Qing Dynasty:
The Dengda Ceremony
The most important ceremony in the palace is the Dengda Ceremony, which marks the end of the old ruler and the new ruler. The beginning of the takeover of power.
After the Qing Dynasty entered the customs, ten grand ceremonies were held. Among these ten grand ceremonies, two were special circumstances. One was in the first year of Shunzhi, when Aixinjueluo Fulin ascended to the throne. The ascension of Emperor Jiaqing. The former was due to the death of his father Huang Taiji the previous year. Fulin had ascended the throne as emperor in the Shenyang Palace. After entering the Dingding Pass, Yanjing held another enthronement ceremony. The ceremony was relatively simple. The latter was because his father Qianlong personally passed on the throne, which was called the Conferment and Acceptance Ceremony. The ceremony was grand and full of celebration. The other eight times were when the previous emperor died and the successor emperor ascended the throne during the mourning period.
In September of the thirteenth year of Yongzheng (1735), Emperor Qianlong ascended the throne in the Hall of Supreme Harmony. The situation was roughly as follows:
On August 23rd of the thirteenth year of Yongzheng’s reign, Emperor Yongzheng died in the Old Summer Palace. On the same day, his coffin was transported back to the Forbidden City and placed in the Qianqing Palace. The successor emperor Hongli stayed at the funeral. On the third day of September, after the preparations for the enthronement ceremony were completed, the Minister of Rites invited him to ascend the throne. The curtains should be hung at the main entrance of Qianqing Palace to indicate that the funeral is suspended. Hongli went to the Baohe Hall to surrender, and first went to the Zhonghe Hall to ascend his seat, where officials at all levels saluted. After the ceremony, the officials took their seats, and the Minister of Rites again invited him to ascend the throne as emperor. The Yiwei people and others followed Hongli to the Palace of Supreme Harmony. When Hongli ascended to the throne and became the emperor, according to the general ceremonial regulations, the Zhonghe Shao Music Band played. However, due to the mourning period, the music was not allowed, and only the bells and drums were rang on the Meridian Gate.
After Emperor Qianlong came to the throne, the whip was sounded three times at the foot of the steps. Under the command of the praise officer, the ministers knelt three times and kowtowed nine times. During the ceremony, the officials saluted and the Danbi music was played, but it was not performed at this time, and the congratulations of the officials were not announced.
Finally, an edict must be issued to show that the emperor is the "true emperor", and the ceremony is solemn and grand. First, the bachelor then held out the edict, and the minister of the Ministry of Rites carried it to the bottom of the steps. The secretary of the Ministry of Rites placed it in a cloud plate (a wooden tray decorated with cloud patterns), and the people of Luan Yiwei held the yellow lid. *We walked out of the Taihe Gate from the middle road, sounded the whip again, and Emperor Qianlong returned to the palace. Civil and military officials followed the imperial edict out of the Meridian Gate from Zhaode Gate and Zhendu Gate on both sides of the Taihe Gate. They placed the edict in the Long Pavilion and carried it to the Tiananmen Gate Tower for promulgation. Emperor Qianlong returned to Duan Ning Hall and put on his mourning clothes again. The bachelors and others returned the "Emperor's Treasure" and stored it in the palace.
This is a typical ascension ceremony, and the other seven are similar.
In addition to the grand ceremonies of the imperial court, including the first ascension ceremony and the conferring ceremony, there are also pro-government ceremonies, the behind-the-curtain administration in the late Qing Dynasty, the title and emblem of the emperor, the titles and emblems of the empress dowager and the empress dowager, etc.
Sacrifice Ceremony
Sacrifice, including offering sacrifices to heaven, gods, and ancestors, is an important ceremonial activity in the palace, including: traditional sacrifices of the court such as major sacrifices, middle sacrifices, and group sacrifices ; Manchu nationality’s unique sacrificial halls and Kunning Palace sacrificial gods; ancestor sacrificial activities similar to those of the Han people, such as sacrificing to the ancestral temple, sacrificing to the ancestral hall, and sacrificing tombs, etc.
