A Research On The Coming-of-age Ceremony And Wedding Ceremony Of ZHU ZI's Family Etiquette

Family Etiquette is the most widely spread book among ZHU ZI's ritual study works.Adhering to YI LI and Song's official etiquette,inheriting the forefathers CHENG YI and CHENG HAO 's achievements,and especially basing on the famous scholar SI MA GUANG's SHU YI,ZHU ZI compiled The Family Etiquette and formulated the etiquette system including the Coming-of-age ceremony,Wedding ceremony,Ceremonious funeral,Memorial ceremony and other daily etiquette etc.The etiquette system mixed with both the folk and official etiquettes,was simple and clear and also very practical and therefore deeply affected the following Chinese feudal society,Yuan's ZHI YUAN WEDDING CEREMONY,Ming's DA MING JI LI and official wedding ceremony all came from it.This thesis will study ZHU ZI's Family Etiquette from the following aspects.Introduction: As a practical etiquette book,Family Etiquette involves various antique items,before we make a comprehensive in-depth study of them,we need to make the basic research on the items used in the mostly widespread Coming-of-age ceremony and the Wedding ceremony.The author reviews the research status on ZHU ZI's Family Etiquette both at home and abroad and points out the future directions of the research will focus on the three ways,which are the text reorganization,the research on the involved items and the integrity and diversity research on it.Chapter one: The Funeral Ceremony,which is the main part of the Family Etiquette,finished by ZHU Zi on September the fifth year of GanDao,whom then added up the Coming-of-age ceremony and formed the original book which was named the Family Etiquette.The early years editions are the manuscript edition,Guangzhou(Wuyang)edition,YangFu noted edition,Liuhaisun edition with attached pictures etc.The original version only included several Chapters which were gradually developed into the five volumes and ten volumes systems.ZHU ZI's practices and promotions of the Coming-of-age ceremony and the Wedding ceremony during his lifetimes proved the Family Etiquette are the truth to Chinese people.In Chapter two the author will make a comparison of the items and their names used in theComing-of-age ceremony and the Wedding ceremony in Family Etiquette with other recordation.The author will give the detailed introduction of the procedures,the items and their names.In Chapter three the author will research the sites of the Coming-of-age ceremony and the Wedding ceremony in Family Etiquette,including the location and details of the ancestral temples,bedrooms,reception halls,private rooms and side rooms etc.In Chapter four the author will research the dressing of the Coming-of-age ceremony and the Wedding ceremony in Family Etiquette,including the functions,shapes and textures of the dressings,shoes,caps and accessories.In Chapter five the author will research the items used in the Coming-of-age ceremony and the Wedding ceremony in Family Etiquette,including the detailed introduction of the shapes and functions of the wines,glasses,chopsticks,spoons,combs,silks,wild goose,etc.In Chapter six,by comparing with other recordation,the author summarized three characters of the Family Etiquette,the first is the simplification of the procedures of it,the second is the mixture of the ancient and modern etiquettes and strictly adhering to the LI,the third is the fully absorb of the folk etiquette of ZHU ZI's time.In Chapter seven the author will discuss the evolution of the Coming-of-age ceremony and the Wedding ceremony in Family Etiquette and its influence on Asian countries from its written time to nowadays.Through the research,we found the fact that the Coming-of-age ceremony and the Wedding ceremony in Family Etiquette were wildly used in the Song,Yuan and Ming Dynasties,while gradually died out from Qing Dynasty.Besides the Coming-of-age ceremony and the Wedding ceremony in Family Etiquette also had a far-reaching influence on Korea,Japan and Vietnam's political and ethical systems especially in Ming and Qing Dynasties.Basing on the current information,counting the influence of it on the Asian countries,Korea is ranking on the 1st,Japan on the 2th and Vietnam is the least one.