Although living today, our customs are very different from those of ancient times, but from the overall course of the development of human civilization and the inheritance of culture, we can find the traditional relics left over from ancient times in some customs that we are accustomed to.
The rite of passage is also a kind of custom, and its origins can be traced back to the primitive social era, when it was simply related to production, that is, the production of labor and the reproduction of human beings themselves. Later, with the unstoppable development of productive forces and the earth-shaking changes in human society, lifestyles and customs also changed.
The execution of the rite of passage marks the transition of a person's life stage from one period to another, and is of great significance to everyone. However, in the comparison of Chinese and Western coming-of-age ceremonies, it can be seen that it has very different meanings, one is to say goodbye to childhood, and the other is to be eternally adolescence.
1. The rite of passage that has been followed for more than two thousand years
The study of the rite of passage can be learned from existing customs or literature, history, and cultural relics. Compared with customs, literature, history and cultural relics can express the rite of passage more vividly and bluntly. However, from the perspective of time dimension comparison, customs inherent in their strengths, which itself carries traces of ancient customs, which is a reflection of the existence of ancient rites of passage.
Therefore, the analysis of the rites of passage in the same culture must be distinguished by a timeline, which can be divided into ancient and modern.
(1) The rite of passage of the ancient Chinese
The main thing here is the very representative Han chinese coming-of-age ceremony. In ancient Han Chinese, crowning was an important symbol of the rite of passage and the middle line between children and adulthood, as emphasized in the Book of Rites: "The ceremony begins with the crown."
Before the crowning, the difference between children and "adults" was the form of hair tie, such as Tao Yuanming's "Peach Blossom Origin" has a character depiction of "yellow hair hanging hair", and "hanging hair" refers to children before the rite of passage.
So how do men and women perform the rite of passage? One of the Thirteen Confucian Classics, the "Rites of Rites", stipulates: "Ding performs the crown ceremony, and the female performs the ceremony", that is, after performing the crown ceremony, children can become "adults", and their hairstyles will also change.
As for the age of the crown, in fact, there will generally be a discrepancy. The Zuo Chuan records that "King Wen twelve crowned ... Fifteen ceremonies for the king", and the requirements of the Zhou li for the coming-of-age ceremony are a little later, stipulating "twenty weak crowns".
The whole rite of passage is mainly male, but also the most complicated for men, and there are many rituals and requirements. In the Book of Rites and Guanyi, the whole process of the rites of passage is described in great detail, and it stipulates: "The reason why mortals are human beings is also righteousness." First, "the body is straight, the color is straight, the words are smooth, and the etiquette is prepared"; then "the monarch, the father and son, and the eldest and youngest", and finally the coming-of-age ceremony is completed. However, these rituals are not as simple and easy to perform as just a few words.
The crown ceremony takes place in the ancestral temple, where guests are changed, hairdressed, crowned and feasted. Among them, the crown is the core, and there are three times to change the crown and change the hairstyle, in order, one plus cloth crown, two plus pi ben, and three plus jue ben. They have deep meanings, representing the identities of chiefs, sergeants, and priests, and they can all participate in and play these roles after completing the ceremony.
Later generations added the link of "adding words" on the basis of crowning, that is, adults are not only famous, but also have words. Xiao Zifan, a southern Liang man, recorded in his "Guan Zi Zhen" the rites of passage such as the selection of the day, the xiaobin and the sage's life.
The Zhou Dynasty also had written records and regulations on the rites of passage of women, and the ceremonies were generally attended by women from the nobility. The weekly ceremony stipulates that a woman can perform a ceremony before marriage after the engagement, and the age is earlier than that of the man, usually fifteen years old. The "笄" here refers to a kind of hairpin, that is, after the woman combs her hair into a beautiful bun, the host of the ceremony wears the hairpin on the woman's bun, and the adult ceremony is completed.
(2) The form of the rite of passage in modern China
Whether it is Han or ethnic minorities in modern mainland China, the coming-of-age ceremony is very different from that of ancient times, the Han nationality no longer inherits the coming-of-age ceremony inherited from the Zhou Dynasty, and the ethnic minorities have also diluted the rite of passage, and some of them are directly gone. In mainland China, the modern rite of passage originated in the 1990s and originated in the Shanghai area.
At that time, the coming-of-age ceremony was not understood by the vast majority of parents, and the main body of the organization of the coming-of-age ceremony was the local media, schools and Communist Youth League committees, etc., and various activities and forms were not uniform.
It was not until 1994 that this collective rite of passage became popular throughout the country, and the tasks of organizing activities in various regions fell to the Communist Youth League, such as in 1995, the Zhejiang Provincial Youth League Committee held a "thousand adult oath ceremony" for young men and women over the age of 18 in the Youth Palace Square in Hangzhou.
These rituals are no longer different from men and women, and the form is no longer so complex, and men and women participate in the rite of passage together, and the whole process is the same, a collective activity. Participants in the rite of passage generally take the oath together and participate in some symbolic activities, and when the event is over, the ceremony ends.
It marks the transformation of adolescents into youth, enjoying the rights of adults and assuming the corresponding laws and obligations. In short, whether ancient or modern, after the ceremony is completed, boys and girls bid farewell to childhood.
