Rural Households In The Tang Dynasty Customs Exploration

Tang Dynasty is a splendid era in civilization of Chinese history, which persists for nearly three hundred years. The famous historian Sima Guang ever extolled Tang Dynasty greatly:" There had never been a dynasty as strong and prosperous as Tang in ancient history of China ever since Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasty." During this time, feudal society showed unprecedented livingness in the aspect of politics, law, military, education and ethic etc, which have already been studied thoroughly. The study about etiquettes and custom in rural family is a hot subject, which just has been developed in recent years.The temperament of every estate in Tang was deeply influenced by the whole open social ethos and its charitable policy in law, which made the etiquette and custom of rock-bottom culture have its own time spirit. Rock-bottom culture has always been the hot subject of ethnology today. Especially, the Rock-bottom culture of Tang, which was splendid in mid-ancient history, has aroused scholars' enthusiasm recently. In this paper, the etiquette and custom in rural family was elaborately expatiated in virtue of monographs and papers of scholars.The etiquette and custom in rural family of Tang was the spiritual and behavioral reflection of people's daily life of that time. Of course, it took on regional and unconscious character. It was a successive phenomenon in culture that had temporal spirit. In this paper the etiquette and custom in rural family was primarily studied in three parts from the integrated point of "Tang"," the rural family" and "etiquette and custom", combining the existent rule of human society. The first part is the introduction of the complex system about the etiquette and custom in rural family of Tang. The second part is the dissertation of main contents about the etiquette and custom in rural family. The third part is about the main character of etiquette and custom in rural family.In the first part the origin and the integrated system of etiquette and custom of Tang was briefly introduced. The "etiquette" and "custom" was uniform in thefeudal society to a certain extent. The integrated system of etiquette and custom in rural family of Tang was the combination of the Confucian etiquette that was popular among the rulers with the folk-custom. It was the perfect incarnation and integration of law, etiquette and custom, owing to its open policy, wide territory and popularization of etiquette.The second part is the emphasis of the paper. In this part, the etiquette and custom in rural family of Tang was studied in six chapters:Firstly, the etiquette and custom in lifetime. During all one's life, it mainly included the etiquette and custom about naissance of the family members;adult ceremony and their marriage when they grew up;the etiquette and custom about funeral and ancestor worship when they died.Secondly, the etiquette and custom about ethic in family. As an economy and spirit unit, whether a rural family went along normally and properly in accordance with time rhythm depended on the important role of the etiquette and custom in rural family. It was just like a ruler making all rural family members love and respect each other.Thirdly, the etiquette and custom in neighborhoods. Besides the members in one family, the etiquette and custom in rural family also involved the intercourse between neighbors and relatives.Fourthly, the etiquette and custom in festival. It was arranged by solar term and season. The holding of the celebration and memorial ceremony for sacrifice at fixed time every year was a masterpiece combining calendar, social ideality with humanism solicitude. The etiquette and custom in festival embodied the native warmth and the hope for happy future.Fifthly, the etiquette and custom in religion. In the wide countryside of Tang, the majority of the common people were illiterate. They hoped that there exited divinities giving refuge to them. The character of the etiquette and custom in religion was the vivid and spontaneous embodiment of social psychology. It penetrated every aspect of people's daily and productive life, which influencedpeople's religious psychology and their behavior. Then the religious behavior gradually became into an etiquette and custom to shape their mentality and behavior.Sixthly, the etiquette and custom in daily and productive life. People's daily life had a close relation with dietetics, clothing, inhabitation and journey. At the same time the experiments about the habitude in people's daily and productive life was an indispensable part in the etiquette and custom in rural family.The whole life of a common people in rural family of Tang mainly involved the above six aspects. From dietetics, clothing, inhabitation and journey to marriage and funeral, festival to religion, every aspect deeply reflected the people's social psychology of that time.In the third part, the main character of the etiquette and custom in rural family of Tang was generalized on the base of above contents. A new blood was infused in it such as open, exotic and more deeply religious properties etc.The etiquette and custom in rural family of Tang was an important part in the traditional civilization of China. Even today, some of the old etiquette and custom of Tang are still popular in some areas. These excellent traditions and customs are beneficial to the psychology and civilization structure in modernization.In this paper, we managed to grope for the etiquette and custom in rural family of Tang under the background of the flourishing dynasty, then probed into the ethos in rural family of Tang and grasped the incarnation and integration among the law, etiquette and custom, consequently promote the study about the traditional rock-bottom culture in the contemporary era.