The Admission And Application Of Zhuzi's Family Rites(??????)on Marriage Customs In Yuan Dynasty

Zhuzi's Family Rites broke the stereotype that Rites never extent to common people,and sorted out family ceremonies in many aspects such as marriage,funeral,debutantes and sacrifices with the principle of simplicity,thus setting a model for the development family manners.Yuan Dynasty,as a minority regime,set Zhuzi's Family Rites to be the basic model of manners for the whole country.Therefore,this paper tries to gather materials from The Collection of Laws of the Yuan Dynasty,so as to clarify the application of Zhuzi's Family Rites on marriage customs in Yuan Dynasty,and to explain the inner connection between rites and nous.In Chapter I,I would start with a marriage form,"Zhuihun",finding out that there were a lot of cases that a son-in-law choose to escape if he relyed on his wife's family.Yuan government took two procedures in Zhuzi's Family Rites,the first marriage licenseand the official marriage agency,as the law foundation to decide these cases.In that way,the content of marriage licenses could be used as the evidence to declare escaping son-in-laws guilty.From the relationship between the bride and groom in "Zhuihun",we can see the sexual constraint and the worship of patriarchal clan system,and then conclude that rites should go with humanity and human feelings should also be regulated by rites.Chapter II proceeds with a special group,not remarry women.After the Mongolians took charge in the central plains,their burly character influenced the Han people,which made remarriage to be prevalent.However,with the Chinesizing of Mongolians gradually,the theory of Rites revived again.In order to advocate women not remarrying,the government of Yuan promulgated a series of laws on the dowry and childrearing to restrict women's remarriage.It was a reflection that women's personal will in their marriage should be subject to her family responsibilities or even the family dignity.Obviously,women at that time was oppressed by both social ideology and action when they expressed their own desire/judgement.Therefore,we can drew the conclusion that although rites can help to control human's desires,one's personal will should also be respected.Chapter ? would embark on talking about a sort of marriage form,Shoujihun,whichwas the most popular marriage in Mongolians.The legalization of Shoujihun in Mongolians'government made such kind of marriage promised and fashionable in many Han people.The trail basis for many lawsuits of 'Shoujihun' showed the ethical awareness of Yuan government.With the influence of Zhuzi's Family Rites,'Shoujihun' in different generations had been banned at last.However,we can also find that the more powerful one was,the less that Zhuzi 's Family Rites would restrain him.Zhuzi's Family Rites not only satisfied with affecting the feelings and desires of individual,but aim to be a universal normative manner model of society.Therefore,it need to combine with nous,granting special meaning and missions to rites and manners,thus rites could be more effective on social oreder.In fact,these changes on marriages in Yuan Dynasty were the products that nomadic culture impacts and fused with farming culture.From this paper,we can understand the four concepts,rites,feelings,desires and nous in Zhuzi's Family Rites.Rites are general regulations of outside behavior,feelings are requests of inside nature,desires are the expressions of one's physical and psycological needs,and nous is the ontology idea that rules the whole world.If we focus on rites and consider these four concepts,we would discover their interact and progressive relationship.