There are nearly 80 types of large, medium, and group sacrifices presided over by the Ministry of Etiquette of the imperial court. There are more than ten types of royal sacrifices presided over by the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The emperor is both the head of the country and the master of the royal family. The emperor must personally participate in any aspect of sacrifice that is important, and ancestor worship activities must be performed in person to show filial piety.
Sacrifice is an important ritual of the Qing palace. But there is no substantive content, and it is all supported by red tape. According to regulations, different sacrifices must enshrine different gods and use different sacrificial vessels, jade silk, and animal cages. Before the major and middle sacrifices, the emperor must fast. During the fasting period, wooden fasting signs must be hung in all government offices; fasting signs must also be hung on the Qianqing Gate in the palace and bronze figures of fasting must be placed; the emperor must abide by the "Six Prohibitions"; People are not allowed to eat meat, drink alcohol and spit, and offenders will be punished.
Sacrifice to the sky is scheduled on the winter solstice every year, which means "welcoming the arrival of the long day." Three days before the sacrifice to the sky, the emperor fasted in the palace. After a series of complicated preparations, he and the sacrifice to the sky were held. The day before, I took a jade chariot to the Temple of Heaven to fast for a day. On the day of the sacrifice, the emperor went to the circular mound altar to welcome the gods with music and dance, offered jade and silk fabrics, entered the altar, read blessings, offered honors three times, received blessings, sent gifts to the gods and other complicated rituals. The emperor also made the ministers kneel three times and kowtow many times before the ceremony of worshiping the heaven came to an end.
Among the nearly eighty kinds of sacrifices in the Qing Dynasty, the ones with Manchu characteristics were the Tangzi sacrifices and the Kunninggong sacrifices.
Tangzi Festival is the Manchu name for the place that worships heaven outside the customs. At first, common people all had Tangzi in their homes. In the first year of Chongde (1636), Huang Taiji ordered that it be banned among the people, and Tangzi became the name of the Qing Dynasty. The exclusive place to worship heaven. After the Qing Dynasty entered the customs, a temple was built outside the left gate of Chang'an. Its structure was significantly different from the traditional temples of the past dynasties. The most important thing is that the circular hall for worshiping the sky faces north. There are also emperors, princes, princes of the Eight Banners, Beile and Beizi in the courtyard. There are 73 stone bases for sacred poles, and pine poles called sacred poles are inserted before the ceremony. During the sacrifice, the emperor, princes, etc. each bowed under their respective poles. In order to maintain the national custom of Tangzi sacrifice, during the Kangxi period, Han officials were ordered to dismiss and sacrifice.
Sacrifice to the gods in Kunning Palace is a supplement to the sacrifices to the Tangzi. Huang Taiji regarded the Tangzi ceremony as the most important. When the Tangzi was not available for sacrifice, the gods would be enshrined in the Kunning Palace, the palace. In the early Qing Dynasty, according to the Based on the old system of Qingning Palace, Kunning Palace was renovated into a place for worshiping gods with three connected Kangs and two pots and stoves inside, and a sacred pole outside.
The gods worshiped in Kunning Palace are of different sects. For example, Sakyamuni, Guanyin Bodhisattva, and Guandi are worshiped every day in the morning; Mulihan God, Portrait God, Mongolian God, etc. are worshiped in the evening.
The emperor and empress would be present at important god-sacrifice activities, but would not participate in the daily morning and evening rituals. During the morning and evening sacrifices, two pigs must be killed in front of the Kunning Palace God and cooked in the Kunning Palace. During the sacrifice, the Si Zhuguan (commonly known as the shaman) played drums and sang, accompanied by sanxian, pipa, and clapper. After the ceremony, the meat sacrificed to the gods was distributed to the ministers, guards, etc. for consumption according to regulations. There is no salt in these meats, so it is miserable for the meat-eating ministers. They usually hide some salt secretly in their sleeves and sprinkle it on the meat when others are not looking.
