Imagine what a wedding was like in the Tang DynastyIs it different from our current wedding?According to Feng Yan's "Feng's Records of Experience" volume 5 "Flower Candles" article wrote: "In modern marriage, there are obstacles, sons-in-law, fans and flower candles, as well as rituals of divination, tents, and worship halls. From the royal family to the Shishu, all the same. Feng Yan lived in the era of Tang Dezong, and the "modern era" he said probably refers to the prosperous Tang Dynasty. He only mentioned the main thing, but not the whole story.
1. Prelude to marriage.
In ancient and modern times, they are all engaged first and then married. There are many rituals before the marriage, and after these rituals are completed, the groom can go to the bride. Marrying a bride is the last of the six procedures, called "kissing". So, what else is there to say?
According to the "Shi Du Li", the six procedures from engagement to marriage are: sending a Nacai, asking for a name, Najib, accepting a sign, inviting a date, and welcoming in person. The so-called "Da Na Cai" according to Zheng Xuan's note: "If you want to marry him, you must first make the matchmaker understand his words." The female clan allows it, and then makes people accept the gift of its choice. Use geese as the cubs, take them along with the yin and yang. The meaning is to first invite the matchmaker to the woman's house to communicate and say goodbye, and if the woman is interested, the man will send a goose to propose.
The word "down" reflects the concept of male superiority and inferiority of women, and men are yang and women are yin, so the general word of marriage proposal from men to women is called "down". The choice of geese reflects the ancient concept of yin and yang. The ancients believed that all things are divided into yin and yang, and that the combination of yin and yang can give birth to all things. The sky is yang, the earth is yin, men are yang, and women are yin. The goose is a migratory bird, which comes and goes north with the change of cold and summer, so it symbolizes the righteousness of conforming to nature. This process is very complicated, the furnishings of the woman's house, the position of the guest of honor, and the order of the hall are all set to a certain rule, because they are cumbersome and meaningless, so they are ignored.
"Asking the name" is that after the woman said that she could consider marriage, the man formally proposed to the woman. At this time, the man wants to send another goose to the woman, and asks the woman for her name and birthday. That is, the so-called "Geng post", if the woman gives the Geng post to the man, she agrees. At this point, the god of fate plays a decisive role. If the birth dates of both men and women coincide, it is an auspicious marriage;If you don't agree, you can't go down, and the marriage will be blown up. The so-called "eight characters" are the year, month, day, and time of birth, a total of eight characters, and the secular cloud "eight words of life and destiny create" refers to this.
If the result of the marriage is auspicious, the man will go to the woman to report the good news, "the marriage will be decided". The Annunciation is actually Najib. Najib is commonly known as a small gift, usually to give a goose, and sometimes some gifts, such as jewelry, clothes, etc. One point to be noted here is that there is a requirement to send geese in several links, where are there so many geese?This is indeed a problem, but people have a way, there are no geese can be replaced by poultry, generally chickens are used, and geese are also used.
The fourth procedure is called "acceptance", the gift given this time is more expensive, the ceremony is more grand, generally a little richer people, the gift to have a silk bundle, skin. Lipi is two deer skins, and the bundle is a bundle of silk fabric, five horses, each of which must be rolled up from both ends, also known as both ends. Jia Gongyan said: "Whenever you marry a wedding ceremony, you must use its kind of fifty or twenty ends." Words must be two, want to get the name of their cooperation, ten elephants, five elements and ten days into each other. The scholars and doctors used Xuanqi and silk to bind silk, the Son of Heaven to make Gui, and the princes to Dazhang. It can be seen that the number and shape of the engagement gifts are related to the social status of the man. This procedure is important and is commonly known as "excessive gifts".
The fifth procedure is called "Request Period". The man divination or what method is used to obtain the auspicious day, and then seek the woman's opinion to determine the date of marriage. This is called "sending the sun" and "mentioning the day" in the folk. After all this is done, wait until the date, and the grand and cumbersome wedding will take place.
