英语专业毕业论文,已毕业10年以此纪念

xxxxxxxxx 大学

外语学院学士学位论文

Analysis on the Development of Chinese Marriage Custom

浅析中国婚俗的发展

姓名xxx

年级:xxx级学号:xxxxx

指导教师姓名和职称:xxxx 讲师

申请学位级别:学士专业名称:英语专业提交论文时间:年月

论文答辩时间:年月

学位授予单位:xxxxx

学位授予日期:_______________

答辩委员会主席:_______________

评阅人:_______________

xxxxxx 外语学院

年月日

浅析中国婚俗的发展

摘要:人的历史,国家的历史,从一定意义上说便是婚姻的历史。无论是在制度意义上还是私人情感生活意义上,它都是家庭的基本单位,从而构成了人类社会。婚姻于人类,其重要性几乎超过了任何一种社会现象。它在受文化深刻影响的同时也全面的反应了社会文化。中国是一个拥有自己文明和悠久历史的国度,因而它具备很多独特的风俗习惯。其中婚俗从古至今历经了多元长期的发展,这一发展从古代复杂的婚礼仪式发展到现代自由的婚礼形式。本文将通过研究中国婚俗的发展来研究中国中国文化的发展状况及未来的发展轨迹。中国是一个多民族国家,本文将会集中探索汉族的婚俗轨迹。本文的目的亦有,人们应当尊重自己的国家的文化传统。

关键词:文化;婚俗;变迁

Analysis on the Development of Chinese Marriage Custom

Abstract:The history of human being and a nation, in some terms, is a history of marriage custom. Because no matter in personal aspect or in institutional aspect, it can act as the foundation stone of family, which is the smallest component part of society. The importance of wedding is beyond any other social phenomenon. It reflects a nation’s culture; meanwhile, it is influenced greatly by culture. China is a country with ancient civilization, a long history and many customs. The wedding custom goes through various and long stages of development from ancient complex ceremony to the modern free marriage custom. This paper will study the development of wedding ceremony in China to find the tendency and actuality of the civilization of the whole society. In China these are many nationalities. This paper will focus on Han nationality’s marriage custom. This paper will also propose that people should respect the civilization of their own nation.

Key words: culture; wedding custom; tendency

Analysis on the Development of Chinese Marriage Custom

Introduction

As a union of man and woman and a family formation stage, marriage includes not only being married but also the culture significance. For example, the main purpose of getting married in China is to continue the male offspring. The so –called “there are three forms of impiety of which the most serious is to have no heir” reflects the importance of serving ancestors and the filial piety virtues in traditional China. It includes not only marriage but also the preparation phase for the marriage and the performance stage after the festivities. It runs through the whole process of life. These customs, as a national symbol and cultural development, plays a very important role in culture and ethnic studies.

I.The Marriage Custom of Feudality

1. The Precondition of Marriage

From Qin to Qing Dynasty, the feudal system dominated over two thousand years. During this period, the significance of getting married was far more important than a person finding his better half. Chinese people once thought that marriage was a way to increase families’ offspring and protect and enhance family’s reputation and position. Thus to c hoose an ideal partner was vital for both the individuals and the families. The two families intending to get married must be equal in social status. What else taken into consideration were wealth and the authority of their families. Marriage would add a g irl of a clan other than one’s own. So the love between the man and woman was not the first condition of marriage. The wealth possession and the social status were taken into consideration to help both the families develop their relation and promote the two families up to a higher social status.

The marriage of the young people was under the control of their parents. They had no freedom in making decision of their own marriage. In the old times, girls almost had no chance to step out of her house, not to mention meeting the suitable boy and fell in love with him. Another reason was, in old China, children must follow their parents’ decision and respect their meaning absolutely. There is an old saying: if the parents are still alive, the children shouldn’t l eave them to seek their future. The filial piety was a moral character of a person. The basic rule of filial piety

was obedience. This traditional marriage custom was influenced deeply by Confucianism. This phenomenon was also caused by the traditional Chinese culture. Under this kind of education, young people naturally had to hand up their own right of deciding their own marriage to their parents.

Concluding the marriage custom in traditional marriage, matchmakers played a pivotal role in marriage from t he very beginning to the end. Only after a matchmaker’s introduction and when parents considered the two families’ condition w as similar and the two could be matched, would the marriage procedures go forward.

