Recently, the imitation Song opera "Crane And Hua Ting" is being broadcast, which not only gathers a number of handsome men and women such as Luo Jin and Li Yitong, but also admires the aesthetics adopted from the plot to the costumes to the whole play. The prince Xiao Dingquan in the play is not favored, always suffers from his father's suspicions, and secretly has the King of Qi tripping himself up. Obviously, he is an adult but he has not even held the crowning ceremony, and when it is difficult to hold the crowning ceremony, he has made a mistake again, which can be described as the most miserable prince in history.
Then again, what are the steps of the ancient crowning ceremony that indicates adulthood? How is it all held? So why did the ancient emperors attach so much importance to the crowning ceremony?
The crowning ceremony is the crown ceremony, which is a kind of ancient Jiali. Jiali originated in the Western Zhou Dynasty and is part of the Western Friday Ritual, which is mainly a ritual system that enhances interpersonal relations and promotes good feelings between people. The main ceremonies are the village drinking ceremony, the crown ceremony (including the man's crown ceremony and the woman's ceremony), the guest shooting ceremony, the swallow feast ceremony, the shy ceremony and the celebration ceremony. From the ceremonial ceremony of honoring the virtuous and respecting the elders to the coming-of-age ceremony of men and women who can be used for marriage and marriage, from the basic etiquette that should be possessed when holding sacrifices and meeting the Son of Heaven, to the ceremony of feasting and entertaining guests from all over the world, as well as the gift of the Son of Heaven to his subordinates and the gift of celebration of the occasion of happy and happy things, all of them reflect the wide range of the ceremony and the complexity of the design content.
Men must be 20 years old to hold the crown ceremony, of course, those princes who want to hold great power, if because of the situation, they can hold the crown ceremony in advance. Of course, you still have to be a Han Chinese, not ethnic discrimination, because other ethnic groups did not have this kind of ceremony at that time, and the crowning ceremony was only a long-standing tradition in the Han nationality. With these two prerequisites, congratulations, you can be crowned.
As a kind of ceremony, the steps of the crown ceremony are very cumbersome and complicated. The crown ceremony is generally selected to be carried out in the Jongmyo Temple, and as early as before the crown ceremony is held, the day of the ceremony is to use the ceremony to select a good date, and the precept is to tell the guests in advance the date of the guests who want to come to the ceremony, but also to carry out the ceremony and the guest, the suzan, and also use the method of the ceremony, the main guest of the crown ceremony is crowned, and a special ordination is to be carried out, and then it is necessary to inform the guests at a more accurate time on the day before the crown ceremony, which is the duration.
The crowned person must also wear clothes specific to the crown ceremony, not only at the time of the crown, but also before the crown ceremony.
According to the "Ceremonial Ceremony of the Crown of The Priests", the crowned person should wear a robe and a silk robe at the beginning, and before the crown, he should wear a silk and a silk robe, and there are three additions for the crowned person, followed by Xuanduan, Leather Benfu and Knight Benfu. These costumes have different colors, different shapes, and different meanings.
In fact, according to the status of the crowned person, the crown dress worn is also different, and there is obviously a clear crown dress system. It is recorded in the "Great Dai Li": "The crown of the gong is four plus, the three are the same soldiers, and then the crown is added." The Son of Heaven is also added four times, and then crowned. Later, the Tianzi of the Han Dynasty was changed to Guansijia.
