China ancient etiquette was formed in the era of "Three Emperors and Five Emperors". By the time of Yao and Shun, there had been a written etiquette system, namely "Five Rites". This "five rites" refers to auspicious ceremony, fierce ceremony, guest ceremony, military ceremony and ceremony. Tang Yao, Yu Shun and Yu Xia, the sages of mankind, are all models of paying attention to etiquette. Legend has it that Yao respected the elderly very much when he was young and was polite among his peers. Distribute the returned prey to everyone equally at one time and take the least one yourself. Sometimes the least part of the prey is given to the old and infirm. His virtue was praised by everyone, so everyone chose him as the leader. Yu Shun's attention to etiquette is a model of all previous dynasties. The first article of China's Twenty-four Filial Piety Map, Dashun Farming, is about his diligence and hard work. The story of supporting father, stepmother and half-brother.

The etiquette formulated in the Yao and Shun dynasties has been gradually improved after more than 1000 years of summarization and promotion in the three slave countries of Xia, Shang and Zhou. At the beginning of the Zhou Dynasty, the three monarchs, Wen, and Cheng Wang, re-established the principle of "respecting rites and music, governing the country and making it safe, being harmonious but different, and rejuvenating the country by praising the sound". The Duke of Zhou also set up a ceremonial officer in the imperial court to take charge of the etiquette in the world, which pushed the ancient etiquette system in China to a relatively complete stage.

Confucius in the Spring and Autumn Period (5565438 BC+0 BC-479 BC) pushed "ceremony" to the supreme position. He asked all people to "restrain themselves" and educated his disciples to "see no evil", "Don't listen to evil" and "Don't eat evil". In short, you can give up everything for the sake of "ceremony" In order to carry forward the ancient etiquette system, he traveled thousands of miles from Shandong to Xiqiao to learn from Laozi (Li Er).

During the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, after the general plan of "abandoning a hundred schools of thought and respecting Confucianism alone" was established, etiquette, as a social morality, code of conduct and spiritual pillar, increased its importance to an unprecedented height. Since then, all dynasties have set up bureaucracies in charge of the etiquette of the world in the imperial court, such as Dahonghon in the Han Dynasty, Cao Li in the Shang Dynasty, the ancestral department of Wei and Jin Dynasties (also known as a grass in the Northern Wei Dynasty), and Li Shangshu after the Sui and Tang Dynasties (changed to the ritual department in the late Qing Dynasty). At the same time, etiquette writing is becoming more and more important. In the Han Dynasty, Zhou Li and Yi Li were listed as one of the Five Classics, which was a compulsory course for scholars. Dai Sheng in the Western Han Dynasty compiled The Book of Rites on the basis of studying the previous works on the Book of Rites, which was also listed as one of the thirteen classics. Later, on the basis of these ritual books, researchers in past dynasties made further research, and thousands of ritual books, such as Zhushu, Zhushu, Zheng, Li, Yu, Shuo, Gu and Li Shu, appeared successively, which became one of the historical and cultural classics in China.

Etiquette is etiquette and ceremony. In ancient China, there was a saying of "Five Rites", in which the sacrificial ceremony was auspicious, the wedding ceremony was a ceremony, the guest ceremony was a guest ceremony, the military ceremony was a military ceremony, and the funeral ceremony was a fierce ceremony. According to folklore, etiquette includes four kinds of life etiquette: birth, coronation, wedding and funeral. Actually, etiquette can be divided into politics and life. Politics includes offering sacrifices to heaven, land, ancestral temples, sages of teachers, drinking ceremony in the hometown of respecting teachers, meeting ceremony, military ceremony and so on.

Xunzi believes that the origin of life etiquette is "three books", that is, "the foundation of heaven and earth", "the foundation of ancestors" and "the root cause of teachers" In etiquette, the funeral is the earliest. Funeral for the dead is to appease their ghosts, and for the living, respecting the old and loving the young, filial piety and virtue have become a kind of etiquette. In the process of the establishment and implementation of etiquette, the patriarchal clan system in China (see the patriarchal clan system in China) was born. The essence of etiquette is the way to govern people, and it is a derivative of the belief in ghosts and gods. People think that everything is manipulated by invisible ghosts and gods, and performing etiquette is to please ghosts and gods to get happiness. Therefore, etiquette originated from the belief in ghosts and gods, and it is also a special embodiment of the belief in ghosts and gods.

