Women and the Traditional Chinese Wedding Customs: A Critical Study Based on Late Imperial Gazetteers
Resource
臺大中文學報, 26, 191-240
Journal
臺大中文學報
Journal Issue
26
Pages
191-240
Date Issued
2007-06
Date
2007-06
Author(s)
Peng, M.L.
Abstract
From the mid-Ming to the Qing Dynasty, there emerged a wide array of local histories or gazetteers (fangzhi) which recorded various facets of town and city life in late imperial China. These gazetteers often have a section called “fengsu men,” which is devoted to the subject of customs and contains rich information about the practice, in various localities, of the four major traditional Chinese ceremonies: guan (initiation into adulthood), hun (wedding), sang (funeral), and ji (ancestor worship). The fengsu men of the gazetter was therefore considered an important source for the imperial officials to gain knowledge aobut local customs. Focusing on wedding customs and ceremonies, this paper uses the records of fangzhi to study issues that were often faced by the bride in late imperial China. It aims not only to reveal the bride’s physical and emotional transformation over the related processes, but also to explore the convergence and divergence between the classical teachings of the Confucian literati and the actual realities of local folklife. From the records of fangzhi we may uncover a range of issues which shed great light on women’s situations in traditional Chinese marriage and wedding customs. Most noticeable among them are issues related to the custom of drowning baby girls to avoid later wedding cost, the practice of tongyang xi (wife brought up since childhood in the husband’s fmaily) in order to continue the family line, marriage between older women and younger men, and uxorilocal marriage (zhaozhui hun). Furthermore, the gazetteers show that in traditional wedding, the bride, being the focal point of attention, undergoes many ceremonial customs and activities which symbolize the change of her roles in the family and society. These include: the gathering of the bride’s female friends to bid farewell on the eve of the wedding; the bride weeping before the wedding to convey sadness for leaving her birth family; the possible absence of the groom in the procession from his house to obtain the bride; using various types of props and ceremonies to either bless the couple or inform them what is forbidden, both during the procession to the groom’s house and after arriving. In addition, there are some other customs which might appear exotic to the modern eye, such as keeping the bride sitting alone in the couple’s bedroom in order to cultivate her dispositions and patience; family members and friends playing jokes and teasing the couple in their bedroom on the wedding night; examining whether the bride is a virgin; and testing the bride’s cooking and sewing skills. Needless to say, all these customs and activities are grueling tests for the bride. Arnold Van Gennep has interpreted such practices as “rites of passage.” For the bride in traditional Chinese society, however, they mean more than just rites of passage. Indeed they have multiple bearings on the bride’s physical and emotional states, as well as on her life as a whole.
Subjects
方志
婚禮
婦女
新娘
Fangzhi
Gazetteer
Wedding
Women
Bride
Type
journal article
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