Why did the ancients kneel down first when they met? After reading the greetings of the three dynasties, I couldn't fall in love with the Qing Dynasty
In TV series and movies, it can often be seen that whenever the emperor comes, everyone will fall to their knees and dare not even raise their heads until the emperor says: "Everyone, please get up." ”
As soon as the emperor arrived, the servants, the concubines, and even the closest brothers all had to kneel and salute, which was too exaggerated, right? Could it be that the ancients all bowed down like this when they met?
In the pre-Qin period, because the technology at that time was not developed, it was not easy to make chairs, and the most important thing was that the people at that time did not have any whimsical ideas in this regard, so when the emperor and ministers at that time were deliberating, they all sat down directly after putting a bamboo cushion on the ground.
This is also called "upright sitting" as a sign of respect, and even the supreme king would use this posture, but it is much more comfortable than the mat of ordinary people.
So at that time, people sat on the ground very equally, if you have special respect for a person, then what you have to do is to lean your body forward, you can also touch the ground with your head, and bow down, but to do this kind of big bow, the other party must be a person of high moral respect.
Therefore, in the Qin Dynasty, when the ministers and the emperor discussed national affairs, they generally knelt face to face, and everyone could speak up and express their thoughts, and this custom continued until the Han Dynasty, and everyone contributed their own strength to the stability of the court regardless of dignity or inferiority.
But in the long history of the feudal dynasty, kneeling is a natural development of the result, the Tang Dynasty, only in the grand ceremony will bow down, usually between the monarch and the minister, there will also be a long fist and other etiquette, this is the style of a generation of literati.
In the Song Dynasty, after seeing the emperor, it was necessary to bow down, although it was not as grand as the Han Dynasty, but there was also a sense of alienation, and when it came to the Yuan Dynasty under the rule of the Mongols, the Han people had to kneel and salute to show humility.
If you speak in front of the emperor, you have to kneel, which is a lot of pressure, and this etiquette has continued until the Ming and Qing dynasties, when the courtiers had to kneel on the ground to show their submission, which showed the supremacy of imperial power.
It can be seen that every change of kneeling in Chinese history is a manifestation of the expansion of the ruler's power, from a simple etiquette to a symbol of power relations, and the feet of the courtiers have become the pillars of the consolidation of imperial power.
Since the Qing Dynasty, such etiquette has become an extreme, not only to kneel, but also to kowtow, many officials will buy the inner servants, so that when they see the emperor, they can use the hollow floor to kowtow, so that they can alleviate their pain, the voice is also very loud, the most exaggerated is that the emperor of the Qing Dynasty not only wants his own courtiers to kneel, but also to let foreign envoys kneel.
Moreover, when the ministers of the court and the central government saluted the emperor, they often had to bow their sleeves and kneel down with two flicks of their sleeves, even when they received the edicts and rewards of the eunuchs, which made many people very puzzled.
Before the Qing Dynasty entered the Guannai, they all lived in the northeast, and their hobby on weekdays was riding and shooting, so they would have horseshoe sleeves on their clothes to facilitate horseback riding.
Such sleeves allow them to be more flexible when hunting, and they can also provide enough warmth and protection for their bodies.
After the unification of the Qing Dynasty, the Han and Manchu costumes were fused to form a new set of official robes, which maintained the original horseshoe sleeve shape of the Manchus.
Later, the Manchu officials began to wear horseshoe sleeve clothes, when walking, they would roll up their sleeves, when they met the emperor or the emperor's relatives, they would put down their sleeves and kneel on the ground, this ceremony, in the mouth of the Manchus, is "put wow".
However, the fabric used for this horseshoe sleeve is relatively hard, so the civil and military officials will shake the sleeves when they salute, so as to make their sleeves easier to hang down, and over time, this habit has slowly been passed down.
Others believe that waving one's sleeves before kneeling is a sign of loyalty, after all, in ancient times, it was not uncommon for emperors to be assassinated.
Therefore, in order to ensure the personal safety of the monarch, all ministers who went to the Hajj were not allowed to bring weapons to the palace, because the ancients were dressed loosely and had a big pocket in their sleeves.
Therefore, in order to prevent ministers from hiding weapons in their sleeves, Qing court officials often waved their sleeves twice when they bowed to the emperor to show that they had nothing in their sleeves.
From a sitting posture in the pre-Qin period, to a kind of worship in the Song Dynasty, and then to a game of upper and lower humility, after the fall of the Qing Dynasty, this ritual disappeared, in fact, the change of kneeling is not only a change of etiquette, but also the development of civilization in an era.
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