Category: Proprieties and Customs

Ancient Huaxia nation respected proprieties very much. So the Central Nation was called “The Nation of Proprieties and Righteousness” in ancient times. There are three important works about Huaxia’s proprieties: Zhou’s Systems (周禮), Rites and Proprieties (儀禮), and Records of Proprieties (禮記). “Zhou Systems” is also called “Zhou’s Officials” (周官) or “the Classic of Zhou’s…

The tribes who were led by Yan-Di and Huang-Di gave the Huaxia nation a body, and the Zhou Dynasty gave the Huaxia nation a soul. The founders of the Zhou Dynasty established a series of systems and rites for the whole society. Many systems and rites had military colors, because the Huaxia nation was a…

Before the Song Dynasty (AD 960-1279), Chinese people generally didn’t sit in chairs. They put a mat or a cushion on the ground, and sat with kneeling. Ancient Chinese people had many proprieties of sitting. The normal sitting posture was kneeling-sitting before chairs were popular. Not only ministers and common people, but also emperors, kings…

The ceremonies of Guan (冠) and Ji (笄) were the grown-up ceremonies of young men and women in ancient times. Guan was a kind of ancient Chinese cap for a man. Ji was a hairpin for fastening the hair for a woman. The chapter “Meaning of Guan” (冠义) in the book “Records of Proprieties” (礼记)…