CHINESE MORALITY & SACRAMENTS
The entire structure of the ancient CHINESE society was based on morality . We can , like INDIAN society , use to see an honorable stratification in the CHINESE society . For example , the elder brother was called HIM-UNG and elder sister was called RJU in the CHINESE society . Similarly , the younger brother was called TI and the younger sister was ME ; the uncle was called SHU and aunt was called SHU-MU ; the father’s sister was called KU and her husband was called KU-FU ; the cousin was called TANG-HIS-UNG-TI and the cousin sister was called TANG-RJU-ME . Since the entire ancient CHINESE society was based on morality , they used to give importance on virtues in the CHINESE day today life . As SOCRATES , the ancient GREEK Philosopher, used to call ‘ the virtue is knowledge ‘, the CHINESE people believed in the fact that without viruses there was no place of morality in the society . So , there existed a set of rules for both—morality and virtues since long in the ancient CHINESE society . There were five-fold rules for morality and they were called YU-CHANG . And they were as follows : 1. JEN ( CHARITY/PHILANTHROPY ) ; 2. YE ( JUSTICE ) ; 3. LEE ( BEHAVIOR ) ; 4. CHIH ( WISDOM ) ; and 5. HISAN ( CONFIDENT ) . Similarly , the ancient CHINESE society believed in four types of duties towards the society which were called RAJUHIYENG . They were as follows : 1. HIS-AAB ( DEVOTION TO PARENTS ) ; 2. TI ( LOVE FOR BROTHERS ) ; 3. CHUNG ( NATIONALISM ) ; and 4. HISANG ( BEHAVIOR ) . Thus , the ancient CHINESE society was believed to be based on four pious pillars . They were as follows : 1. LEE ( BEHAVIOR ) ; 2. YE ( JUSTICE ) ; 3. SYU ( HONESTY ) ; CHIH ( WISDOM ) . And all these pillars gave the CHINESE society a short of firm stability as such .
CHINA was a country of sacraments and festivity . There existed , at least , three hundreds SACRAMENTS and more than three thousands of rites and rituals in the ancient CHINESE society . In the HINDU society in INDIA there exists 16 types of SACRAMENTS and numerous rites and rituals extending from one region to others . Likewise, the ancient CHINESE society adopted numerous rites and rituals regarding marriages , regarding dead body and regarding various festivals as such . The marriage in the CHINESE society was considered as the most important sacraments and it had six steps between the engagement and the actual marriage . They were as follows : 1. NA-TSHA ( EDUCATING THE BOY REGARDING MARRIAGE ) ; 2. VEN MING (ASKING THE NAME OF GIRL)* ; 3. NA-CHI ( RITUALS REGARDING ENGAGEMENT ) ; 4. CHING-CHI ( FIXING THE DATE OF MARRIAGE ) ; 5. NA-CHING ( RITUALS OF DOWRY/OF PROVIDING CLOTHES , POTS OF DIFFERENT TYPES AND JEWELRY ) ; and 6. CHIN-THING ( BRINGING BRIDE AT HOME ) . All these sacraments were strictly followed by the people in the ancient CHINESE society . Even after marriage many sacraments were also followed which to a considerable extent resembled to that of the ancient INDIAN society . The rituals of MUHDEKHAI ( SEEING THE FACE OF THE BRIDE BY THE MEMBERS AND RELATIVES OF THE FAMILY BY DONATING A FEW AMOUNT OF MONEY ) ; Acquaintance of the bride with the other family members ; giving feast to the members of their own community men from both sides etc….. For one month the bride was not allowed to take part in the household works ( in case of INDIA it is one month seven days which may varies from region to region ) . Then the bride was allowed to go to her maternal place for three days . And when she returned she , now , had to take over her household works as such . All these marriages were concluded traditionally by their parents of both the sides . But the old system of marriages in CHINA is , now , crumbling down . Instead they , now, prefer TYO-TUAN CHEH-HUAN , means collective marriages especially in big cities of CHINA as such .
The sacraments of the dead body was an important rituals that was being followed by the ancient CHINESE people . They had belief that as the parents had duties towards their children in the lifetime , so was the duties of their children after the death of their father or mother . So , the responsibility lies on the children of the dead in a prohibited forms ; as the successors were not allowed to shave for total hundred days . They were also prohibited to drink wine , eat meat and traveling far . They used to wear white clothes , an especial caps and sitting near the dead body . The kith and kin were informed to pay condolences to the dead body by offering flowers on it . As per the CHINESE tradition , the dead body was put into the grave . As per rituals , the dead body was rinsed by the family members and the dead body was get dressed with new silk clothes . Then it was kept in the dead body casket , and that casket was kept in a big room of the house where people used to pay their homages . After three days , the casket was sealed and the name , date of birth and date of death of the dead man/woman , written on wooden plate , was fixed on that casket . And after forty nine days that casket was gravened in a place ( graveyard ) pre-decided for such ceremony . BAUDH BHIKHUS ( BAUDH PRIEST ) and TAO PRIEST used to accompanied such dead body’s journey with other members of the family and relatives . This type of procession could be seen till the dead body’s casket reached the graveyard as such . So , the entire ceremony was celebrated as a festival or so .
NOTE : THE SOURCES OF THE BLOG ARE TEXT BOOKS AND OTHER WRITTEN MATERIALS ON THE SUBJECT .
TO BE CONTINUED ……………….
*TRADITON DIDN’T ALLOW TO KNOW THE NAME OF THE GIRL , WHO WAS GOING TO BE MARRIED , EARLY .
ARBIND KUMAR BLOG 