Yufei Liang (Hexi University).
The controversy about kneeling down to the elders during the Spring Festival has been going on for a long time, and it is also the most controversial hot topic on the Internet during the Spring Festival over the years. There is a view that the Spring Festival kneeling is an ancient tradition that has been handed down and cannot be abandoned at will. But some people also feel that in modern society, they should not kneel easily, and think that the Spring Festival kneeling ceremony is a feudal dross that should be discarded and eliminated.
Is the Spring Festival kneeling ceremony a kind of feudal dross? Does kneeling represent a loss of dignity and a violation of personal rights? Is bowing to the elders just a formality? I don't think so.
Kneeling is an inherent tradition in our country and an ethical custom that has been passed down to this day. There is already a saying of "nine bows" in the "Zhou Li", which shows that "kneeling down" or "worshipping" is essentially a kind of etiquette constraint. In the "Jing Chu Years Chronicle", it is also mentioned that in the New Year, the scene of "the elder and the young are dressed properly, and they congratulate each other" and the New Year rituals. The land of China is known as the "State of Etiquette", "worship" is the norm, it represents solemnity and order, it represents filial piety, respect for ancestors, and it also represents the condensation of kinship ties and clan relations. It has been passed on to future generations, and it has been practiced for thousands of years, so how can we talk about "dross"?
In recent years, with the continuous development of society and the further exchange of Eastern and Western cultures, traditional culture has been impacted by modern civilization and Western culture, which makes it inevitable that kneeling and prostrating will conflict with some contemporary values. As a result, in the eyes of some people, the Spring Festival kneeling ceremony is not only more cumbersome, but even not enough "gentleman". However, the core of the kneeling ceremony is to convey gratitude and respect for the elders, to express respect for the ancestors and good wishes for the future in the new year, which is a unique ritual sense of Chinese, which represents gratitude, dedication, inheritance, and endless life, and these are precisely the indispensable and important contents of the cultural and spiritual genealogy in the Chinese township.
There is also an argument that bowing down is a sign of servility, and the author disagrees with this. During the holiday, when I was wandering around the ancient county government in Pingyao, I heard an explanation: "In ancient times, when the complaint was filed in the public court, the common people needed to kneel when they saw the county officials, and the scholars could be exempted from kneeling." "The prostration between the upper and lower levels is built on the governance model of feudal society. At that time, "li" was not only a moral system, but also a power structure, in which people were passive and kneeling, which was a last resort. Nowadays, the kneeling customs in various places during the Chinese New Year are fundamentally different from the traditional feudal etiquette. Kneeling in the official mansion represents class oppression under the feudal system. But kneeling to parents and elders is a way to take the initiative to express gratitude and respect. The kneeling of ancient times, with different cores, different motives, and different forms, can be casually mixed up?
On the contrary, in the process of the juniors getting dressed together, getting up and walking together, first worshipping the genealogy, and then saluting the elders, what we feel is a strong connection between the local civilization and kinship. A family is harmonious and prosperous, which also indicates happiness and has the motivation to move forward. Respecting the elderly is not a formality, and the activities of the juniors kneeling down to the elders and genealogy are not only necessary blessings and greetings, but also carry the continuity of culture and family affection.
Chinese culture attaches great importance to its own "root system", and this "root culture" makes us value the continuation of life and the inheritance of culture, so the Chinese nation has endured vicissitudes of life but has been striving for self-improvement, and Chinese culture has a long and enduring history. Only by attaching importance to our own "roots" and guarding our cultural roots can we carry forward the past and forge ahead steadily.