Chinese wedding refers to a wedding ceremony held in accordance with traditional Chinese wedding rituals and customs. The complete process of Chinese wedding includes the Three Books and Six Rites. The Three Books are the Letter of Appointment, the Book of Rites, and the Letter of Welcoming the Bride. The Six Rites are the act of accepting gifts, asking for names, offering blessings, inviting the bride to receive the bride. With the changes of the times and the influx of Western wedding systems, currently, the public rarely follows the complete Chinese wedding process when holding weddings, such as asking for names and signing an engagement letter, which will be ignored.
The currently popular forms of Chinese weddings include Zhou style weddings, Ming style weddings, and Tang style weddings, which differ in terms of wedding attire, wedding procedures, and attention to detail.
What are the traditional etiquette systems of Chinese weddings
1. The specific content of the three books
Letter of Appointment: The book used for engagement, which is handed over from the male family to the female family during the "Najib" period.
Book of Rites: A book used during the "excessive gift" ceremony, in which the types and quantities of gifts are detailed.
Wedding Book: A book used when welcoming a bride.
2. The specific content of the Six Rites
Na Cai: also known as "Cai Ze", equivalent to what later generations called "marriage proposal" and "matchmaker". The decision made by the man after careful consideration. In ancient times, the literati class often captured geese as a gift for gathering.
Name inquiry: Refers to a male family inquiring about the name, hour, and eight characters of a female family's daughter. If the female family accepts the male family's proposal, they will hand over the daughter's name, hour, and eight characters to the male family and place them in front of gods or ancestors for divination of good or bad luck. If divination is done, they will decide to marry the daughter of the female family.
Najib: Guo Wending refers to the preliminary agreement of the marriage, similar to the engagement process in Western weddings.
Recruitment: The man hires and delivers the dowry to the woman's home.
Please choose an auspicious day to get married. The male family will choose a auspicious date for marriage, and then prepare a wedding date book and gifts for the female family. After the female family receives the gift and agrees, the wedding date can be determined.
Qinying: also known as welcoming the bride, the groom will go to the bride's house with matchmakers, relatives, and friends to welcome the bride.
View: Chinese Wedding Process Table