Five Classics‎ > ‎THE I-LI‎ > ‎


1. Sending the Present. 

(a) In making known his intentions to the father of the girl, the father of the young man sends a wild goose. 

(b) The girl's father spreads a mat 1 for the ancestral spirit to the west of the door of the room in the ancestral temple, the upper end of it being to the west ; and at the right end of the mat he places a body-rest. 

(c) When the messenger with the present arrives, dressed in dark square-clothes, 

(d) The usher goes out to ask his business, and then enters and announces it. 

(e) The host, dressed like the messenger, goes to meet him outside the door, and bows twice, the messenger not bowing in reply. 2 Then the host invites him with a salute to enter. 

(f) When they come to the temple gate, the host invites the guest with a salute to enter. In their progress up the court there are the three customary salutes ; and when they come to the steps they yield precedence three times. 

(g) The host precedes the guest, going up the eastern steps, and faces westward, while the guest goes up the west steps, and, standing under the main beam 3 of the hall, delivers his message, the host 


bowing twice at the top of the eastern steps, with his face north. 

(h) The host, standing between the pillars, and facing south, receives 4 the goose. 

(i) Thereafter the visitor descends the steps and leaves. The host also descends, and hands the goose to his head servant. 

2. Asking the Girl's Name. 5 

(a) When the messenger from the father arrives, the usher goes out and invites him to state his business. 

(b) The messenger, holding a goose in his hands, requests permission to be allowed to ask the girl's name, and the host, through the usher, consents. The visitor then enters and hands over the present to the host, observing the ceremonial already described. 

3. Giving Must to the Visitor. 6 

(a) The usher goes out and invites the guest to state his business. When he has finished the usher goes m and communicates it, and afterwards goes out and asks the visitor's permission to entertain him. 

(b) The visitor formally declines, but eventually consents. 

(c) When the visitor has entered the robing-tent, the host removes the body-rest, and changes the mat round, putting its head to the east. Then he sets a single wine-holder, one jar of must, in the chamber and to the east side. 

(d) The host goes outside the temple door to meet the guest, and after three salutes and yieldings of precedence as before, they ascend the steps. The host, facing north, bows twice, and the visitor, at the 


head of the western steps, faces north and bows in return. The host dusts the body-rest, and, taking it by the left end, bows and presents it. The guest takes it, and, withdrawing, faces north, and sets it on the left side of the mat. He then goes to the top of the western steps and bows in reply. 

(e) An assistant ladles out the must from the jar in the chamber, and, putting the horn spoon on the cup, bowl to the front, goes out of the chamber. 

(f) The host receives the must, holding the handle of the spoon 7 to the front, goes to the front of the mat, and faces north-west. The guest bows, and taking the must, retires to his place. Then the host, at the head of the eastern steps, bows, inviting him to drink. 

(g) The assistants bring forward the dried fiesh and hash and place them in front of the mat. The guest goes to the mat, and, sitting down, takes the goblet in his left hand, and with his right makes an offering of the dried flesh and hash, and thereafter pours a libation with the ladle. At the top of the western steps he sits down, facing north, and tastes the must. He then places the spoon in the cup, rises, sits down again, sets the goblet to the east of the relishes, and bows, the host bowing in return. 

(h) Thereafter the visitor goes on to the mat, and, setting the goblet to the west of the relishes, with- draws from the mat, turns his face to the north, sits down, and lifts the dried flesh to remove it, the host declining the honour. 

(i) Then the guest goes down the steps, hands the dried flesh to an attendant, and goes out, the host attending him beyond the door, and bowing twice as the guest takes his leave. 


4. Sending News of the Favourable Divination. 8 

In announcing the favourable result of the divination, a wild goose is presented. The ceremonial observed is similar to that with which the present was given. 

5. The Sending of the Evidences. 

The presents sent by the father of the young man to complete the preliminaries are a bundle 9 of black and red silks and a pair of deer-skins. 

