Text: That kind of history is very interesting
Chinese history has been up and down for 5,000 years, and in the long river of history, a complex and fascinating Chinese culture has been born. There are thousands of forms of culture, and the accumulation of culture needs to go through a long fermentation that exceeds thousands of years. To this day, the very distinctive culture of the Chinese nation is still passed down from generation to generation and still makes people all over the world curious. Although culture has no form, but culture also tolerates all sentient beings, culture can be folk customs, can also be social life, culture can also be complex as folk customs and traditions, can be simple as habits.
Different cultures have different charms, Chinese traditional culture is composed of countless charming units, these fragments of traditional culture are still inherited and told today, and we in the future generations cannot help but have an desire to explore the heritage of these cultures and the distant past that produced these cultures. Nowadays, in some ancient classics, film and television works, and even special occasions of life, we can see the single-handed films of these cultures.
When it comes to kneeling, people are probably most familiar with the appearance of the feudal period when the subordinates faced the emperor, kneeling on the ground, prostrating their bodies, and prostrating their heads on the ground with their heads. "Kneeling" seems to be given this meaning of low status, humility, and inferiority, especially in some traditional ceremonial occasions, the identity gap highlighted by the kneeling action is particularly obvious, such as worshiping ancestors, worshipping the Buddha, etc. The act of kneeling allows the kneeler to express reverence and admiration for the worshipper, and it is not uncommon for the descendants to bow to the ancestors and the subordinates to the emperor.
"Kneeling" also has a "humiliation" and "insult" meaning in people's cognition, saying that "there is gold under the knees of boys", even today, people think that men cannot casually bow to people other than their parents. In the plot of some film and television works, there are often some male characters who ask for help, and finally have to kneel to others, and the "kneeling" here implies a full of humiliating connotations.
"Kneeling" originated from "kneeling posture"
In fact, the posture of "kneeling" does not represent lowliness, humility and inferiority at the beginning, it is only a sitting posture for people at the beginning.
If you want to talk about the origin of the kneeling posture, it is inevitable to talk about the sitting posture. What we think of as kneeling today is actually the sitting posture of the ancients. This is very much related to the living environment at that time and people's living habits, in the earliest days, people did not invent stools, chairs, standing and eating when eating is inconvenient, so people will kneel to the ground, let the hips sit on the heels.
The original idiom "sit on the floor" refers to kneeling. In the early ancient people's living room, there was no furniture on the ground, if you want to sit down, people will first lay a layer of grass mats on the ground, or a reed woven fabric, which is the earliest cushion. The original "sitting" is the posture of landing on both knees on the grass mat, with both legs together, and sitting on the heels of the feet, which is the kneeling position we have today. In today's view, this "kneeling" posture is easy to leg soreness, and few people in China have retained such a habit, but in the Japanese tradition, the kneeling sitting posture is still used today.
As for "worship", it is a ritual that arises naturally from the ancient kneeling posture. In ancient times, people welcomed guests, talked with people at the banquet, and inevitably had times to send guests or thank guests, so people invented "worship" - sitting on their knees, first sitting up straight, and then leaning down, bowing down in the direction of the guests.
In the beginning, the class allegory of "bowing" was not so strong, and sometimes if both sides were of the same generation, they needed to bow to each other when they bowed. At that time, the kneeling prayer was widely used in various occasions, as a universal social etiquette existed in people's communication, until later stools, chairs, high seats and other seats were invented, the meaning of "sitting" and "kneeling" was gradually separated, and the social class differentiation was significant, and the kneeling was given a new definition.
The kneeling prayer begins to allude to class
The kneeling ceremony was the most widely used and frequent ritual in ancient times, dating back to the Shang and Zhou Dynasties. In the distant tribal period, the gap between the rich and the poor has appeared in human society, and then the social class has gradually differentiated significantly, and the rulers have come into being in order to strengthen the class consciousness, and a series of corresponding ritual systems have emerged. Zhou Gongxing made liturgical music to distinguish between nobles and commoners, and in the famous Confucian classic "Three Rites", it recorded the etiquette yardsticks for clothing, food, shelter, and travel.
"Discern the nine prayers: one is the first, the second is the first, the third is the empty head, the fourth is the vibration, the fifth is the auspicious worship, the sixth is the fierce worship, the seventh is the qi worship, the eighth is the praise worship, and the ninth is the solemn worship." - "Zhou Li Chunguan Da Zhu"
The "Zhou Li" records the popular "three prostrations and nine prayers", and each of the "nine prayers" has clear regulations. First of all, the nine prayers are roughly divided into two categories, the three prayers of "audit head", "dun shou" and "empty head" are the main worship, and the next six prayers are derivatives of the positive worship. There is a clear class division between the three prayers of the main prayer, and the worship methods that need to be used are different in different ceremonial occasions.
For example, the occasion is very formal, when worshiping the heavens, the earth, and the gods, they should perform the "head of the audit"; those who worship the superiors, such as the subordinates worship the king, the children and grandchildren worship the fathers and ancestors, and the students worship the teachers, they should also worship the head of the auditor. When the head of the auditor, he should kneel on the ground, bow his head to the ground, and rise up in a long bow. The ceremony emphasizes that the kneeling time should be long, and it is best to get up after receiving the consent of the worshipper, which is enough to show the difference in status between the two.
And peers worship each other, and they should fulfill the "first head". The first is the etiquette between the peers and the peers, which is the more common social etiquette mentioned above. In the era when the seat had not yet been invented, if the peers and the peers saluted each other, they should bow to the ground on the seat. However, in contrast to the official head, the head of the head only needs to touch the ground with a slight touch of the forehead to get up.