2. Warm and cumbersome weddings.
On the day of the wedding, the groom rode a horse with a welcoming team to the courtyard of the bride's house, and recited a hypnotic poem at the door of the house, which means urging the bride to put on makeup quickly, and come out as soon as possible to get married with the groom. Duan Chengshi recorded in the "derogatory" article in the fourth volume of the sequel to "Youyang Miscellaneous": "More than 100 people from the husband's family helped the car, and they all shouted: 'The bride is out. The sound is endless, boarding the car is the end, and today's makeup is also. "It's the groom who brings in the crowd to set the mood. The groom also has to recite a hypnotic poem before the bride can come out and board the bus with the help of others.
The hypnotic poem can be written by the groom himself or by asking someone else to compose it for him. Volume E of "Southern New Book" contains: There is a man named Chen Qiao in Fujian, who is helpless and has no support, and he went to Beijing alone to apply for the Jinshi examination, but he failed to make the list year after year. But he was not reconciled, so he continued to take the exam until he reached the top in his twilight years. When he returned to his hometown, he was already past the age of ear shun, that is, he was in his 60s. I have to participate in the election again, and it will be delayed for more than ten years, and when I get an official position, I will be almost 80 years old. The people in his hometown took pity on him, and under the mediation of the people, a Confucian woman married him.
On the day of the wedding, many scribes came, and they all competed to compose hypnotic poems, some of which were slightly ironic. Chen Qiao himself wrote a hypnotic poem, and the last two sentences are: "Peng Zu is still 800 years old, and Chen Lang is still a child." "Relieve ridicule with self-comfort. It means that Peng Zu lived to be 800 years old, and compared with him, isn't my Chen Qiao still a child?It's not too late for me to get married. This is really a story with a lot of sadness in it. (The first volume of the "Library").
The "Hypnotic Poem" written by Lu Chu mentioned above is: "In the past, I will go to Yujing to travel, and the first immortal Xu Xiangtou." Today, I am fortunate to be the first meeting, and I will teach Luan Feng to make up the building in the morning. (Quantang Poems, volume 369) Jia Dao, a famous poet in the late Tang Dynasty, has a poem "Friend Marriage Yang's Makeup": "I don't know what night it is, urging the balcony to get close to the mirror." Who said hibiscus in the water?A branch opens in the bronze mirror. (Quantang Poems, Volume 574) praises the bride Yang like a hibiscus in the water, and the word "balcony" metaphorizes the bride as the goddess of Wushan, and the groom has become the merry King of Chuxiang. Xu Anqi's poem "Urging Makeup" has a new meaning: "It is rumored that the lamp is downgraded to pink, and it is good to make spring in front of the mirror." You don't need to make up on your face, you can wait for the painting with your eyebrows. (Quantang Poems, volume 769) means that the bride's makeup does not have to be fully painted, leaving groom paintings such as eyebrows, and alluding to the allusion of "Zhang Chang's thrush" in the Han Dynasty. After the hypnotic poem, the bride came out and got into the car. After the bride boarded the car, the groom rode around the bride's car three times.
When the bridegroom's house is about to arrive, there are many people crowded in the middle of the road to cover the bride's car or sedan chair, and the bride wants to enjoy some wine and food, and some people ask the bride to make a "car barrier" before they can be released. Sikong Tu, a famous poet in the late Tang Dynasty, once had a car barrier text handed down.
After the car barrier is completed, the bride's car is cleared, and when she enters the groom's courtyard, the next procedure is to be carried out, called "son-in-law", that is, to disturb the groom's majesty. Specifically, all the women of the bride's relatives and guests are present, and each of them beats the groom with a wooden cane. Although it is only a ceremony, sometimes it is too much and the groom is very embarrassed.
After tossing the groom, it's the bride's show again. This program is called "turning the seat", and it may be that the first thing to be laid is the genus of the mat, so it has this name, the purpose is that the bride can not touch the ground after getting off the car or getting off the sedan chair, so the groom's family should prepare a few felt mattresses, similar to modern carpets. The specific method is to spread it from the bride's drop-off place, because the felt mattress is limited, so after the bride walks by, someone immediately moves the back felt mattress to the front, and moves it in turn until it enters the place where the wedding is held. Because the things that are paved have colors and are passed down from one generation to another, this Xi has the symbolic meaning of passing on the family and having a bright future. There is a poem in Bai Juyi's "Twenty Songs of Hechun Shen": "Tsing Yi passes on felt mattress, splendid embroidery is an oblique", which is written about the "transfer of seats" Xi when getting married in late spring, and you can also know that the person who passes the felt mattress wears cyan clothes.
