A Contrastive Study Of Traditional Marriage Concepts In Japanese And Chinese Proverbs

Language and culture are closely related,language cannot exist apart from culture,and culture also needs language to express.As an important part of language,proverbs are the regular summaries of people’s practical experience in production and are the crystallization of human wisdom,containing specific cultural colors,reflecting people’s experiences and wishes from various aspects,and giving people teachings and inspirations.The study of proverbs of different ethnic groups is a study of the values,cultural connotations,and codes of behavior of different ethnic groups.A comparative study of Chinese and Japanese proverbs not only provides insight into the mysteries of both languages,but also helps to understand the culture and psychology of different peoples.There are a large number of proverbs in China and Japan,which are rich in content and related to all aspects of the lives of the Chinese and Japanese people.There are many proverbs about the concept of marriage,which reflect the different cultural characteristics of China and Japan.This paper analyzes the similarities and differences between the Chinese and Japanese traditional concepts of marriage by compiling and summarizing Chinese and Japanese proverbs on marriage and applying the relevant research methods of cultural linguistics to three aspects: the standard of choosing a spouse,the form of marriage and the interpersonal relationship in marriage life.In terms of standard of spouse selection,when investigating spouse families,China pays attention to be matched for marriage,in Japan,when different forms of marriage were prevalent,there were different standards for choosing a spouse.In the era of uxorilocal marriage in Japan,the woman recruited the man from a poor family as a superfluous son-in-law,while in the era of virilocal marriage,the husband’s family conditions are better than his wife’s family conditions.In the choice of spouse’s appearance and internal,both China and Japan pay more attention to the internal than the external.In terms of the choice of spouse age,in China,men and women are generally older than women,while in Japan,women are older than men.In terms of marriage form,engagement marriage prevails in China,and son-in-law marriage prevails in Japan.Once the marriage relationship is established,kinship will be formed,the most important of which is the relationship between the husband and wife.In the marriage life,both China and Japan advocate the division of labor of“The man goes out to work while the woman looks after the house”,gradually forming a husband-wife relationship in which the wife is dependent on the husband.There are many proverbs that disparage and demean women,which reflect the idea that men are superior to women in both China and Japan.Although the status of women is low,both Chinese and Japanese people recognize the value of wives in the family.The establishment of the marriage relationship also derived from the relationship between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law.Both China and Japan agree that there are contradictions between the relationship between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law.In our country,there are proverbs that mother-in-law teaches daughter-in-law and the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law understand each other,while in Japan emphasizes the respect of daughter-in-law for her mother-in-law.