The last prayer of the three prayers, the "empty head", is the thank-you ceremony of the superior to the inferior. Compared with the head of the audit and the head of the head, the head needs to be bowed to the ground, and the empty head needs to be placed between the forehead and the ground, and the forehead taps the back of the hand to express gratitude.
Judging from the stipulations of the "Three Prayers", in ancient times there were strict requirements for the different rituals that different classes needed to exercise. Subordinates to superiors, peers to peers, superiors to subordinates, and strictly control the hierarchy of classes, all of which reflect the dignity of those in higher positions. This is closely related to the strict hierarchical system of feudal society, since the "Zhou Li" set the rules, every ruler in the later generations has more or less been used, kneeling and other etiquette and "three principles and five constants" are strictly bound, so that this reverence for the superior has become an invisible moral shackle of people, in order to reduce the emergence of rebellious ideas, and finally make the feudal rule consolidated.
With regard to the class gap implied by the kneeling service, it must be mentioned that in ancient times, no matter what kind of kneeling prayer, only men could exercise it, and women of low status were not even allowed to perform the kneeling prayer.
The kneeling prayer is an invisible reflection of the feudal hierarchy
During the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, China's ancient ritual music system was gradually established, and later generations of rulers regarded etiquette education as a major plan, and solidifying the people's thinking could not only strengthen the concept of hierarchy, but also help the feudal dynasty consolidate its rule. The norms of etiquette and the strengthening of feudal imperial power are inextricably linked, and the evolution of kneeling and praying on the ceremonies of the dynasty is the most intuitive reflection of the connection between the two.
During the Qin Dynasty, the supremacy of the emperor was established, and these rituals were also strictly applied. In the Han Dynasty, Liu Bang's heroes felt that the Qin Dynasty's imperial ceremonies were cumbersome, and they did not bother to abide by these regular rules, and simply played a role in discarding the imperial ceremonies. These brothers have followed Liu Bang since they were in Pei County, and they have deep feelings, although they are all fierce generals with high martial arts, but most of them have not read any books, have a straightforward and refreshing personality, love to shout loudly at wine banquets, and even sometimes dance swords and swords when they are excited, more than once making the feast scene chaotic. Liu Bang was careful and always felt that he did not want to go.
At this time, the famous minister Sun Tong saw Liu Bang's careful thinking, and Mao proposed to set the rules for Han Gaozu's etiquette. Therefore, the etiquette of the Han Dynasty reused the ancient law of the Qin Dynasty, and then modified it in line with the current situation, and the imperial ceremony of the Han Dynasty was customized.
Although the imperial ceremonies of the Han Dynasty were not as cumbersome as those of the Qin Dynasty, they still highlighted the status of the emperor. Among them, when all the courtiers of the monarchy are subjects, all the subordinates should bow to the emperor, and the kneeling is carried out in order of the high and low of the title, and no one is allowed to make noise, and when bowing, everyone is not allowed to look up at the emperor to show respect for the emperor.
The etiquette between the monarch and the courtiers was strengthened by the Han Dynasty, and the status of the emperor was even more supreme, and everyone needed to kneel when they saw the emperor. The strengthening of etiquette of the Han Dynasty is obviously closely related to the strengthening of the sense of imperial power, in contrast, in the later Tang Dynasty, the awareness of imperial power was relatively weakened compared with the Han Dynasty, and the economy was open and the culture showed a great integration trend, and the ruler's regulation of etiquette was relaxed. People in Tang Dynasty society did not have to follow the etiquette excessively, and even female Taoists could communicate with men in society normally; as for the court ceremony between monarchs and courtiers, ministers could sit on the bench and discuss politics with the emperor. The strengthening of imperial power will inevitably lead to a strict differentiation of the social hierarchy. Later, at the end of the Song Dynasty, the benches on which the ministers sat during deliberations were removed, and the emperor believed that only by sitting and standing with his subjects could he show the glory and majesty of the highest level of society. This situation intensified in the Ming and Qing dynasties, when the imperial power was extremely strengthened, and people not only had to bow down, but also prostrate their heads, and when the Qing Dynasty saw that the emperor needed to lie on the ground and prostrate his head, and whoever prostrated his head was the one who most respected the emperor.
Therefore, in the future, society, regardless of class, regards "kneeling and praying" as a manifestation of condescension, whether it is children and grandchildren worshiping their fathers and ancestors, or commoners worshiping high-ranking officials, or asking for help, they must first kneel down to show their humility. During the Qing Dynasty, this situation was even more prevalent, not only kneeling but also prostrating, prostrating the head and breaking the blood flowing was even commonplace at that time.
epilogue
Until the end of the Xinhai Revolution, all the stubborn remnants and unbearable dross of feudal society were abolished, and although people were formally liberated from the strict hierarchical system, the fragments of culture were still deeply rooted in the blood of the Chinese nation. Nowadays, although the kneeling ceremony has been basically abolished, the meaning of "humble and humble" given to kneeling after the complicated washing of history has become a lingering mark.
In the face of the various traditional cultures left over from ancient times, we should make reasonable use and abandonment, such as the kneeling ceremony discussed in this article, and now we have left most of its positive significance, and most of the current kneeling is used to express the reverence for the fathers and ancestors, in the traditional Chinese wedding, the kneeling also represents the mutual respect and cherishing between husband and wife.
bibliography:
Peng Lin, "Ancient Chinese Ritual Civilization"
Peng Lin's "Lile Life"
Hui Xicheng and Shi Zi, "The Great View of Chinese Folklore"
Ge Chenhong, "Customs and Etiquette in Ancient China"