The appearance of "Three Rites" (Yili, Li Ji and Zhou Li) marks the mature stage of etiquette development. In the Song Dynasty, etiquette was combined with feudal ethics and moral preaching, that is, etiquette and ethics were confused and became one of the effective tools to promote ethics. Salute serves to persuade morality, and red tape makes full use of it. It was not until modern times that the etiquette was truly reformed. Both the etiquette of national political life and the etiquette of people's life became the new content of the theory of no ghosts, thus becoming the etiquette of modern civilization.

Ancient political etiquette

1 sacrifice to heaven. Worship to heaven, which began in the Zhou Dynasty, is also called suburban worship. On the day of winter solstice, it was held in the southern suburbs of the capital. The ancients first paid attention to the worship of entities, and the worship of heaven was also reflected in the worship of the sun, the moon and the stars. All these specific worship, after reaching a certain number, are abstracted as worship of heaven. The worship of heaven in Zhou Dynasty developed from the worship of "emperor" in Yin Dynasty. The supreme ruler is the son of heaven, and offering sacrifices to heaven serves the supreme ruler. Therefore, the prevalence of worship of heaven did not come to an end until the Qing Dynasty.

2 worship the ground. The solstice in summer is the day of offering sacrifices to the earth, and the etiquette is roughly the same as that of offering sacrifices to heaven. In the Han Dynasty, the Earth God was called Mother, and she was the goddess who blessed mankind, also known as the country God. The earliest place of sacrifice was blood sacrifice. After the Han Dynasty, Feng Shui belief prevailed. The rituals of offering sacrifices to the land include offering sacrifices to mountains and rivers, offering sacrifices to the land gods, the valley gods and the country.

(3) ancestral hall. The ancestral temple system is the product of ancestor worship. Ancestral temple is a place where people set up for the deceased before his death. The ancestral temple system consists of seven temples for emperors, five temples for princes, three temples for doctors and one temple for scholars. Temples are not allowed in Shu Ren. The ancestral temple, the emperor and the vassal are located on the left side of the door, and the doctor sleeps on the left and right sides of the temple. The common people set the ancestral hall next to the kitchen hall of the dormitory. When offering sacrifices, choose a corpse. Bodies are usually served by grandchildren. The god in the temple is a wooden cuboid, which is only placed when offering sacrifices. Sacrifices cannot be called by their first names.

There are nine worships when offering sacrifices: kowtowing, nodding, empty bow, vibration, auspicious worship, fierce worship, strange worship, praise worship and su worship. The ancestral hall also offered sacrifices to the first generation of emperors. The Book of Rites Quli stipulates that all the ancestors who made contributions to the people, such as Yao, Shun, Yu, Huangdi, King Wen, should make sacrifices. Since the Han Dynasty, people have built cemeteries and shrines to offer sacrifices to the previous emperors. On the other hand, Ming Taizu established an imperial temple in Kyoto. During the Jiajing period, the Emperor Temple was built in Fuchengmen, Beijing, to worship the first king and the 36th emperor.

(4) offering sacrifices to sages. After the Han and Wei Dynasties, the Duke of Zhou was a saint and Confucius was a teacher. In the Tang Dynasty, Confucius was the sage and Yan Hui was the teacher. After the Tang and Song Dynasties, the ceremony of "releasing wine" has always been a ritual of learning and a ritual of offering sacrifices to Confucius. During the Southern and Northern Dynasties, wine-releasing ceremonies were held twice a year in the spring and autumn, and Confucius and Yan temples were also set up in county schools all over the country. In the Ming Dynasty, Confucius was called "the most holy teacher". In the Qing Dynasty, Shengjing (Shenyang, Liaoning Province) established the Confucius Temple. After making Beijing its capital, imperial academy, the capital of Beijing, was elected as imperial academy and set up a Confucian Temple. Confucius called it "the forerunner from Dacheng to Wenshengxuan". Qufu's temple system, sacrificial vessels, musical instruments and etiquette are all based on Beijing imperial academy. Rural drinking ceremony is the product of offering sacrifices to sages.

⑤ Meeting ceremony. When subordinates meet their superiors, they should pay their respects to each other, and officials should also pay their respects to each other. When they meet, Volkswagen, Marquis and Ma Xu should pay tribute twice. The subordinates face west first, and the superiors face east first. When civilians meet, the young and the old salute, and the young salute. Say goodbye to the four foreign worshippers and pay homage nearby.

⑥ Military salute. Including conquest, taxation, hunting, construction, etc.

(1) birth ceremony.

