In the 21st century, although we know that there is a kneeling ceremony in traditional culture, with the change of customs and the overall progress of civilization, most of them will not use this method as the main means of etiquette, and only in some special times in some regions will they kneel and salute.
Moreover, the object of worship is often the ancestor of his own family or the living elder, as for the peer or the superior-subordinate relationship at work, this is completely unnecessary. It can even be said that if it is a kneeling prayer between peers or superiors and subordinates, it will be considered a "neuropathy".
So the question is, we will see in the costume drama that the ancients basically had a kneeling action when meeting between the common generations, between the monarchs and the courtiers, between fathers and sons, and between different classes.
Image: Stills of the son kneeling before his father
I. The early ancient prostration ceremony
1, an ordinary "sitting posture"
First of all, we must understand that in the earliest times, the so-called "kneeling" did not contain too many special meanings given by people subjectively, and it could even be said that it was not a ceremony, let alone the color of the class nature of feudal society. To put it bluntly, it is a kind of "sitting posture".
In the pre-Qin era, whether in the palace halls or between small houses, every household did not have a table and chair bench in the modern sense, even if you were the king of a country, as long as you were not standing, you had to sit on the mat laid on the ground. If you are a nobleman or a rich person, at most you can put a soft cushion under your ass.
At that time, the "standard sitting posture" was to sit on both knees, hips against the heels, far away from looking basically like kneeling, now Japanese and Koreans still have this habit, everyone also feels very normal, and does not feel that there is any humble place, this is the reason.
Image: Stills of the kings sitting
In the era of kneeling, if you want to show your respect to someone, you only need to tilt your body forward, straighten your waist, and then leave your hips from your toes, if your hands touch the ground at this time, it is called "worship posture".
We can see through the records of historical materials such as the "Records of History" that in the pre-Qin era, when monarchs and courtiers talked, everyone often used this way of kneeling, which means that they all retained mutual respect for each other. In the Warring States Policy: "The King of Qin kneels: What is the sir?" Fan Sui prayed again, and the King of Qin also worshiped again, "That's what happened."
Image: Stills of the "bye-bye" of the kneeling era
2, the big changes brought about by gadgets
It can be seen that the earliest kneeling was a kind of etiquette for the two sides to express mutual respect and respect, there was no relationship between respect and inferiority, and this custom was established and continued until the Han Dynasty.
For example, when the emperors and ministers of the Han Dynasty discussed major state affairs in the hall, everyone also sat on their knees together, but unlike the TV stage, the emperor sat high on the dragon chair at the top, and the ministers only promised to stand below and listen to the emperor's speech, which was purely misleading to everyone in film and television dramas.
Photo: Stills of the Han Emperor and his courtiers discussing major military events
From the beginning of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period to the Song Dynasty, high-type seats- chairs appeared, and soon became popular in the north and south of the river, which greatly changed the sitting posture of traditional Chinese, with this comfortable and convenient tool, people no longer sit on the ground like their predecessors.
At this time, a question arises: since everyone no longer kneels, then sometimes they still kneel, this behavior has become very deliberate, in other words, from this period onwards, the act of kneeling has been crowned with the color of the hierarchy of honor and inferiority.
However, the ministers of the Song Dynasty often focused on the kneeling of the king in the more grand and solemn ceremonies, and the ministers would not easily bow down when they saw the emperor on weekdays.
In fact, what many friends don't know is that standing still at that time will be considered a kind of respect, and if you want to highlight the admiration and respect for the other party on this basis, people will cross their hands and perform the salute.
Picture: Stills of a Song Dynasty minister sitting in a chair
Second, the nature of the prostration has changed
1. The emergence of turning points
To say when the fundamental nature of the kneeling ritual that has been passed down in traditional Chinese society for a long time has occurred, it goes back to the Yuan Dynasty. As we all know, the Yuan Dynasty was a feudal dynasty established by the Mongols, although it was recognized as one of the great unified dynasties of China in later historiography, but from the perspective of the general environment at that time, the Central Plains still regarded it as "Waiyi".
Of course, the rulers from the north were not friendly to the Central Plains people, and from the system to the customs, to a large extent, they were changed, that is, from this time on, the act of kneeling and worshiping had an obvious humiliating and despicable nature, and it was quickly popularized under the intention of the imperial court.
In the Yuan Dynasty court, whenever it was time to perform in front of the emperor, the ministers all had to kneel, and if you were a bystander, you would definitely deeply feel the humility and flattery in it, of course, this was very consistent with the Yuan Dynasty rulers' concept of treating the world's subjects as their slaves.
Later, Zhu Yuanzhang established the Ming Dynasty, replacing the Rule of the Mongols in the Central Plains, although the Han people raised their eyebrows, but also largely inherited the system and habits left over from the previous dynasty, and the ceremony of kneeling was also included.
Image: Stills of ministers kneeling
2, more and more become synonymous with "humble"
The etiquette of bowing and worshiping has not changed, for the subjects of the world, it is just a new master, and we are fair to say that these new masters also have a strong "master-slave mentality" in their bones.
Perhaps everyone had long been accustomed to the century-long "enslavement" of the Mongols, or perhaps Zhu Yuanzhang wanted to be more than his predecessors, so the Ming Dynasty not only required ministers to kneel when they saw the emperor, but even lower-level officials had to kneel when they saw higher-level officials.
It is worth noting that this is no longer a simple etiquette habit, but also clearly written into the "Daming Society", in other words, this is already a requirement at the level of laws and regulations, as long as you are a Daming person, you have to do this, you do not do it, someone will do it for you.
In the Qing Dynasty, this guy was not to mention, so that he not only had to bow his head, but even had to make a noise to express his true feelings. In many Qing Dynasty historical records, it is recorded that in order not to be injured when prostrating in front of the emperor, some ministers would take out a large amount of money to bribe the eunuchs in the palace, so that they could kneel behind the hollow bricks when they were facing the saint, so that when they stumbled, they would not be too uncomfortable, and the movement would be large.
Photo: Qing Dynasty ministers kneeling in front of the emperor and paying homage to the emperor
In addition, the rulers of the Qing Dynasty also stipulated that foreign envoys had to kneel when they saw themselves, like the British envoy Magalni who had a dispute over the issue of kneeling when he visited China.
Article author: Dahui
The entire graphic was produced by the team of the Big Cafe Say History Studio!