Those who are crowned shall be crowned in turn, such as Xuanduan, Leather Benfu and Knight's Benfu. After each crowning, the guest of honor will read a congratulatory message to the crowned person to bless the crowned person's adulthood. In the ancient book "Liturgy. There is a record of congratulatory words in the Ceremony of the Crown:
"Shi Jia (crown) blessed: 'Ling Yue Auspicious Day, Shi Jia Yuan Fu, Ren Er Young Character, Shun Er Chengde.' Shou Kao Wei Qi, Jie Er Jingfu. Then he added: "Ji Yue Lingchen, Naishen Erfu, Jing Erweiyi, Shushen Erde." Long life, forever blessed by Hu. The Three Adders: "With the righteousness of the year, with the decree of the moon." Salty Gard. Brothers are there, to become virtuous, huang lao boundless, blessed by heaven. ”
The rhetoric is roughly a blessing on the successful journey after the crowned person reaches adulthood. After the crowning is completed, he first meets the mother who gave birth to him, and then the chief guest takes the word for him, for example, the poet Li Bai is also called Li Taibai, and Taibai may be the word taken by the chief guest when he is crowned. The owner of the crowned person (usually his father) then goes to pray at the incense table in the ancestral hall, tells the ancestors that his son has been crowned as an adult, and then rewards the guests with coins or courtesy. In the end, the crowned person came out to meet the old father and friend of the township. However, when performing the salute, it is also necessary to remember a series of criteria such as the left hand pressing the right hand.
As for why the imperial family attaches so much importance to the crown ceremony, in fact, it is not the monarch who attaches importance to this, almost some people of prestige and family attach great importance to the crown ceremony.
First of all, the crown ceremony means that a man grows up to be an adult, and from then on he can marry and start a family, and a series of social activities, which are recorded in the "Left Biography": "The monarch has fifteen and has children." Crown and give birth to children, Reiye, Jun can crown! Doctor's Cup for a crown? It is also recorded in the "White Tiger Pass" that "a man is young, and he must be crowned when he marries." In this way, it seems that starting a family after the crown ceremony is a kind of "etiquette" advocated.
The second is that after the crown ceremony, after the crowned person reaches adulthood, he is regarded as the "Ding" in the family, and the taxpayer Ding tax in ancient China has been popular for many years, and since the Qing government implemented the "spreading the Ding into the mu" and the further improvement and development of the tax system during the Kangxi Emperor period of "breeding people Ding never added", it can be regarded as abolishing the Ding tax. Before the abolition of the human tax, after the crown ceremony, the state will collect taxes on the adult man, so from the perspective of state revenue, the crown ceremony is indeed important.
Another point is that for the royal family, the crown ceremony is also of great significance. Why is Prince Xiao Dingquan so obsessed with the crown ceremony in "Crane And Hua Ting"? In fact, there is evidence. Because the crown prince has the right to participate in important decisions after the crown ceremony, it is equivalent to half a foot stepping on the throne of the dragon chair.
However, if the crown prince has not performed the crown ceremony after he has reached adulthood, he has no pro-government power. For example, the crown prince of the Ming Dynasty, the Ming Huidian records: "The crown prince, the emperor's grandson, the twelfth or fifteenth year of the crown." "Then why did the crown prince and grandson of the Ming Dynasty crown the crown so early?" Depending on the degree of approval of the husband, the early crown ceremony shows that the heir to the emperor is satisfied, and after the emperor's death, he is the rightful successor. It is no wonder that Xiao Dingquan attaches so much importance to the crown ceremony, and the crown ceremony shows that his father recognizes himself.
However, Xiao Dingquan's crown was indeed not easy, because his father was always wary of him, afraid that he would seek power and usurp the throne. In history, it is not uncommon for a prince like him to be so miserable, and Emperor Mingguangzong Zhu Changluo was also so blessed when he was the prince, and he did not have a crown ceremony at the age of 19. The mother was not favored by her father, and the Ming Shen Sect was still bent on letting Zheng Guifei's children succeed her, and later Zhu Changluo died less than a month after becoming emperor.
In fact, reincarnation is sometimes really a lucky job, you see some people easily get a huge crown gift, some people are poor all their lives to get the approval of their fathers, but unfortunately even the crown ceremony is also a perfunctory father.
Text: Rachel
References: MinghuiDian, Liturgy. Shi GuanLi", "White Tiger Pass", "Left Transmission"
The text was created by the History University Hall team, and the picture originated from the Internet and the copyright belongs to the original author