A Survey Of The Etiquette And Customs Of Social Life In Zhongshan State

In the Warring States Period, Zhongshan State was the only state founded by the north nation, whose history could be found in The Book of The Warring States Period and whose leader was regarded as king along with other kings of Hue Xia countries. Zhongshan State underwent several rises and falls .So the history of Zhongshan state, as well as the structure of the nations in State, was very complex, which contributed to the intricacies of its etiquette and customs. Not only could the survey of all kinds of etiquette and customs of social life in Zhongshan State complement and improve the study of its history, but also promote the study of the history of respective states and the ethnical history in the Warring States Period.This article chiefly involves three sections, the foreword, the text and the epilogue. There are nine chapters in the text. First, the material customs such as clothing, food, shelter and transportation are discussed. Then the research mainly discusses the four aspects of customs in Zhongshan State: marriage and family, funeral, religious belief, word and language. In addition, a lot of textual research is done to prove the existence of many strange traditions in Zhongshan state recorded in documents, such as the universal liking for games playing, no distinction between males and females, the practice of robbing tombs, melting the metal and casting utensils in private and so on .It is concluded that the etiquette and customs of social life in Zhongshan state basically belonged to the North subculture within the Hue Xia Culture in the Warring States Period, but it was influenced by the Central Plains subculture to a certain extent .More over ,the customs of social life in Zhongshan state formed its own way of development.There are some new viewpoints in this thesis. For example ,there were some strange hat ornaments such as a hat with many long feathers, or the word "å±± "shaped ornament ,etc; There were jade plate sets similar to those in the Central Plains, and the rare copper pendant of semi-circular shape ;In addition, there was a special phenomenon that words were written on jade articles in order to ward off evil and pray to gods for blessing; The carriage in Zhongshan state formed much more narrow and low pattern so as to adapt to the mountainous terrain. The origin of stone-piled burials in Zhongshan region might be the local mountainous area. And in Zhongshan State, red color was still used in buries and funerals when they dressed and put a corpse in a coffin. The coffin chamber in imperial mausoleum in Zhongshan state was used as ancestral temple when the king held ancestor cult or ceremonies for god. People worshiped the god of the land and the god of grains in Zhongshan state, too.