2. The Procedures of the Marriage

There were many procedures in Chinese marriage custom. The common one was “three letters and six etiquettes”. The three letters were the betrothal letter; the gift lists letter and the wedding letter. Six etiquettes were proposing, asking the name, asking for fortune, sending betrothal presents to the girl’s family, discussing the date of marriage and meeting the bride.

2.1Proposing

Proposing was the first etiquette in marriage and the first meeting between the two families. If the boy’s parents thought that the girl was suitable, they would ask a matchmaker to send the gifts and brought the two parts together. If the gifts were accepted by the girl’s family, the next etiquette would be followed.

2.2Asking Name

It aims to ask for girl’s name and birthday. In ancient times the girl’s name would not be known by other people until the girl was in an age of marriage. First, the boy’s family must have the matchmaker to inform of the man’s family through a card containing the information of the boy. And then the two families exchanged the two children’s Eight-characters. Thus it can be seen that “asking the name” not only meant that the man’s family wanted to know the girl’s name, but also wrote down the woman’s birthday and Eight-characters (in four pairs denoting the time, date, month and year of a person’s birth, each pair consisting of one Heavenly Stem and one Earthly Branch, used in fortune-telling). If the birthday and Eight-characters would not harm the man, the man’s family would send bride-price to the girl’s family.

2.3 Asking for Fortune

After asking the name, the boy’s side had got the girl’s birthday and Eight-Characters and they

went to consult a fortune-teller, which was called “asking for fortune”. Usually, the fortune-teller would tell whether the marriage is suitable.

2.4 Sending Betrothal Presents to the Girl’s Family

The significance of it includes two aspects of meaning. One is to thank the woman’s parents for feeding her up. The other is to help the woman’s family prepare for dowry.

2.5 Discussing the Date of Marriage

In the past, the bridegroom’s side decided the lucky day and sent the matchmaker to inform of the woman’s family. People paid much attention to the marriage time. They usually had a person looked at the almanac or asked for fortune. They liked having marriage in spring or autumn because spring was the time that everything comes back to life and when spring was changing into summer it was favor to get pregnant with new life; autumn was the season of harvest. After the labor for a year, people had enough money to hold the marriage.

2.6Meeting the Bride

The marriage is finally held after the five procedures. In the past, the bridegroom wore wedding suit, riding on a horse, and guided the bridal sedan chair to marry the bride on the day. And the bride wore a red cheongsam waiting for the bridegroom.

3. The Position of Male and Female after Marriage

Chinese men were hold up as “sky” and women were considered as “earth” in old times. One man could have one wife and several concubines. This decided that women should become an appendage to the men and be subordinate to the family interest. It was also characterized by strong feudal political color. Ancient people regarded female virtues as the most important in the gospel of three obedience that were obedience to one’s father before marriage, obedience to one’s husband after marriage, and obedience to one’s son after the h usband’s death and four virtues: morality, proper speech, modest manner, and diligent work for a woman according to Confucian ethics.In the traditional sexual relations, women were treated as inferior to conform to the moral standard. They were regarded as the accessories of men, they did not have the independent personality, also did not have the independent social position.

4. The End of the Marriage

In traditional Chinese, women had no right to stop a marriage. What a woman could do was doing her best to obey her husband and other family members of her husband. If she “made

mistakes” as follows, she wo uld be quitted by her husband. The so-called “seven rules” were not obedient to the parents or her husband, not having given birth to a baby(especially a boy), having sexual relationship with the men beside her husband , having some incurable diseases , having too much words and stealing things. When a woman infracted one rule of the seven, her husband could write a quit letter and expelled her out of home.

Ⅱ. The Marriage Custom in Republic of China

With the end of the feudal system, the wedding customs experienced some changes. Qing Dynasty was wiped out in 1912, and the Republic of China was founded. The politics, economy and culture were totally different with old feudal society. The wedding customs also changed along with it .