6. Asking the Time of the Ceremony. 

A wild goose is sent by the messenger who goes to ask of the girl's father the time for the ceremony. He declines to name a time, and the messenger, assenting, announces the day which has already been discovered by divination, with ceremonial similar to that used in sending the evidences. 

7. Laying out the Vessels' 10 and Meats. 

(a) When the day arrives, as the sun sets, the assistants place three tripods outside the door of the bridegroom's private apartments, on the east side facing north, and graded from the north. Their con- tents in order of importance are the two halves of a young pig laid together with the hoofs removed, the two things which are heaved up as an offering and then eaten, the lungs and the spine, two pieces of each, and two pieces of the lung for offering. In the second are fourteen fish. In the third is a complete carcass of a dried hare, the buttocks not being put with the rest, all being cooked. The carrying-poles and covers are also laid out. 


(b) The used-water jar is set to the south-east of the eastern steps. 

(c) The eatables laid out in the chamber are two holders of pickles and sauces and four holders of salted vegetables and hash, all of them covered with cloths. There are also four pots of millet, glutinous and panelled, all with covers. 

(d) The Grand Soup 11 is kept warm on the cooking- stove to the east of the tripods. 

(e) The wine-holder for the use of the married couple is placed in the room, under the north wall, and set upon a stand, the jar of Dark Wine 12 being to the west, and each covered with a coarse bean-fibre cloth, and having its ladle on it, handle southward. 

(f) The wine-jar for use by the others is laid in the hall to the east of the chamber door, with no dark vrine accompanying it, but with a cup-basket to the south of it containing four cups and a divided gourd. 

8. The Meeting in Pevson. 13 

(a) The bridegroom, dressed in a russet cap, crimson skirt with black border, his attendants in suits all black, mounts a black-lacquered chariot, and is followed by two other chariots in attendance, with men pre- ceding the horses, torch in hand. 

(h) The carriage of the bride is similar to that of the bridegroom, but is provided with a broidered cover. 

(c) When the bridegroom arrives outside the bride's father's door, 

(d) The bride's father lays a mat to the west of the door of the room of his ancestral temple for the spirit of the ancestor, with its upper end to the west, and a body-rest to the right end of it. 

(c) The bride, with her hair ornaments on, and wearing black silk clothes bordered with crimson, 


takes her stand in the middle of the chamber, with her face to the south. 

(f) Her duenna, with hair in the snood, and wearing the hairpin and dark clothes, stands at her right. 

(g) The bridesmaid, dressed all in black and wearing snood and hairpin, and with a white and black mantle thrown over her clothes stands behind her. 

(h) The bride's father, in black square-clothes, meets the bridegroom outside the gate, and, with his face west, bows twice, the bridegroom responding with his face to the east. Then the father of the bride invites him with a salute to enter, and he, carrying a wild goose, follows him to the gate of the temple, where the father salutes him, inviting him to enter. Then, with the usual three salutations, they arrive at the steps, when the usual yieldings of precedence are gone through. Thereafter the father ascends the eastern steps, and turns his face westward, while the guest, ascending the western steps and facing north, lays down the goose and kowtows twice. After this the bridegroom goes down the steps and out, the bride following down the west steps, the father not going down the eastern steps to take leave of them. 

(i) The bridegroom mounts the bride's carriage to drive it. As the bride approaches, he hands her the mounting-cord. The duenna, however, declines this for the bride, and she does not take it from his hand. But after he lets go, she takes hold and mounts the carriage herself. 

(j) The bride and her duenna mount by a body-rest used as a step, and the latter throws over the bride's shoulders a light dust-cloak. Thereupon the bride- groom starts the horses, and after three revolutions of the wheels, gets down, and the driver takes his place. 



(k) Then the bridegroom mounts his own chariot and drives on ahead to his own door, in front of which he waits. 

9. The Bride and Bridegroom enter the House 

When the bride arrives, the host (i.e., the bridegroom) invites the bride with a salute to enter. At the door of the sleeping-apartments he repeats the invitation. They go up by the west steps. The bridesmaid then spreads a mat in the lounge. 15 Then the husband enters the room and goes to the mat. The bride takes her stand to the west of the wine-jar, with her face to the south, and the bridesmaid and driver pour out water for each other and wash their hands in turn. 