The Imperial Ancestral Temple was the main place where Qing emperors worshiped their ancestors. Huang Taiji had established the Imperial Ancestral Temple when he was in Shengjing. At the beginning of the four seasons, people go to temples to worship their ancestors. Sacrifice ceremonies are also held on the late Emperor's birthday, death anniversary, Qingming Festival, and New Year's Eve. Every month, new ones are recommended to the ancestors. After Emperor Shunzhi entered the customs, he continued to use the Ming system, and the Ancestral Temple of the former Ming Dynasty was the Ancestral Temple.
After the death of the Qing emperor, like the emperors of all previous dynasties, he had a large-scale mausoleum so that his descendants could pay tribute at any time. Therefore, the mausoleum has also become another important place for ancestor worship. The tombs of Qing emperors are mainly distributed in three places, namely the Three Tombs of Shengjing (Fuling, Zhaoling and Yongling) in present-day Liaoning Province in Northeast China, the Dongling Tombs in Zunhua, Hebei Province, and the Xiling Tombs in Yixian County.
Judian Huanghuangqing Wedding
The emperor's wedding is called a "big wedding". For an emperor who has grown up and married a wife before he ascended the throne, after becoming the emperor, only the ceremony of enthroning the queen will be held, and no replacement ceremony will be held. wedding. At the same time as the wedding, a gold book and gold treasure (certificate and seal) are used to register the queen; at the same time as the queen is registered, one to four concubines are selected. The wedding ceremonies of the Ming and Qing emperors were basically the same.
The "Book of Rites? Hunyi", "Tang Code" and "Ming Code" stipulate that the procedures of "marriage" are: accepting, asking for names, accepting gifts, accepting taxes, announcing the date and welcoming each other. Also known as "Six Rites".
Natcai means giving gifts, discussing marriage, and asking a matchmaker to find out what is true and what is true. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, meeting gifts were extremely rich and compared with each other.
Name asking is to hold a ceremony to ask the other person's name and date of birth to see if the "fate" is suitable.
Naji, to put it bluntly, it is a fortune-telling, that is, the ancients divined good and bad luck for marriage matters; if it is a "good omen" and the birth date is suitable, the matchmaker will be asked to bring gifts to the engagement.
To accept the levy is to give an engagement gift. The ancients said: "A man and a woman will not make friends without a matchmaker, and they will not see each other without a coin." Therefore, collecting money is also called "paying money". Coins are jade or silk fabrics used as engagement gifts by the ancients.
The announcement period is to notify the other party of the date of marriage.
Welcome in person is a requirement for ordinary people. The emperor did not come in person, but sent representatives of "sons and daughters" to go.
On September 14th, the 11th year of Tongzhi, sixteen-year-old Zai Chun got married. According to Li Ciming's "Yuemantang Diary", at around three o'clock in the morning that day, Zaichun's "Yu Baohe Hall" took the auspiciousness of "Guizi Tongsun" and appointed Wu Gui, the Minister of Rites, and Xu Tong, the right minister, as the chief and deputy ministers. Deputy wedding messenger. At around seven o'clock, "I went to the Imperial Palace of Supreme Harmony to receive congratulations from hundreds of officials." Prince Dun and Prince Gong of Fujin, "the sons of Quanhe", were ordered to lead eight married women, carrying gifts, following the messengers, and surrounding them in the guard of honor. Next, "horse a horse out of the Qing Dynasty Gate" and go to the queen's house to marry. The minister, Chonghou Fujin, "opened" the bride's face and used silk thread to remove the hair on her face; Princes Dun and Gong, Fujin, set the bride's makeup and served her in the sedan chair. The wedding procession entered the Daqing Gate and ended at the Jiaotai Hall.
