📜The universe of etiquette: looking at the living inheritance of the Chinese etiquette system from the perspective of Spring Festival folk customs
The vivid carrier that embodies the succession of Chinese civilization is the traditional Chinese festivals, in which every ritual and folk custom is deeply rooted in the place where the ancient civilization system of rituals and music is located. Take the Spring Festival as an example. Customs such as cleaning before the festival, offering sacrifices to ancestors, paying New Year greetings to elders, and following the order of elders and younger ones are actually the modern echoes of the "Sacrifice Rites to teach respect and the Yang Rites to teach giving" in the "Li" of Zhou. This sense of order from the inside out not only maintains family ethics, but also continues the Chinese nation’s cultural gene of “respecting heaven and ancestors”, allowing the thousand-year-old ritual system to radiate eternal vitality in daily practice.
🏮Vientiane Update: Philosophical Implications and Life Awareness in Folk Culture
When walking in Chinatown, you can see flying dragon lanterns and hanging colorful lanterns. On the surface, these lights appear to be festive entertainment, but inside they actually carry the profound philosophy of yin and yang and the idea of the unity of nature and man. The purpose of the "noisy" displayed during the Spring Festival is to drive out the yin energy of winter, so as to welcome the yang and harmony energy of spring; during the Lantern Festival, viewing lanterns has the implicit meaning of igniting the lantern of the heart, and then illuminating the way to eliminate ignorance. Such a kind of wisdom that perfectly integrates natural rhythms with humanistic spirit is actually the essence of Chinese folk customs that is different from simple entertainment activities. Every folk activity seems very simple. It is the understanding of the laws of the universe by the ancestors and the adaptation of the laws of the universe by the ancestors. It is also the specialized practice of "Tao" in daily life.
🥟The beauty of neutrality: utensil civilization and philosophy of life in seasonal diet
Making rice dumplings during the Dragon Boat Festival and making dumplings during the Spring Festival. The food during these seasons is by no means just to satisfy the appetite. Take dumplings as an example. They are shaped like ingots and have the meaning of attracting wealth. Its fillings include a variety of things, which can embody the principle of "harmony without difference". In the process of making dumplings, every step of kneading the dough, rolling out the dough, making dumplings, and shaping them contains the profound philosophy of "governing a big country is like cooking small delicacies." As for the rice dumpling, the glutinous rice is wrapped with Ruo leaves and tied with silk thread on the outside. It is a symbol that means "both internal and external aspects have reached the level of excellence": internally it shows a state of unity and cohesion, and externally it reflects a standardized and orderly appearance. This is exactly the wisdom of survival that enables Chinese civilization to continue uninterrupted.
🌊Family , country and world: the historical memory and humanistic spirit behind the Dragon Boat Festival customs
The dragon boat race reflects the people's eagerness to save the sages. Throwing rice dumplings into the water is an act of offering sacrifices and offerings to loyal souls. Such a collective memory that closely links an individual's destiny with the rise and fall of his family and country has shaped the Chinese nation's humanistic character of "Everyone is responsible for the rise and fall of the world."
📚Long context: The festival system serves as a living inheritance carrier of Chinese classics
From "Xia Xiaozheng" recording the beginning of phenology, to "Book of Rites: Monthly Orders" stipulating the emperor's monthly decrees; from "Jingchu Suishiji" describing the folk customs of the Southern and Northern Dynasties; and then to "Tokyo Menghua Lu" recalling the festivals of the Song Dynasty - a history of the development of festivals is half the history of Chinese civilization. The Dragon Boat Festival began as a way to ward off disasters and ward off evil spirits, then was used to commemorate Qu Yuan in the Han Dynasty, and then was incorporated into stories such as Wu Zixu and Cao E in later generations. This evolution process just proves the innovative ability of Chinese culture to "new every day, every day". The festival system is like an extremely large-scale cultural container, constantly absorbing and accepting elements of the new era, but it has always maintained the cultural determination of "Although the Zhou Dynasty is an old country, its destiny is renewed."
🏛️Elegance is here: the contemporary construction of the orthodoxy of Chinese cultural context by traditional festivals
In today's situation where the wave of globalization is sweeping across the country, traditional festivals have become an important symbol to confirm cultural identity and clearly demonstrate cultural confidence. When we completely follow the set of Spring Festival etiquette such as worshiping the stove, keeping the year old, paying New Year greetings, breaking the fifth day, and Lantern Festival, we are actually continuing to write the contemporary chapter of the "Land of Etiquette" in this way. Every detail in the festival, there are contrasts between flat and oblique aspects in the Spring Festival couplets, there are rules for placing sacrifices, and New Year greetings include the order of elders and younger ones. These are all embodied cognitions of the cultural concept of "Chinese clothes and crowns." This sense of identity derived from life practice can better build a sense of national community than abstract preaching.
After taking a comprehensive look at the Chinese traditional festival system, the first thing that catches the eye is not only the way of marking time and the presentation and display of folk customs, but also an aggregated and condensed thing called the "history of the etiquette system". There is also a vivid book on philosophical practice that can be used as a teaching material. From bidding farewell to the old year and welcoming the new year during the Spring Festival, to commemorating the ancestors at the Dragon Boat Festival, from remembering the past carefully during the Qingming Festival, to family reunion during the Mid-Autumn Festival, each festival uses its own unique way to inherit the core value of "benevolence, justice, etiquette, wisdom and trust" and strengthen the national identity of "one family from all over the world". It is this kind of cultural inheritance with rituals, roots, and reason that ensures that the Chinese civilization has gone through five thousand years of ups and downs, its cultural context continues, and its fire is passed down forever.
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