A Study On The Travel Custom In The Qin And Han Pynasties

Qin and Han Dynasties were the period of great development of culture, travel customs as part of the culture, this period has a significant impact on people’s social life.Firstly,this thesis analyzes the travel crowds in the Qin and Han Dynasties which can be divided into official travel and private travel depending on the travel body. The official travel type includes imperial procession, courtiers travel,diplomats pioneering adventure trip, Sergeant guarding trip and so on. Private travel includes scholars study tour trip, businessman commerce firms, the general public festival trip and other types.Secondly, this thesis discusses the travel custom of the Qin and Han Dynasty from three aspects which are before traveling,during the traveling and after traveling.In the Qin and Han Dynasties,people would do a divination before traveling in order to determine whether the travel time and orientation good or not and then picked an auspicious day.At the same time.there would be a farewell ceremony held in the town door or the state door.The specific ritual depended on different circumstances.In general,the ritual of sacrificing to Road God came first after which following the feast farewell activity which were called "Sacrifice and Sacrificial".If people were in a hurry,they would hold a simple ceremony to clear road obstacles and danger during their travel with the help of "Yu" which was called "clearing road obstacles before a hurry travel".If people had no time to choose the time and orientation,they would hold a simple ceremony associated with the five elements which was called "hush Yasheng".During the travel ing,people would wear some accessories,paint on the road, read words of prayer or take the Yu-step etc.to avoid danger might be encountered in their travel.After reaching the destination, their friends and family would host a welcoming ceremony.In the end,this thesis discusses the causes and impacts of the travel customs in the Qin and Han Dynasties.The travel custom in the Qin and Han Dynasties was formed on the basis of the custom of picking an auspicious day and sacrificing to Road God existing pre-Qin and was influenced by the natural and the social environment.This custom had great influence on people’s daily life at that time and had a certain impact on future generations especially in the Wei and Jin dynasties.