From a woman's seeking for a child when she is not pregnant to a baby's first birthday, all etiquette revolves around the theme of a long life. Shu Gao's sacrifice is begging etiquette. At this time, an altar was set up in the southern suburbs, and all the empresses participated. During the Han and Wei Dynasties, Gao Qi offered sacrifices. During the Tang and Song Dynasties, a ceremony was made to worship Gao Qi. During the Jin Dynasty, Gao Qi offered sacrifices to Di Qing, and built a wooden square platform in the north of Yong 'anmen in the east of the imperial city. Gao Qi was placed under this platform. There was no sacrifice by Gao Qi in the Qing Dynasty, but there was a ceremony of "changing ropes" with the same meaning. Birthday ceremonies have a preference for sons over daughters since ancient times. Birthday ceremonies also include "Three Dynasties", "Full Moon", "Hundred Days" and "One Year". "Three Dynasties" is three days after the baby was born. The "full moon" shaves the fetal hair when the baby is one month old. In the "Hundred Days" ceremony, the uncle was recognized and named. When you are "one year old", you should grasp the rites of the week and predict the fate and career of your child.

2 bar mitzvah.

Also known as the coronation ceremony, it is a coronation ceremony for men to enter the ranks of adults. The coronation ceremony evolved from the adult ceremony attended by young men and women who were popular in clan society at maturity. The Han dynasty followed the crown ceremony system of the Zhou dynasty. During the Wei and Jin Dynasties, Jia Guan began to accompany with music. Crown ceremony was practiced in the Tang, Song, Yuan and Ming Dynasties, and was abolished in the Qing Dynasty. Many ethnic minority areas in China still have ancient adult rituals, such as pulling teeth, dyeing teeth, wearing skirts, trousers and tying a bun.

(3) Strict food etiquette.

Dining is held in the ancestral temple, and the cooking is too firm to drink guests. The emphasis is on etiquette rather than diet. Yan is a banquet, the ceremony is held in the bedroom, and guests and friends can enjoy drinking. Yan Li has a profound influence on the formation of China's food culture. Festive banquets have formed festive food etiquette in China's folk food customs. Eating Yuanxiao on the 15th day of the first month, cold rice and vegetables in Tomb-Sweeping Day, zongzi and realgar wine in Duanyang in May, moon cakes and laba porridge in Mid-Autumn Festival, and making friends to bid farewell to the old and welcome the new are all festive ceremonies. Eating certain foods on some festivals is also a kind of eating etiquette. Seats at the banquet, the order of serving, and the etiquette of persuading people to drink and toast all have the requirements of men and women, the relationship between elders and children, and the taboo of praying for blessings in social customs.

4 guest gifts.

Mainly used to receive guests. There are different levels of gift etiquette for guests. When the scholars meet, the guests see the master, taking the pheasant as the guide; When doctors meet, they take geese as baskets; When you meet a doctor, you should take a lamb as a basket.

⑤ Five sacrifices.

Refers to the door, door, well, stove and middle room. In the Zhou Dynasty, people visited households in spring, roamed around in summer, visited doors in autumn and visited wells in winter. During the Han and Wei dynasties, there were five sacrifices every season, and in March of Meng Dong, there was a total sacrifice. In the Tang, Song and Yuan Dynasties, the theory of "Seven Sacrifices to Heaven Emperor" was adopted, offering sacrifices to Siming (a minor god in the palace), Zhong You, Guo Hang, (a wild ghost), Hu and Zao. In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, there were still five sacrifices. After Kangxi in the Qing Dynasty, the special sacrifices of doors, households, middle schools and wells were abandoned, and the stove was only sacrificed on December 23, which was consistent with the folk story that the kitchen god told the sky on December 24. The national sacrificial ceremony adopted a folk form.

6 Nuo instrument.

Originated in prehistoric times and prevailed in Shang and Zhou Dynasties. Nuo ceremonies in the Zhou Dynasty were designed to drive away evil spirits and epidemics in the four seasons. Zhou people believe that the operation of nature is closely related to the good or ill luck of personnel. With the change of seasons, the variation of cold and heat, the epidemic of plague and the taking advantage of ghosts, timely mourning is needed to exorcise evil spirits. Fang Shixiang is the main god in Nuo ceremony. Twelve animals formula Shixiang appeared in Nuo instruments in Han Dynasty. Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, Sui and Tang Dynasties followed the Han system, and entertainment elements were added to Nuo ceremonies, with musicians playing Fang and twelve animals. So far, the Nuo ceremony of Tujia nationality in Guizhou is the most complete and typical.

Chinese etiquette plays a quasi-legal role in China culture.