping cars, making hundreds of curtains, turning carpets and laying curtains are all on the rise. During this period, the phenomenon of luxury wedding ceremony is no longer a prominent social problem, but it was officially denied for the first time and has been emphasized since the Spring and Autumn Period.

In the first year of Song Taizu Kaibao (AD 968), the Southern Tang Dynasty, which was about to perish, discussed the wedding. After some arguments, Pan You's opinion was adopted by the masters of the Tang Dynasty-the wedding can be held with relish. This is the first time since the Spring and Autumn Period that the imperial court has clearly stipulated that music can be used in weddings. It has become a custom for China people to invite trumpeters to entertain at their weddings, which has been popular until modern times.

Wedding in Yuan Dynasty: "Hiring money can't be extravagant"

In the eighth year of Yuan Dade, the imperial court issued a decree: "Give a wedding banquet and observe the provincial agreement."

In fact, there were restrictions on the prohibition of large-scale weddings in the past dynasties, and the system regulations were more detailed and strict, which should be the Yuan Dynasty.

Although the Yuan Dynasty was ruled by the Mongols in the north, the customs of the Han nationality still dominated people's marriage life at that time, and the wind of big marriage still prevailed. "You can't hire money, extravagance and waste are increasing. When you go bankrupt, you can't get married, or even you can't get married, so you can't get married. " Because they can't afford a decent wedding, some men and women can't get married in time, which shows that the cost of marriage at that time was really too high.

Hu Youti, an official of the Yuan Dynasty, wrote in "On Agriculture, Mulberry and Water Conservancy": "Today, a man marries a woman, no matter good or bad, no matter whether every family has it or not, no matter what the family level is, we should celebrate. For example, luxury and splendor are in harmony, food and clothes are for princes, useful silk is sold at a low price, but useless things are bought at a low price, which leads to destruction and bad property, and debts are lifelong, so it is not worth saying.

In the face of extravagant wedding customs, the Yuan Dynasty made restrictive regulations on bride price and banquet. In the first month of the eighth year of Dade (A.D. 1304), the Yuan court issued a "wine restriction order" for the wedding, and it was clearly required in the imperial edict that "the wedding must be held in person and the funeral should be saved". The standard (upper limit) of bride price and banquet expenses is as follows-

Shang Hu, gold 1 2, silver 5/2, 6 pieces of internal and external colored satin and 40 pieces of miscellaneous silk; Nakamura, gold and 5 yuan, 4 taels of silver, 4 pieces of colored satin inside and outside, and 30 pieces of miscellaneous silk; Next door, 3 taels of silver, 2 pieces of internal and external colored satin, and miscellaneous silk 15. When holding a banquet, the upper middle family should not have more than three flavors, and the lower middle family should not have more than two flavors.

At that time, not only the wedding comparison, but also the wind of hand-holding ceremony was very popular. In officialdom, sometimes "money" is only deducted from everyone's salary (salary), and some money actually makes the monthly salary "ten divided by eight or nine". This trend even affects the integrity of officialdom. The court specially stipulated that gifts should not be deducted from wages in the future, and violators would be prosecuted. This provision has also formed a legal provision. In Yuan Zhang Dian, he said: "If it is the same as before, Xu Wei of the supervision and inspection department will understand it and discuss the crime with the stolen goods."

Disclaimer: The column "One side of the soil and water supports one side of the people" was contributed by the famous historian Mr. Ni. Be sure to contact the author himself.