When the bride who has walked through the table enters the door, she should step over the saddle placed at the door, or sit on it, so as to take the meaning of peace and security, so that her life can be peaceful after the marriage.
After entering the door, they began to worship and get married. There are also many rules in the wedding ceremony. For example, "but fan", that is, the bride covers her face with a fan, and only after listening to the groom reciting "but fan poems" will the fan be removed. Li Shangyin has the poem "On behalf of Dong Xiucai, but fan": "Don't fan the painting out of the curtain to cover up the lag of talent in Chunshan." If the reunion is a bright moon, osmanthus must be bloomed. Li Shangyin likened the new ** to a beautiful and fragrant osmanthus, and the poem was written very well. There are also new ** peonies, such as the late Tang Dynasty Huang Tao's "Go to the Fan" poem: "The wind in the city is cold with wax torches, and the brocade curtain is open to show Xiangluan." It is known that the Qin girl ascended to the immortal state, and the garden was lightly separated from the peony. (Quantang Poems, vol. 706).
On the morning of the second day of the wedding, there was also the rule of worshipping my aunt. My aunt is today's in-laws. When visiting, the bride should hold a bamboo basket in her hand, which contains dates and chestnuts, and take the homonym of "early lizi", in order to bless the early noble son and continue the cigarettes for her husband's family.
3. The wedding is held at dusk.
It should also be noted that Tang Dynasty weddings were held in the evening, which is different from modern times. The original word "marriage" for marriage is "dusk", which means dusk. Jia Gongyan's "Etiquette Shu" volume 4 Zhongyun: "Zheng Liyun: The gift of a scholar marrying a wife is based on faintness, so it is famous. The faint will come from the yang and the yin. The daily income of the three merchants is dusk. (Commentary on the Thirteen Classics) and then said: "Zheng Yun's daily entry into the three merchants, the business is discussed, is the name of the missing engraving, so the three lights are spiritual, and the day is also three moments of darkness, which is not clear." Case Ma Shiyun: The sun has not risen, and the clouds are two and a half quarters after the sun has not been established, with a total of five quarters before and after. The three merchants of today's clouds, according to the whole number. Actually, two and a half quarters also. ”
In explaining the origin of the word "dusk" for "marriage", this passage also explains the exact time of the so-called "dusk", that is, two and a half quarters of an hour after the sun is completely hidden. Two and a half quarters is roughly equivalent to 37 minutes today. Bai Juyi wrote in "Twenty Songs of Hechun Shen": "Where Chunshen is good, Chunshen marries a woman's family." Two rows of candles in cages, and flowers between a tree fan. Bin Biden Huaxi, personally welcome the obstacle car. The hypnotic poem is not over, and the stars are gradually tilting. "The hypnotic poem is not finished, and the stars have come out.
At that time, weddings had to be held at dusk, otherwise it was considered a violation of etiquette. During the Zhenguan period of Taizong of the Tang Dynasty, Princess Yangcheng married Du He. Tang Taizong ordered the diviner to divinate auspicious days and good days, and the diviner believed that "day and dusk are auspicious", that is, the day and dusk are auspicious. Ma Zhou said: "The pilgrimage is the court, and the thoughts are also precepts;."Xi is daytime, and thinking is also complete;Swallow drink to the sun, think of each other;Marriage is on the night, and I think about blind dates. Therefore, there are successes up and down, there are relatives inside and outside, there are times when there is movement, and there are good luck and evil rituals. Now is the beginning of chaos, and you can't do it. Fu Bu therefore decided, if the bow is slow first, the saint does not need it. (New Tang Dynasty Book: Biography of the Emperors and Princesses, Volume 83). Raise the time of marriage to such a height. Tang Taizong adopted his opinion, and Princess Yangcheng's wedding was still held at dusk.
On the third day after the wedding, the bride has to go down to the kitchen to cook a meal for her in-laws, and there must be soup, because soup is more difficult to make, and the best cooking skills can be expressed. The taste of this soup is the first impression on the in-laws, so the bride often attaches great importance to it. "Three days into the kitchen, wash your hands and make soup. If you don't know how to eat your aunt, you will send your sister-in-law to taste it first. (Wang Jian's "Words for the Bride") poem is written about this custom.
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