The Research On The Ceremony System And Rite Custom Of Later Qing’s Dynasty From The Diaries Of Hunan Famous Men

The author often records what he has seen and sensed everyday in his diary. Usually, these diaries are not public. Since the contents recorded in the diaries are relative reliable, it has higher historical value for us. During Later Qing’s Dynasty, it is popular for people to write diaries. There are huge numbers of such diaries left from this period. Take many famous people, who lived in Later Qing’s Dynasty, and whose native place is Hu’nan province, as examples:Kaiyun Wang’s Diary ranges about an half century and contains almost2,500,000words; Guofan Zeng’s Dinary contains about1,630,000words; Songtao Guo’s Diary contains about2,350,000words; Jize Zeng’s Diary contains about1,540,000words; Xirui Pi’s Diary contains about1,040,000words, etc. Also, there are some other Diaries, such as Du Yang’s, Xingri Li’s, Zhichun Wang’s, and so on. The Ancient Ceremony System is the kernel of the Chinese Traditional Culture, running through all parts of Chinese civilization, infiltrating every aspects of Chinese society, and hence, it exists everywhere. In the diaries, where the authors recorded what happened everyday, there must contain many valuable contents relative to The Ancient Ceremony System. Therefore, we can get much helpful information about our research.The Later Qing’s Dynasty is the last part of our feudal society. At the alternate moment between the old and new historical period, several changes happened on the Ancient Ceremony System. Firstly, many ancient etiquette and custom were inherited. Secondly, some new elements were added while many older were lost. In general, many developments have been occurred on the Ancient Ceremony System during that period; meanwhile, the changes became more and more insignificant. Therefore, it is very necessary to study the status and development of the Ancient Ceremony System of that time. There are so many such diary materials, we choose the most representative diaries of the eight famous persons to study the Ancient Ceremony System and try to summarize the characterization of the Ancient Ceremony System in Qing’s Dynasty. These persons are:Guofan Zeng, Jize Zeng, Songtao Guo, Kaiyun Wang, Xirui Pi, Du Yang, Xingrui Li, Zhichun Wang and so on.The Sacred Rite is the first of the five rites. Most of our collected materials are of the Sacred Rite. The Sacred Rite covers almost every aspect of the society, for example, The God, The Gnome, and The Ghost etc. Almost all the emperors paid much attention to the Suburban Sacrifice, the rites of Praying for grains and the ceremony of praying for the rain. The sacred Gnome included the god of the land and the grain, the city god and the Land God. In the fork, there were plentiful ceremonies on ancestor worship. In the Later Qing’s Dynasty, the Kongzi worship became the high level ceremony, and the Wenchang worship the secondary ceremony. The funerary ceremony contains a series of detailed processes from death to burial and to holding the memorial ceremony and so on. There are strict grades in funerary ceremony. The emperor’s funerary ceremony has the highest level. The grand burial rite must be held not only in the palace but also in all over the country. The scale of burial rites in civilian was much smaller, but the process was not simple. The main processes are the following:testing death by silk floss, the first weep for the dead, issuing an obituary notice, condoling, putting something the mouth and dressing the dead, mourning dress, weeping and making offerings to the spirits of the dead in the morning and at night, carrying the coffin to the cemetery, and many other complex ceremony activities after burial. The marriage ceremony in the Later Qing’s dynasty continued to use the ancient Chinese six etiquettes, namely, proposing, asking the name, praying for fortune, sending betrothal presents to the girl’s family, discussing the date of marriage and meeting the bride. Meanwhile, some appellations were changed, and other etiquettes were added. For example, the girl’s adult rite became the part of marriage ceremony. It seemed that the marriage ceremony in Later Qing’s dynasty being simplified, yet it became more and more luxurious. Furthermore, divorce was allowed because of the disharmony between couple, the husband should compensate his wife after divorce. The Ceremony of Visiting emperor included congratulating and usual visiting the king. There were some other relative rites such as enthronement, holding court from behind a screen, holding court by the emperor himself and conferring titles etc. The diplomatic ceremony came from the ancient guest ceremony. Many new contents were added and some international diplomatic rites were accepted. The military ceremony consisted of dress parade, sacrifice, comforting and compensating a bereaved family and so on, where new weapon were exhibited in the dress parade. In order to celebrate the born of a new life, the birthday ceremony occurred. It was abundance, since there were various celebrating ways corresponding to every period of a person’s whole life. In the Later Qing’s dynasty, the scholastic ceremony mainly contained the following rites:Shidian rite, Shicai rite, entering school rite, checking school rite, Jingyan rite and examination rite etc. However, it was not necessary for the imperial examinations ceremony to exist, since the relative imperial examinations system was abolished in the last period of Later Qing’s dynasty. Finally, we briefly discuss many ceremonies concerning everyday life, such as solar eclipse, lunar eclipse, giving a feast, opening and closing the chop etc.We can sketch the characteristic of The Ceremony System of the Later Qing’s dynasty from the diaries we collected. Firstly, the ancient ceremonies were inherited, meanwhile there were some development. Secondly, something new elements were added in the existing ceremonies. Thirdly, many ancient ceremonies became illegibility as there were too many years had passed. Finally, the rites became more and more extravagant and utilitarian. In fact, it is very important for the rites to construct harmonious and flourish society. We should look on and use the various rites impersonally and rightly in our modern society, and make it to serve the spirituous and material civilization of our socialism.