Do you know what necessary procedures were used to get married in ancient times?

Men should get married, women should get married, and marriage is the most important thing in life.

The Book of Rites says that "the marriage is good for the two surnames, the upper is the temple, and the lower is the succession of the next generation", which means that marriage is an act between two families, and the purpose of marriage is to inherit the incense of the ancestors and continue the bloodline of the family, so the marriage must perform certain procedures.

The ancestors of the Zhou Dynasty compiled the "Rites and Rituals", which stipulated the procedures that must be followed in marriage, namely the "Six Rites", which are Nacai, the name of the family, the Naji, the Nazheng, the invitation, and the personal welcome.

1. Nacai

Nacai is equivalent to the current proposal.

If the man's family and the woman's family want to get married, the man's family must first invite a matchmaker to bring gifts to the woman's house to propose marriage. This is a consistent custom in China, whether the man's family looks at the woman's family, or the woman falls in love with the man, or the two parties have already discussed, generally the man invites the matchmaker to the woman's house to propose marriage, and the woman's family should be a little more reserved.

If the woman's family agrees to this family business, they will accept the gift brought by the matchmaker.

The gifts that matchmakers bring to the woman's house vary from dynasty to dynasty, but geese are indispensable.

Why do there have to be geese?

First, the goose is a loyal animal with a fixed mate and only one mate for a lifetime. Once one dies, the other will never choose another mate. Therefore, the geese are used to imply the love of husband and wife, and they grow old together.

Second, the goose is a migratory animal, which travels from south to north with the change of seasons, flies south at a certain time, and then flies north at a certain time, never losing season. Therefore, the goose is used as a metaphor for the woman who does not lose time and does not lose her temperance.

Thirdly, geese are very orderly animals, flying in rows and landing in columns. Use geese as a metaphor for the wedding ceremony, the young and the old are orderly, and they do not exceed each other. The ancients paid attention to the order of the young and the old, and the marriage of men and women had to be in order.

The TV series "Do You Know? It should be green, fat, red and thin" When Gu Tingye went to the Sheng family to propose, he went to catch a big fat goose early, and Brother Jing was a literati, so he bought a wooden goose to submit.

The geese when they are harvested, whether they are real geese or wooden geese, they just take their beautiful meanings.

2. Ask for a name

As the name suggests, after the collection is completed, the matchmaker will ask the woman's parents about the girl's birth date, birth date and name, in order to "combine the eight characters" after asking the name.

In fact, it is to take the names and characters of both men and women to calculate the hexagram to see if the two are compatible.

In ancient times, this link was not only for the man to ask the girl's birth date and name, but also to ask about the place of origin and the information of the three generations, that is, not only to ask the girl's birth date and place of origin, but also to ask the girl's father, grandfather, great-grandfather's age, birthday, official title, etc.

Therefore, the "Book of Rites" says that marriage is not a matter of two people, but a matter between two families, so the link of asking the name is actually to ask the other party's three generations, whether they are innocent, whether they have committed crimes, or whether there are people in the family who are officials, and the size of the official position, you must ask clearly.

When asking for a name, not only should the woman give the man a detailed list of the three generations of the family, but the man should also list the three generations of his family to the woman.

Men and women write down the situation of the three generations of the family on a post and hand it to each other, and the "exchange of posts" we often hear is the link of asking for names.

It can be seen from here that marriage in ancient times can be more rigorous than in modern times, and getting married will check the three generations of your ancestors.

The development of the Six Rites in the Song Dynasty changed slightly. The government stipulates that the name is in harmony with Nacai, which means that the matter of asking for the name is done at the same time as the marriage is proposed.

3, Najib

After Najib asked for his name, the man took the birth dates of both men and women to a fortune teller to calculate whether the two sides were compatible.

Ancient people believed in the art of divination, so marriage is a major event in life must go to divination, to see if the two sides are compatible, mainly to see whether the two sides are compatible, whether the birth date is harmonious, if the result of the calculation, the man and woman are destined to marry, then it is the best.

In modern times, when many people want to get married, they first take the eight characters of both men and women and find a fortune teller to calculate it.

In this link, the fortune teller is more important, he controls the fate of the marriage of both men and women, and success or failure is basically his sentence. I remember watching a TV series before. The male protagonist chased after the heroine for a long time before he got the heroine, but the hero's grandmother didn't agree, so the male protagonist found a fortune teller and wrote the birthdays of the two people in a particularly special harmony, which was simply destined for them to become husband and wife, and then the grandmother agreed. Therefore, there are still human factors that can be controlled in the process of fortune telling.

The fortune teller calculates the result, if the two parties are compatible, then the man will send a matchmaker to the woman's house with a thin gift to present the letter of appointment, and the family affair will be decided.

Therefore, Najib is also called engagement, also known as fixed employment, the main feature is that the man presents a letter of appointment to the woman, the two parties exchange love gifts, and the two parties formally establish the marriage relationship.

