The six etiquettes refer to receiving gifts, asking for names, accepting gifts, accepting invitations, asking for dates, and personally welcoming.
Six Rites, the traditional marriage rituals of the Han people. Refers to the six etiquettes in the process from marriage proposal to consummation. Namely: nacai, ask for name, naji, nazheng, ask for an appointment, personally welcome. The details are as follows:
Nacai: The man's family invites a matchmaker to the woman's family to propose marriage. After the woman's family agrees to discuss marriage, the man's family prepares gifts and goes to propose marriage.
Name question: The groom’s family asks a matchmaker to ask for the woman’s name and date of birth.
Najib: After the man retrieves the woman’s name and horoscope, he performs divination in the ancestral temple.
Nazheng: Also known as Nabi, the man’s family gives betrothal gifts to the woman’s family.
Requesting date: The groom’s family chooses a wedding date, prepares a gift and informs the bride’s family, and asks for their approval.
Personal Wedding: One or two days before the wedding, the woman sends her dowry and makes the bed, and the next day the groom comes to the woman’s home to marry her.
Ancient records of the six rites
The six rites are the traditional wedding rituals of the Han people. The ancient book "Book of Rites·Evening Ceremony" contains: "Those who do the evening ceremony will have the best of the two surnames. To serve the ancestral temple, it is to be passed down to the descendants, so the gentleman pays great attention to it, asking for names, accepting gifts, accepting invitations, and asking for appointments. The host has a banquet in the temple, and greets him outside the door before entering. , bow to the emperor and rise up, obey the orders of the temple, so be respectful and cautious. "In addition, "Yili" says: "There are six rites in the evening, including receiving gifts, asking for names, accepting gifts, asking for appointments, and personally welcoming. "This is the traditional custom of "Six Rites of Marriage" that was created in the Western Zhou Dynasty and followed by all dynasties.
"Six Rites" refers to the six etiquettes, which refer to the entire marriage process from proposal to marriage. As the proverb goes: "If there are no clouds in the sky, it will not rain; if there is no matchmaker underground, there will be no marriage." Another "Meng Liang Lu." Volume 20: "The god of marriage depends on the matchmaker first." Therefore, the matchmaker is an indispensable and important figure in concluding a marriage.
Among the six rites, acceptance and welcome are the most important. "The Book of Songs, Daya, and Ming Dynasty": "Wen Dingjue was auspicious, and she personally welcomed her to Weibin." The old saying is that after King Wen of Zhou received auspicious signs and accepted the engagement, he personally welcomed his concubine to Weibin. Later generations used "Wen Ding" as a proxy for engagement. "Book of Rites: Hunyi" talks about the bride and groom "eating when they are in prison, and eating when they are married" after the wedding. This is where the marriage of couples in later generations became "Hexin".
Reference for the above content: Baidu Encyclopedia-Six Rites