According to the Manchu custom, a curtain is set up on the south Kang of the bridal chamber. After the bride has bowed to heaven and earth, she sits cross-legged on the Kang for a day, which is called "sitting in blessing". Before getting married, the bride must practice "sitting skills"; the day before getting into the sedan chair, she should drink less water and eat less. In the evening, a kang table is placed on the south kang with wine pots and wine glasses. The bride and groom circle the table three times and then drink a glass of wine. Someone outside sings a happy song called "Lakongjia", makes a fuss and sets up rice seedlings, and scatters black beans into the room to "make a wedding ceremony."
Weddings in the Qing palace retained certain Manchu customs. In the East Nuan Pavilion of Kunning Palace, the walls are painted red and candles are burning high. In the north of the pavilion, there is a wedding bed and a throne; under the south window there is a heated kang with a table and wine utensils on it. The newlyweds worship heaven and earth, the longevity star, and the Kitchen God, and drink a glass of wine on the South Kang. Prince Li Fujin "cooks" and cooks glutinous rice balls and Zisun dumplings (in a bowl of small dumplings, there is also a large dumpling wrapped with several small dumplings). Princes Dun and Gong's Fujin brought cooked glutinous rice balls and descendant dumplings to the newlyweds.
There is a poem in "Qing Gong Ci" describing the grand wedding of Emperor Tongzhi Zai Chun: "The wedding was celebrated with great ceremony, King Wu couldn't help but let it go; suddenly it was said that the price of paper was high and expensive, and all the flowers were dressed in colorful clothes to sing thanks." It is said that. At that time, the procession to welcome the bride was lined up from the Meridian Gate to the door of the Queen's house, with hundreds of pairs of palace lanterns and hundreds of "horses" marching in front of the inner prison; the Queen rode a large ceremony carriage with a gold embroidered phoenix on yellow satin, carried by sixteen people. People in the capital, as long as they wear fresh floral clothes, can enter the Meridian Gate to watch the ceremony, and the guards will not stop them. Emperor Tongzhi of the Qing Dynasty Zai Chun got married. According to the final calculation, the total expenditure was more than 20 million taels of silver. Among them, the silk and satin used for "coloring" in the palace amounted to 800,000 taels, worth 100,000 taels of silver. According to the market conditions during the Qianlong period, one tael of silver could be exchanged for eight to nine hundred cash; seven to ten taels of silver could buy an acre of farmland, and twenty-seven to thirty-four five cash could buy one liter of rice. This shows how luxurious the weddings of emperors throughout the ages were.
Dining etiquette with strict hierarchy and complicated etiquette
Under the strict etiquette system, the process of dining and banqueting is very strict and orderly. Taking seats for tea, music playing, banquet opening, banquet banquet, banquets, meals and rewards, etc., are all carried out in a fixed routine. The clear feudal etiquette procedures seem very cumbersome.
According to literature records, the banquet tables, styles, table decorations, snacks, fruit boxes, quantities of group meals, cold meals, hot meals, etc., as well as the shape and name of the tableware used for the palace banquets are strictly regulated and the difference. The emperor used a golden dragon banquet table. On both sides of the emperor's seat, there were head tables, second tables, third tables, etc. The left was superior and the right was inferior. The queen, concubines or princes, Belle, etc. were all seated in order according to their status and status. The emperor took his seat, left his seat, had soup and meal, and drank wine and meal, all with musical accompaniment; the ceremony was very grand and solemn; the etiquette was quite complicated, embodying the "imperial way", "king way" and "official way" of the emperor being respected and his ministers humbled everywhere. ".
In terms of seating arrangement, the emperor’s throne and banquet table are high in the middle of the north and middle of the banquet hall, while the prince, elder brother, concubines, nobles, Mongolian princes, Prince Consort Taiji and others are located there. The grades are listed on the east and west sides of the banquet hall. During the Qianlong Dynasty, those on the east side of the main hall were King Yuxin, the princes, and the Mongolian general Lawang Dorji, and on the west were Prince Zhuang and the princes; Concubine Shu, Concubine Wan, and Guiren Jin were at the east banquet table, and the guest concubines, Concubine Cheng and Gui Lin were seated at the western banquet table.
