Why Chinese Rings Have Not Become Popular Customs?

On the wedding banquet in contemporary China, the bride and bridegroom wear one for each other. Ring As a token of marriage, it is already an indispensable part. However, this program originally belonged to the western wedding held in the solemn chapel. Moving it to the lively wedding banquet of our Chinese people can only be regarded as a product of the combination of Chinese and Western cultures. And when we uncover the history of Chinese rings, we find other interesting stories.

　　 Ring, fair and aboveboard love

Rings have a long history in the West. According to legend, the pharaohs of ancient Egypt liked to carry the seal of their power on their bodies at any time, but it was very troublesome to hold them in their hands. So a clever servant made a circle, so that he could put the seal on his fingers, probably in the thirty-second Century B.C. More than 20 centuries later, until the time of ancient Rome, officials wore the seal rings engraved with portraits as symbols of power. And rings have long been a function of dating in the West. In the eighth Century B.C., the Romans believed that the wedding ring should be worn on the third finger of the left hand, because there was a blood vessel through the finger to the heart. Regardless of whether these claims have textual support, married women in Pompeii murals in ancient Rome have worn rings on the ring finger.

Chinese people's love token: the ancient Chinese people took the ring as a token of love, and they used to use more private and romantic things, such as red leaves. In the deep palace, the maid in a deep red leaf wrote poems and sent the leaves to the world.

In the west, rings have become a common use. Ornament It is also related to its initial use - printing. It is said that the princes and ministers feel that the pharaohs' seal rings are pretty good and follow suit, and then they gradually become women's accessories. Later, the Greeks improved on the basis of the Egyptian rings, and chose gold gemstones to make beautiful designs. pattern This exquisite jewellery soon became popular.

Some scholars have explored the reasons from the perspective of marriage and love culture. Just like Westerners will never easily take off the wedding ring on their fingers. If the love and marriage function of the ring that was introduced into the Central Plains in Wei and Jin Dynasties has been popularized, I believe that the Chinese people who have such exquisite jewelry processing skills will create an equally colorful ring landscape. However, this "vulgar custom" did not blend into the Central Plains culture like Hu Hu and Hu Le and other Western culture, and developed into a continuation of marriage customs. Because in ancient China, it had no roots to germinate.

Love me and put on a ring for me. When a man sends out a carefully chosen ring to the girl, it means to marry to her: the symbolic meaning of the ring for love and marriage has become a commonly accepted concept in today's society. When it is put on it, the two husband and wife will faithfully abide by the engagement in their whole life. The picture shows a touching scene under the ring gate of the United States Naval Academy.

Let's take a look at the story of the Tang Dynasty. According to legend, there was a scholar named Yu You in Tang Dynasty who picked up a red leaf floating from the palace wall beside the Royal River outside the imperial city. Courtesy of the red leaves, good to the world. Yu Youru got the most valuable treasure and picked up a fallen leaf. He returned two poems: "once I heard the red and bitter questions on the leaves, who sent them to the river?" Yu Yu finally married the maid who wrote poetry, which was passed on as an eternal saying. This red leaf has become the token of love between a scholar and a woman. In traditional Chinese culture, the love between young men and women is either romantic red leaves or red beans, or jade and sachets on hand. Once handed over to the other hand, this ordinary article is no longer commonplace. If there is a cut of green silk in the sachet, it is the pledge that is the most consistent in life.

However, young men and women in ancient China seldom had the opportunity to express their love directly. There is a poem in the Book of Songs, Feng Feng, VAI Ke, "how does" Ke Ke "? How can I get my wife? It means that if you want to get married, you can't marry without a matchmaker. In the ancient etiquette book "ritual", the marriage process has been clearly stipulated, that is, "six courtesies": Nai Cai, asking names, Naji, Nanzheng, invitation period and pro Ying. Each of them requires the middleman to complete and does not give the newly married men and women a chance to meet directly. In traditional Chinese culture, marriage is not a private affair between men and women. It is a matter of family and clan. The important "token" that men and women want to exchange is marriage and betrothal gifts. It is precisely because of such a strong and stubborn marriage etiquette that ancient people have always been obscurity and unpublicized about love. Even men and women are in love with each other. They are also very private matters. Those who wear intimate jade pouches, purse strings and silk handkerchiefs as a token of love are connected with a couple of lovers' stories. We can only see in the drama. These stories can be said to be ancient Chinese yearning for free love life for men and women, and also helpless for the marital status in real life. According to Mr. Huang Zhengjian, "the link between the ring and marriage is based on the free association and free love between men and women. As long as the ancient Chinese society did not allow free love between men and women, the use of rings with the meaning of engagement would not develop if the ancient Chinese marriage system did not fundamentally change." therefore, "rings belong to foreign cultural categories in the final analysis and can not enter the mainstream of Chinese traditional culture".

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Until modern times, the concept of free love entered China with the surging westerly wind. The western marriage form and marriage culture influenced the Chinese people. The cathedral wedding and the procedure of wearing a sacred ring under the auspices of the priest to show the lifelong love and mutual dependence attracted the eyes of the Chinese. The ring, the exquisite gold and stone ornament, has replaced jade ornaments and sachets, and has gradually become the pledge of Chinese people's aboveboard love and marriage.

So why does the Chinese ring, which has thousands of years of history, not develop into a common custom of decoration? We have opened a huge China. Clothes & Accessories History, "it seems, only the primitive rings of primitive bones such as bone, stone and keratin in the primitive period are most striking. Together with many ancient ornaments, they reflect the wisdom of ancient humans. Since then, the most colorful chapter in the history of Chinese clothing has belonged to women's headwear and men's adornment. Since the Qin and Han Dynasties, women's heads have been decorated with ornaments. For example, the famous "stepping rocking" headwear is made of gold jade and other jewellery, such as Phoenix, peacock, and so on. It is decorated in tall jagons, allowing women to get gold and colorful in every row. But since ancient times, there has been a gift of "gentlemen will wear jade". As the ring of Chinese traditional ornaments, the history of the ring is much thinner. Perhaps it is because of the beautiful headdress and elegant jade, the Chinese have neglected the ring decoration on the fingers under the big sleeves and deep clothes. In addition, if the records of the five classics of the Han Dynasty are indeed recorded, the ring has always had the special significance of avoiding the emperor's luck, so wearing a ring is indeed a matter of caution and will not become a popular dress custom.