A Study On Qin's Rituals And Conventions

This paper attempted to correct the misunderstandings of Qin since the Warring States Period,which was described as the country of 'tigers and wolves",or the people abandoned the rites and morality.By restoration of their ritual activities,this paper mainly studied the culture of the State of Qin(??)as well as the Qin dynasty(??),which showed the existence of rites and morality.With the help of both handed down literature and unearthed information,this paper discussed four different topics.The first chapter introduced the wedding rites.In conskleration of social stratums,the discussion divided into two parts.The first part focused on the wedding ceremonies of the nobilities.As summarized,at the time of the Warring States,the titles of the harem could be divided into four grades:"Liangren"(??),"Bazi"(??),"Wanghou/Queen"(??)and "Taihou/Queen Mother"(??)?The grade sequence which HanShu(????)listed as"meiren"(??),“iangren"(??),"bazi"(??),“qizi”(??),"zhangshi"(??),"shaoshi”(??)might be wrong.The age limit of the king rose from 15 to 22 to attend the capping ceremony in order to get married from early Spring and Autumn Period to late Warring State Period.Although political marriage became a common phenomenon during that time,when the choice of the marriage partner was influenced by national interest,the royal clan member of Qin still canonically obeyed the ritual rule that same-surname-marriage was forbidden.The second part focus on the customs of the common people.According to a comparative study of the unearthed Rishu(??)from Qin(??),Chu(??)and Han dynasty(??),this paper pointed out that in the new occupation area of the East,the Qin culture had the remodeling effect on the folk custom of choosing lucky days in the Chu magerriage system.Unearthed materials showed that the Qin people could get married throughout the year,matching Shu Xi's(??)theory,rather than Zheng Xuan's(??)theory of getting married in midspring or Wang Su's(??)theory of getting married in autumn and winter.This research also revealed that Shang Yang's reform policy of dividing family property and living apart,as well as Qinshihuang's(???)stone inscriptions had the enlightening effects of keeping chastity.Qin Bamboo Slips indicated that not only the Qin pepole initiate marriage registration system,but Qin people also had similar family status between husband and wife to the Confucius ritual system.The second chapter introduced the guest rites,including two parts:the diplomatic visit and the political conference.These activities started in early Spring and Autumn Period,when Duke Xiang(??)established the state.In Duke Mu's(??)era,these activities officially launched.In these activities,the Qin people showed etiquette attainments,the procedures of "moushi"(??),"jihao"(??),"baowen"(??)and "ciyu"(??)all matched the ceremony principles of Zhou dynasty.Since then,the diplomatic ceremony system of Qin and the Central States developed at the same pace.But from the late Spring and Autumn Period to the middle Warring States Period,Qin didn't have political conference with the Central States.The diplomatic activities were interrupted.But after Shang Yang Reform,Qin participated in the diplomatic visits and political conferences actively once again,and gradually became the leader who guided the reform of diplomacy,to promote the establishment and perfection of the Envoy-Dispatching System.The third chapter introduced the funeral rites,mainly focused on the Qin people's funeral procedures.According to the funeral procedures written in "The Three Rituals”(??),this chapter restored the procedures of sending out obituary,express condolence and embellishing the corpse as well as the burial customs reflected in the coffin structures.The research showed that Qin people's funeral procedures on obituary,condolence and burial were close to Zhou's ritual principles,yet there were rich local features on the things to put in the corpses' mouth and hands,the jade to embellish the corpse and the coffin structures.The burial scale of Qin's ruler was far beyond other nobilities on the size of the tomb,the length of the coffins and the quality of funerary jade.The level difference between them was larger than the ones in Eastern countries.But the level difference between Senior Official(??)and Scholar(?)or between lower Scholar and wealthy plebeian was not so clear.It showed the absolute authority of the ruler and the strong class mobility in the Qin society.Lower aristocrats o r plebeians could move up in the society through battle achievement or other methods.The forth chapter introduced the sacrifice rites.Firstly,this chapter pointed out that the gods were worshiped in national sacrifices or folk sacrifices.These gods could be classified mainly as heaven-gods,earth-gods and human-gods,as well as a few animal-gods,ghosts and monsters.Secondly,this chapter summarized the date to choose or to avoid of folk sacrifices,using Qin's Rishu.As could be seen in the bamboo materials,the folk sacrifices had three main steps:setting the seats,inviting the gods and sacrifice the foods.After these steps,sometimes people could carve up the oblation meat and dine together.The biggest difference between a national sacrifice and a folk sacrifice is whether to bury the oblations.Qin people would bury a large number of oblation animals and jades after the sacrifice of heaven-gods.This was different than the Zhou's ritual principles and might be a special etiquette of the Qin nobilities.At last this chapter analyzed the changing process of the Zhi Sacrifice(??)from worshiping the ancestors to worshiping the heaven-gods.Due to the sacrifices on Mount Tai by Qinshihuang,the subject of national sacrifices changed from local polytheistic gods to the nationwide unique celestial god.Through the research of the four Qin ritual activities,this paper argued that the culture of Qin and Zhou might come from different sources.But as the Qin people accepted Zhou's culture around the time the Qin State was established,the ritual system construction had great achievements.It was not a "Rude State".While learning Zhou's ritual princples,Qin maintained its own features to form the special Qin Ritual system ard Qin legal system which held the political ideas that monarchs should limit ministers to stabilize their own positions and to consolidate their domination.With it's powerful military,Qin's influence spread to whole China.This finally laid the foundation of the imperial power society system of ancient China and its culture base.