1. The Precondition of Marriage

The government advocated loving and marrying freely. Some advanced culture had influenced the intelligentsia. Under this condition some young intelligentsia had freedom in deciding their marriage. Some advanced western cultures supported this development very much. A few students had the chance to study aboard. They accepted the western education and were deeply influenced by the western freedom conce ption. So they didn’t want to be controlled by their parents or the matchmaker. They believed that love was the foundation of marriage, not the wealth or social status. Among these intelligentsia, the beautiful girl Lin Huiying was a typical example of love and marrying freely. But this kind of freedom was so limited that in most area of China the marriage of young people were still controlled by their parents. Another typical example was the writer Lu Xun, he accepted the advanced culture and conception and was famous for enlightening the young people to fight against the feudal confines and hampers, to struggle for their freedom to pursuit the better life. But he couldn’t escape from bad fortune. He was forced by his mother’s committing suicide to marry a country girl he never met before. The common situation of marriage could be reflected by his position.

2. The Procedures of Marriage

In this period, there were two kinds of wedding customs. Because the development and the spread of advanced civilization were not balanced in every place, and the economic condition was

totally different in various areas, t he wedding customs couldn’t be developed equally. The first was the western style which was applied by some intelligentsia in urban area. The other was traditional wedding customs applied in countryside, which was the same as what people followed in the feudal society.

2.1 Modified Western Marriage Custom

The male and female intending to get married must be above the legitimate age. After both agreed on this marriage, they could choose the date to have an engagement, in which the engagement letter should be written down. After engagement, if one side of the prepared couple wanted to get married, he or she should write a letter to the other one and propose the date. If this letter was accepted and replied, the marriage could continue. After fixing date, the male and female were required to have a medical examination. Only when both of the people were healthy would the marriage go forward. The next procedure was sending invitations to witness introducer and relatives. In the wedding ceremony, the couples wore modified western wedding dresses.

Compared with traditional procedures, these procedures had some development. The first was the female’s parents couldn’t ask for betrothal present or money from male. The second was during these procedures, the young people themselves had some right instead of being totally controlled by their parents. The third was in this period each man was allowed to have only one wife. And the last was the importance of matchmaker was weaker, and was renamed as introducer. This change would help two families recognize more of each other. That's because in old times, some matchmakers distorted the reality of the male and female with the aim to promote more marriages and earn more money.

2.2 The Traditional Marriage Custom

As time went by, wedding customs had experienced various changes, but “six etiquettes” as the basic pattern had not been changed much. It was still essential and core in marriage custom. 2.3 The Position of Male and Female after Marriage

In this period, men and women were more equal in marriage than before, especially in urban areas. Women had the equal social status with men. But in countryside women were still regarded as a tool to give birth to baby and look after her husband and the husband’s parents.

2.4 The End of the Marriage

The freedom of marriage contains two parts. The one is the freedom to get married, the other is

the freedom to end the marriage. Compared with before, in this period people enjoyed more freedom in ending marriage. In old times, the female almost had no right to quit her husband. The freedom of ending the marriage was totally under the control of the male or male’s family. After the divorce law was put into force, the female was offered the right to divorce her husband. But this development was limited, because this law did not offer the right to female as equal as male. Only when the male did not obey the law and was put into prison the female could divorce her husband. This phenomenon reflected that under the influence of traditional moral conception, the government tried to avoid more divorce through this way. And also under this influence, only some intelligentsia and bourgeoisie got a divorce through the law procedures. In most areas, the divorce was still in old fashion, which was the male wrote a quit letter. What we can get from the marriage custom of this period is that the spread of new civilization was weaker in countryside than in urban areas, the economic development was unbalanced; the marriage custom in different areas was different, the common tendency of the wedding custom was simplified in this period, the controlling force of the parents on marriage was weaker than old times and t he female’s social status was higher than before but still below the male’s.

Ⅲ. The Marriage Custom in New China

The thorough development happened only after the found of New China.

1. The Precondition of Marriage

Through long time bondage, young people finally have the freedom to choose their spouse. They tend to have an ideal marriage. Due to the influence of traditional Chinese conception, the condition of an ideal spouse is still in the contradiction of reality and ideal. The phenomenon can reflect that the male and female still take the economic condition and social status into consideration. In 1950s the political condition was the first point taken into account. In 1970s, not only the extinguish political backgrounds but also the knowledge, scholarship, genius, social skill and income were the factors which must be taken into consideration. The traditional marriage was determined by parents’ desire and matchmaker’s introduction. After New China was founded, the number of this kind of marriage shrinks quickly. But in some underdeveloped areas, some marriages are still under the control of parents, the matchmaker still noticeable. In urban areas, the

matchmakers are replaced by leader, classmates and relatives. These introducers play an important role in promoting marriage. Matchmaker agency and media matchmaker are accepted after 1970s. From that time on people can choose their love freely.