In ancient times, as long as Najib's step was completed, it was not so easy to get out of marriage, especially for women, once they were divorced, it was basically difficult to find a good family.

Everyone watched "Do You Know, Do You Know? It should be the wife of Changfeng in "Green, Fat, Red and Thin", Liu, because she was dismissed from her family, and it was not easy to find a suitable object, so she married Changfeng, the concubine of a five-grade official. You must know that at that time, it was a high-ranking marriage and a low-level marriage, and if the Liu family had not been dismissed, it was basically impossible to marry Changfeng.

Therefore, Najib's link is very, very important for ancient women, and they are generally cautious and cautious, optimistic that the man is marrying.

4. Levy

The levy is one of the highlights of the six rites, which is the formal dowry gift, which is what we often call the bride price.

This step has been passed down well, and it has been an important part of marriage until now.

In different periods, the bride price is different, ** in the tenth century, pay attention to three major pieces, refrigerators, color TVs, washing machines, and now people are married to pay attention to three major things: houses, cars, and tickets.

So what did the ancient people give as a wedding bride price?

During the Zhou Dynasty and the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the dowry was mainly based on items, generally jade, cloth, etc., and rarely used gold and silver and other coins.

The dowry in the Han Dynasty was mainly based on money, especially the royal and wealthy nobles, and their dowries were thousands of taels or tens of thousands of taels. Emperor Hui of the Han Dynasty married the daughter of Princess Lu Yuan, when the 10-year-old Zhao Yan was the queen, the dowry was **20,000 taels and 12 horses, and the emperors of the Han Dynasty married the queen were all this standard. But Wang Mang broke this record, according to the "Hanshu Wang Mang Biography" record, when Emperor Hanping married Wang Mang's daughter as the queen, the dowry was worth 20,000 taels of property. Wang Mang was called the emperor, and the dowry for him to marry the queen was only 30,000 taels, which was an unprecedented number of dowries.

The Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, as well as the Sui and Tang dynasties, followed the dowry system of the Zhou Dynasty. From the emperor to the ministers, the dowry was all items, generally horses, jade, cloth, etc. However, during the Tang Dynasty, it was popular to use money as a dowry, and sometimes wine and food as a dowry.

People in the Song Dynasty paid more attention to money when they got married, so they generally used money as a dowry, and other items, such as horses, sheep, silk and satin, etc., were numerous. It is worth mentioning that in the Song Dynasty, tea became an indispensable dowry. In the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, "tea ceremony" almost became synonymous with marriage, so the tea ceremony for women to be hired is also called eating tea.

In "Dream of Red Mansions", Sister Feng joked to Lin Daiyu and said: You ate my family's tea, why don't you be my daughter-in-law?

That's what I'm talking about.

In the Ming and Qing dynasties, there were more dowries, both money, silk and satin, etc., there were no certain regulations, wealthy families would give more, and families without money would give less.

In any dynasty, it was an important part of the marriage process, and it is also a step that we inherit today.

5. Invitation period

The invitation period is generally called the day of the people, and the day is sent and the day is sent.

When a man and a woman reach the age of marriage, the man asks the fortune teller to pick an auspicious day for a good day, saying that it is an auspicious day for the zodiac. After choosing a wedding date, write it on a red piece of paper and ask the matchmaker to send it to the woman's home, or the matchmaker will accompany the man to the woman's house and inform the woman's family to prepare for the daughter's marriage.

Nowadays, many young people prefer to hold weddings on holidays, and many choose holidays, such as.

Five. There are more people who get married on the first and eleventh days.

Whether it is a fortune teller or a date that you have determined, once the date of the marriage is confirmed, it cannot be changed. No matter how windy or rainy, the wedding must be held as scheduled.

6. Welcome

All the previous steps are to prepare for this part of the process.

Greeting is also known as "picking up the bride", that is, on the day of marriage, the groom personally goes to the woman's house to marry the bride, which is a climax of the whole wedding, and it is also the most folk thing in the marriage culture.

There are many customs in this link, such as the Tang and Song dynasties, where the bride should cover her face with a fan.

When the groom comes to pick up the bride, he has to make a hypnotic poem, which can be done by the groom himself, or by the groom, that is, by letting the best man make a hypnotic poem.

According to the "Tang Poetry Chronicle", when Tang Shunzong's daughter Princess Yun'an got married, the civil and military officials elected Lu Chang as the prime minister, and he blurted out a hypnotic poem at that time:

Princess Yun'an is expensive and married to the Wuhou family.

The mother of heaven mixes the powder, and the brother of the day gives flowers.

Urge the shop of the hundred sub-tents, and wait for the obstacle of the seven-incense car.

Haven't made up your makeup? The East wants to dawn.

This is the six rites in the ancient Chinese marriage procedure, after the completion of the six rites, the groom took the bride home, worshiped heaven, entered the cave room, the life event of marriage was completed, and the two became a legal couple.