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| The Basic Paradigm of the Main Structures of Wedding Ceremony: With a Focus on “Three Rituals” |
| Guan Changlong, Tian Chen |
| Institute of Ancient Books, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China |
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Abstract The ritual structure is, as it were, a “gene arrangement” of ceremonies. Among the four rites of life represented by the capping ceremony, wedding ceremony, funeral ceremony and sacrificial ceremony, wedding is the only ceremony performed by the subjects “themselves”. As is recorded in The Book of Rites: Capping Ceremony, “Capping Ceremony is the first of all rites”. Capping Ceremony is a ceremony of initiation, which indicates that the bridegroom and bride have the right and obligation to practice rites independently. The “Three Rituals” in the traditional Chinese culture include the Ceremonial Etiquette, Rites of Zhou and Book of Rites, which are the document sources of the Chinese traditional etiquette. The above three classics contain detailed records on the basic wedding ceremony, and the structure of the “six rites” of marriage, which have influenced China for more than 2,000 years, was the first to be recorded in these three classics. From a structural point of view, among the “six rites” of traditional marriage, “nacai” (presenting betrothal gifts), “wenming” (asking for the bride-to-be’s name and birthday), “naji” (engagement upon approval of the lady’s family on propitious signs obtained through divining by the bridegroom’s family according to birthdays), “nazheng” (presentation of betrothal gifts to the bride’s family), and “qingqi” (agreement between the bride’s and bridegroom’s families on the date of the wedding) are considered to be pre-liminal rites of separation. “Welcoming the bride” is regarded as a liminal rite while the woman ceremony and son-in-law ceremony are post-liminal rites. These rites are presented as complex ceremonies in the distinctively different ancient and modern practices. Among them, the liminal bride-welcoming ceremony boasts the richest ritual structure.From the perspective of the subjects’ performance, the ritual structure of the bride-welcoming ceremony can be divided into five spatial nodes: home, court, door, carriage, road, of which “home” is composed of three concrete spatial nodes, including the room, hall and temple. The bridegroom and bride shall perform a corresponding ceremony when entering and leaving each of these nodes. The performance of these ceremonies also has hidden ritual meanings. For instance, “family room” implies a good conjugal relation; “family hall” implies closeness to parents; “family temple” implies worship to the ancestors; “court and door” imply courteous treatment of the guests; “carriage and road” imply courteous treatment of all things. The ritual arrangement of spatial nodes can be called the ritual structure. The corresponding ritual expression is composed of the ceremonial nodes adopted or encountered by the subjects when passing by each node, including the ritual vessels and music that interact with each ritual node to present the ritual meanings. This complete closed transition of “sacred space and time”, formed by the new couple walking out of the room in elegant attire, entering the bridal chamber for sharing the nuptial cup and taking off their clothes to sleep together, can be called a ritual structure.“Sacred space and time” is constructed for the bride-welcoming ceremony by the bridegroom and bride by going to and from the above five nodes. Also, in this sacred space and time, the bridegroom and bride perform a ceremony to communicate and integrate with each other, with both parents, with the ancestors, with heaven, with earth and with other people to achieve the wedding goals including “younger generation succession”, “two-surname harmony” and “ancestor worship”. In this process, the hidden deep ritual identification and the apparent ritual expression jointly construct the basic paradigm of the traditional wedding ceremony structure.The understanding of this paradigm can not only be enriched and perfected in a comparison between the distinctively total ancient and modern wedding ceremony structures, but also echo and blend with the ritual structure of “sacred space and time” in the capping ceremony, funeral ceremony and sacrificial ceremony, which are three of the four rites of life, thereby providing a modifiable template resource for understanding China’s traditional life ceremony and rebuilding the ritual life today.
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Received: 13 September 2020
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2021, Vol. 51 