Second, the comparison of Chinese and Western rites of passage
The Western rite of passage, like China's, has grown up in the long river of history. Unlike the mainland, the West focuses on a collective ritual, and it is not just an iconic event, and those involved in the ritual need to run away from home, live independently, accept the ordeal, and return to the four processes.
(1) Special Western rites of passage culture
Many people use the popular "rite of passage dance" in Western society as an important symbol of the ing-of-age ceremony of Westerners, also known as a kind of rite of passage they perform.
Some scholars believe that the rite of passage ball came from the United Kingdom, and at the beginning only girls aged 18 and over were allowed to participate. They are solemnly introduced to the Queen at the ball, and as a result they are qualified to participate in the ball. From a side point of view, these dances are just tools for friendship and blind dates between nobles.
After the 1850s, coming-of-age balls became popular in France, such as and André Tabo, the public relations manager of the perfume giant Badu House, led the organization of the rites of passage ball attended by many young girls. But these rituals were not socially sanctioned, and after the outbreak of the left-wing trend in France in 1968, many people labeled them as symbols of the exploiting class.
Judging from the participants in the dance, the modern Western coming-of-age ceremony is mainly female and a collective activity. The function of the ritual is obvious, and after baptism, the participants are recognized as adults, and thus have the conditions for socializing, marriage, and participation in social activities.
This is not the case with the male-dominated rite of passage, which follows numerous traditions of Westerners. Wallamov's "The Fool" is a condensation of Western rite of passage culture, which depicts how a teenager performs the rite of passage and what kind of tests he or she undergoes before becoming a true adult.
Like other Western literature and folklore (such as Catcher in the Rye, There Is a Tree in Brooklyn, Take Your Time, and Dear Andre, etc.), the protagonists of the characters have experienced a run away from home, an independent life, a baptism of suffering and return, and it is a very special rite of passage.
Although the baptized person has gone through the physical turn of adolescence and become an adult in the process, they have experienced an unfinished rite of passage of passage.
(2) The difference between Chinese and Western coming-of-age ceremonies
Differences in collective and individual aspects. In ancient China, the rite of passage was generally done only on the individual, and there were also collectives, but there was no individual prominence. The reason for these phenomena is determined by the social structure and social environment at that time, such as the king's ceremony, the daughter's marriage, etc. can not carry out the collective rite of passage.
In the "Left Biography", it is recorded that in the ninth year of Lu Xianggong (twelve years old), he was "crowned in the temple of Chenggong". Although a small number of schools were established in ancient China, as in the West, the activities of the family or family were still the main part of social activities, so schools could not hold collective rites of passage.
Collective coming-of-age ceremonies are mostly carried out in the family, Jet Li's version of "Huo Yuanjia" has this picture, even so, the individual coming-of-age ceremonies are still far more than the collective. It is also because China has always been a country of heavy etiquette, and the Book of Rites emphasizes: "Morality is benevolent and righteous, and incivility is not accomplished."
Etiquette and etiquette were the top priority in all activities for the ancient Chinese, so the adult etiquette of the individual is much more detailed, and the complexity of the etiquette and the variety of procedures are far more than in the West.
The social structure and environment of the West are very different from those of China, so the rite of passage is also different. The continent has long practiced absolute monarchy, the cells of the state are composed of families and families, and for the king, the kingdom is also home. The "Book of Poetry, Xiaoya, Beishan Zhishi, Beishan" describes the relationship between the family and the country, "under the whole world, all are the royal land, and within the four seas, they are all royal subjects."
The West, on the other hand, has been in a state system or manor state for a long time, emphasizing and highlighting the role of the individual in the collective, emphasizing the independence of the individual, so the rite of passage of the individual is often completed in the tempering, which is psychological growth rather than a symbolic ritual.
Their collective activities and individual freedom are much greater than those of the mainland, and social interaction between different groups and individuals is a major feature of their activities, so it is not surprising that there are collective rites of passage.
In terms of cultural implications. The rite of passage that was popular in ancient times on the mainland contained both a ritual of life turning, as well as the entrustment of power and a tacit consent to participate in social activities. For example, only after the rite of passage of passage can the king officially accept the power handed down by the previous generation of emperors.
In the West, the rite of passage begins after a physiological change, and the process of this ritual is quite long. Although they were kings, there was no formal rite of passage, which began the moment they took over power. Therefore, after comparing the two, it can be found that the Chinese rite of passage is to say goodbye to childhood, and the Western one is to stay in the adolescent forever.
3. Summary
Continental and Western rites of passage had different meanings in ancient times, and their content and form were also very different. The mainland emphasizes a sense of ceremony and etiquette, and after baptism, the children who receive the ritual will be transformed into adults, and they will also be allowed to accept some kind of power and participate in the activities of adults.
The form of the Western ingotol is a little lighter, and the individual completes the entire ingoteric rite in the process of growing up, which is both a physical growth and a spiritual exercise.
After entering the modern era, no matter which kind of coming-of-age ceremony in China and the West, its form and content are basically similar, and they all have certain rituals, marking the transformation of children into adults, and they need to participate in the construction of society, assume corresponding responsibilities, and fulfill corresponding rights and obligations.