2. The Marriage Ceremony

The marriage ceremony in this period becomes manifold. At the beginning of the New China, the bad economic condition of the whole society made people have no choice but to hold simple marriage ceremony. This phenomenon was also caused by the diligent and frugality virtues advocated by government. From 1980s, with the economic development in China, the lifting standard speeds up. V arious marriage ceremonies come forth along with this development. Traveling marriage, simplified marriage, western marriage, traditional marriage and ceremonious marriage exist together.

The development of marriage ceremony can reflect the change of the culture. Simultaneously, the innovation of culture can influence the marriage custom. In the history of New China, there were two big innovations in Chinese society. The first was the “great civilization innovation”. The “innovation” forced people to abandon everything not belong ing to proletariat, the so called “four degenerated things”. The ten-year disaster almost ruined the various marriage cultures. In the ten years, no one was allowed to dress in traditional red wedding dress or western wedding dress. On the contrary, the open and reform policy is a progressive innovation. It helps people to break the bonds shackled by the old tradition and offers a free polity environment to the development of marriage custom. Under the pilot of the opening policy, the marriage customs have become multiplex. Western marriage custom and modified traditional marriage existed harmoniously. The report about the marriage cost in China during 2006 and 2007 shows that the average cost of a couple is 125784 Yuan. Each of 36.83% couples spends 2008 Y uan in affording the modified traditional wedding dresses and western wedding dresses. [邓雅,探究我国汉族女性婚礼服的演变和创新] From this report, a conclusion can be made that the western marriage custom and traditional marriage custom are combined in present marriage. Many couples take marriage photos in western wedding dresses, and then change in modified traditional wedding dresses to welcome the relatives and friends. The pattern is not fixed, couples can change them freely.

3. The Position of the Male and Female after Marriage

The purpose of getting married in this period is not just for having offspring. The male and

female are equal in economic, family and social status. The female are no longer the accessories of the male. The new marriage laws offer male and female the equal position in their marriage life. 4. The End of the Marriage

The new marriage laws are wildly welcomed by people. The male and female are equal in this law. They share the right and responsibility together. After 1949, the quit letter has been extinct, the only legal way is to follow the law.

Conclusion

In all ages, marriage is a n eternal subject; the research on it has never ended. The culture’s development can be reflected by marriage custom. From the marriage custom in ancient time, we may easily find that the traditional culture was just like a coin with two sides. The virtues of traditional Chinese such as filial piety were thoroughly reflected by it, and the shortcoming could also be found, such as people had no freedom in deciding their own marriage and the position of male and female were unequal. Through the innovation of marriage custom after the end of feudal society, what could be discovered was that with the spread of advanced civilization, the freedom of deciding one’s own marriage and the development of female’s position had some delightful development, but the development was limited. Only after the foundation of New China, can people enjoy the freedom of their marriage. They can choose their spouse, decide the marriage ceremony independently. The various marriage customs in nowadays society show that the recent society is free and open. The society develops gradually, the traditional culture and modern culture are combined harmoniously and the tendency of this development will offer us a promising future.

Bibliography

1. 鲍宗豪,婚俗文化:中国婚俗的轨迹【M】广西:桂林广西师范大学出版社,2006

2. 陈鹏,中国婚姻史稿【M】北京:中华书局,2005

3. 盛义,中国婚俗文化【M】上海:上海文艺出版社,1994

4. 吴浩存,中国民俗通志——婚嫁志【M】山东:山东教育出版社,2005 Acknowledgement

I would like to take this opportunity to express my thanks to my tutor Huang Zhiwei, who offers me academic and constructive advice on composing this paper. His patient help and timely encouragement are worthy of high acknowledgment. On the process of composing this paper, he also played an important role in indicating a bright road in my future writing.

At the same time, I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the teachers of the foreign language department. I also want to express my thanks to my parents, friends the readers of this paper.

相关文档
最新文档