Chu Custom Study

As a classic literature, Chuci reflects the social characteristics of Chu in period of the Warring States. In Chuci, there are a lot of materials related to the Chu custom of that time. It is an important respect to investigate the custom in Chuci in order to understand this literature and the social life and historic status of the people. Custom is an important part of culture. It is a useful method to study the custom in Chuci to understand Chu culture. So we need to investigate the custom in Chuci as a whole.This thesis is divided in three parts. The first part introduces the investigation complexion on Chuci. Chuci is so closely related to custom. Predecessor has summed up some of the custom, however, the investigation lacks in schematism which gives space for an abundant study in this area.The second part divides the custom in Chuci on the base of pre-investigation using modern folklore. They can be divided into sacrifice,augury,costume,buildings and so on. The main part of this thesis compares the custom of Chu to the custom of central plain area and divide them in different parts. From this, we can see that the custom of Chu is specific. Meanwhile, we can see that Chuci itself has an important value from this.The third part investigates the molding of the custom in Chuci on the base of the first and second part. The social system and geographic environment are the main cause for the specific Chu culture.