The tableware and delicacies on the banquet table also vary from person to person. The Manchu nobles had a marriage relationship with the Mongolian nobles before entering the customs. Huang Taiji's five concubines are all Mongolian surnames, and they have the same surname. , are all the ladies of Mongolian noble families. Therefore, at the court banquets of the Qing Dynasty, the Mongolian princes were treated with first-class meals, while the princes and princes were treated with second-class meals. The first-class meals are prepared by the imperial dining room. Each table has a bowl of mutton (minced meat), a bowl of roasted mutton, a bowl of goose, a bowl of milk rice, three plates of meat, a plate of steamed food, a plate of stove food, and snails. A box of two dishes and a bowl of shredded mutton soup. The second-class meals are prepared by the outside dining room, and the variety of dishes is slightly less than the first-class meals. The change in variety is: a bowl of goose is replaced by a bowl of milk rice, and the milk rice is replaced by roe deer meat.
People often say: "Banner people have many etiquettes." This can also be seen in the Qing palace banquets. Everyone attending the banquet knelt down and kowtowed to the emperor to thank the emperor. This was an outstanding example of the complicated etiquette of the Qing palace banquets. As soon as the emperor took his seat, the endless kneeling and kowtow ceremony began. For example, when the emperor hands out tea, everyone should kneel down and kowtow; when the master of ceremonies hands out tea, everyone has to kowtow once; after drinking the tea, everyone has to kneel down and kowtow; when a minister comes to the emperor to toast, he has to kneel down three times and kowtow; other things are like pouring wine, returning to his seat, and finishing drinking. , perform music and dance, etc., all have to kneel and kowtow. After the banquet, everyone will kneel down and thank the emperor for his return to the palace. During the entire banquet, everyone had to kneel thirty-three times and kowtow ninety-nine times. It was like stretching their muscles, exercising their waists, and straining their necks!
Tang Dynasty:
Men's robes The Tang Dynasty was an era of highly developed politics and economy, and prosperity of culture and art in China's feudal society. It was also a milestone in the development of traditional Chinese clothing. . During the Tang Dynasty, men generally wore round-neck robes. Round-neck robes generally had a round collar, a right gusset, and spliced ??edges on the collar, sleeves, and placket. The robes of civilian officials are as long as the bare feet, while the robes of military attachés are slightly shorter than the knees, and the sleeves can be divided into wide and narrow. Robes are widely worn by emperors and officials down to common people, and can be worn at home and at ceremonial banquets.
Women's Mattress Clothing Before the Tang Dynasty, women in Chinese society had always been deeply bound by etiquette. The reform of women's clothing in the Tang Dynasty mainly benefited from the reform of social fashion at that time. The most fashionable dress for women in the Tang Dynasty at that time was: wearing a skirt with half arms, crested silk shoes on their feet, and a flower bun on their head. The mattress skirt is a kind of clothing that is connected to a waist-length super short top and a long skirt, so it is also called a short mattress skirt. The change in the neckline of the short mattress top was the biggest reform and innovation in women's clothing in the Tang Dynasty. In addition to round collar, square collar, slant collar, straight collar, sweetheart collar, there were also exposed collars. Initially, it was mostly worn by imperial concubines and kabuki performers. After its appearance, officials, noble ladies and private women also followed suit and favored it. The top part that is slightly longer than the short skirt and is used as a separate top is called a shirt. It is usually made of light and soft silk. Wearing a blouse with a long skirt underneath was also a very popular costume for women in the Tang Dynasty. There was no need to wear underwear under the shirt, and only a light gauze was used to cover the body. The skin of the upper body was faintly exposed. It was very popular in the late Tang Dynasty. Women in the Tang Dynasty were also very particular about the style, fabric selection and production technology of lower skirts. The long skirts popular in the Tang Dynasty had high waists that covered the breasts and were tied with ribbons under the arms, similar to modern Western women's wedding dresses.