10. The Meal 16 

(a) The assistants remove the cover of the wine-jar. 

(h) Those who carry the tripods wash their hands, and, going out, remove the covers of the tripods and carry the latter in, and place them to the south of the eastern steps facing the west, and graded from the north. The ladles and meat-stands are brought in after the tripods and laid in their places. 

(c) The attendants stand facing north to lay the meat on the stands, and then take them and stand in waiting. 

(d) The men who ladle the contents out of the tripods then withdraw in the reverse order of their entrance, and take their places to the east of the door, with their faces to the north, and graded from the west. 

(e) The assistants lay out the sauces in front of the mat, and the chestnut relish and hash on the north of these. The meat-stands are brought in and placed to 


the east of the wooden holders, the fish being next them on the east, and the dried flesh by itself to the north of the meat-stand. 

(f) The assistants then set the glutinous millet  17 to the east of the condiments, and the panelled m.illet to the east again of that, while the Grand Soup is set to the south of the sauces. 

(g) The corresponding condiments for the bride are set to the east side. 

(h) The pickled vegetables and hash are set to the south of these, and graded from the north. The glutinous millet is laid to the north of the game, with the panelled to the west of it. The Grand Soup is laid out to the north of the sauces. 

(i) When the driver has laid the corresponding mat for the bride, the assistants lift the covers of the pots of grain, and lay them down to the south of the pots, one on top of the other, for the man and for his wife. 

(j) When the assistants announce that all is ready, the bridegroom salutes the bride, and she goes to the mat opposite him, when both make their offerings of the relishes, the two kinds of millet, and the lung. 

(k) Then the assistant brings near the glutinous millet, and hands to the man and his wife the lung and the spine. Both eat, using the Grand Soup and the sauces. Then both offer and eat the heaved upthings. 18 

(l)After three rounds of eating, their part of the feast ends, and the things are cleared away by the attendants. 

11. The Digestif. 19 

(a) The assistant washes two cups, and, ladling wine into them, presents one to the bridegroom, who bows in receiving it, the assistant standing inside the door of the room, with his face to the north, and replying 


with a bow. He also gives a cup to the bride in the same way. 

(b) Another attendant serves the liver to follow, the man and his wife both making a wave offering of it, tasting it, and placing it on the holders. 

(c) When they have emptied their cups, they both bow, and the attendants, returning their bows, take the cups. 

(d) The second cups are given like the first, but there is no following them with meat. 

(e) At the third giving of wine they use the split gourd, the ceremonial being as previously. 

(f) The attendants then wash other cups, and, ladling wine into them from the jar outside the door, pledge one another. Then entering the door, and standing to the west of it, facing north, they lay down the cups and bow. The husband and wife both bow in reply. Then the assistants sit down, and, pouring a libation, finish their cups and bow. The husband and wife then bow in reply and rise. 

12. The Completion of the Marriage Ceremony. 

(a) The bridegroom then leaves the room, and the bride returns to her original place at the west of the wine-jar, and faces south. 

(b) The dishes, being removed from the room, are laid out in the chamber in the order in which they were placed in the room, with the exception of the wine-jar, which is not removed, 

(c) The husband takes off his robes in the chamber, the bridesmaid receiving them.20 The bride takes off hers in the room, the driver taking them. The duenna then gives the bride another handkerchief. 

(d) The driver spreads the bride's mat in the lounge, and the bridesmaid spreads the husband's 21 mat to the 


east of it, each of them provided with a pillow, and with the feet of the sleepers to the north. 

(e) The bridegroom goes in, and with his own hands removes the bride's tassel. 22 

(f) Then the candles are removed. 

(g) In the chamber the bridesmaid eats what the bridegroom has left, and the driver what is left by the bride. The attendant ladles wine for them out of the outer wine-jar and gives it them. 

(h) The bridesmaid remains in attendance outside the door of the room, to hear any call. 
(Pull-dress hat)