Chinese belongs to Sino-Tibetan language family, and there are seven dialects. Modern Chinese is based on northern dialects, and Beijing dialect is the standard pronunciation. Chinese characters are one of the oldest characters in the world, with a history of about 6000 years. They gradually evolved from Oracle Bone Inscriptions and inscriptions on bronze to today's square characters. * * There are more than 40,000 words, and there are about 7,000 commonly used words. Now they are one of the international languages. The Han nationality has not produced a religion that the whole nation must believe in, and some people believe in Buddhism, Catholicism and Christianity.
Dietary customs
The basic diet structure of Han nationality is based on food crops and various animal foods and vegetables as non-staple foods. In the long-term national development, the habit of eating three meals a day has been formed. The collocation of staple food, dishes and drinks in three meals a day. Rice and pasta are two main staple foods of Han nationality. Rice is the main staple food in southern and northern rice-growing areas, while pasta is the main staple food in wheat-growing areas. In addition, other food crops in different regions, such as corn, sorghum, cereal and potato crops, have also become part of the staple food in different regions. There are many ways to make staple foods of the Han nationality, including at least hundreds of rice and flour products. At present, rice is still the main food in southeastern China, and there are many kinds of rice products, such as rice, rice cakes, rice porridge, rice balls, rice noodles, glutinous rice, glutinous rice balls and zongzi. Pasta is the main food in Northeast China, Northwest China and North China. Steamed bread, steamed stuffed bun, noodles, pancakes, pies and jiaozi are all daily favorite foods. Others such as Shandong Pancake, Shaanxi Guokui, Shanxi Daoxiao Noodles, Northwest China, North China Lamian Noodles, Sichuan Dandan Noodles and Jiangsu Guoqiao are all famous noodle flavor foods. Dishes Due to the influence of various conditions, Han people have formed many different types of dishes in terms of eating customs. First of all, the local characteristics of raw materials, such as all kinds of seafood in the southeast coast, all kinds of delicacies in the northern mountainous areas, and folk snake banquets in Guangdong. Secondly, it is also restricted by the living environment and taste. People often sum up the dietary customs of the Han nationality and other related ethnic groups as "sweet in the south, salty in the north, spicy in the east and sour in the west". Although it is too general and inaccurate, it also reflects some differences and differences in tastes with regional characteristics. Thirdly, the different requirements and characteristics of local cooking methods, including ingredients, knife work, heat, seasoning, cooking technology, etc., are all important factors in forming dishes. On the basis of folk tastes, all localities gradually developed into distinctive regional dishes, and finally developed into more representative cuisines. It has become a magnificent landscape of Chinese food culture. Drinks, wine and tea are the two main drinks of the Han nationality.
Traditional etiquette
Sitting ceremony: Sitting upright is a sitting posture handed down from the ancient Han nationality. The action is to put your hips on your ankles, keep your upper body straight, and put your hands on your knees regularly. Dignified figure, don't look askance. The modern sitting method of sitting on a stool with feet hanging down was not a formal sitting method before the Northern and Southern Dynasties, but it came from the western countries at that time, which was called Hu Sitting at that time.
The gift-giving social relationship of Han nationality is a typical reciprocal social relationship. Usually, differences in social relations are expressed by similar surnames. The connection between an individual and society is called "relationship", which connects feelings. China people's social relations are usually carried out by giving gifts to each other. Since ancient times, there has been a saying that "a gift is light and affectionate", which shows that the value of a gift lies in the goodwill and intention of the giver, not in the value of the gift itself. Especially a symbol of love.
Funeral The main color of traditional funerals in China is white, so it is also called white, as opposed to red. With the belief and economic situation of the deceased, the whole process is often mixed with related Buddhist, Taoist or Feng Shui rituals.
marriage customs
Wedding dresses of Zhou, Tang and Ming dynasties
The traditional wedding of Han nationality is an important part of China culture. The ancients thought dusk was auspicious, so they would get married at dusk; To this end, the etiquette of husband and wife combination is called "faint ceremony". Faint ceremony is one of the five ceremonies, and it is the second milestone in life after the male crown ceremony or the female ceremony. The wedding ceremony of China traditional wedding dress China can be divided into three stages, namely "engagement" and formal wedding ceremony, namely "marriage" or "marriage" ceremony, which means the wedding ceremony of husband and wife, and it is "adult ceremony", "adult ceremony" or "adult ceremony", which shows the roles played by men and women after marriage. In China's traditional marriage customs, premarital ceremony and formal wedding are the main procedures. these
Address customization
In China, the traditional generation concept of the Han nationality has existed for a long time, with four generations of elders and four generations of younger generations as the center, forming a "nine-clan" blood relationship of "great-grandfather, great-grandfather, father, self, son, grandson, great-grandson and great-grandson", which is nine levels. If collateral blood relatives are linked with in-laws, a huge kinship system will be formed.
Kinship titles are divided into generations and are not limited by age. Kinship appellation is also used between neighbors or strangers in society to show kindness and respect. Generally speaking, it is very important to pay attention to the hierarchy and grasp the angle in the use of appellation. Different age groups have different names, especially on envelopes.
In life, in order to show respect for people, there are also special phenomena that don't pay attention to grades. For example, there is a respected elder in a family, and the younger generation in the family calls him grandpa, grandma, grandpa, grandma and so on. Neighborhood, regardless of men, women and children, may call him grandpa, grandma, grandpa and grandma, but they often start with their names. For example, Granny Liu in A Dream of Red Mansions and Grandpa Si Liu in Camel Xiangzi. Sometimes the word "he (she)" is added before the title, such as: his uncle, her second aunt, his grandmother, her second brother Li and so on. Similar appellations are still widely used today.
Mourning custom
The old tradition of Han funeral is to pay attention to heavy burial, which is mixed with many superstitious customs. Coffin burial has been popular in Han nationality since ancient times, and the funeral is grand and divided into three stages: burial, burial and burial. The ancient custom of offering sacrifices was gradually replaced by pottery figurines. In modern times, people are buried with paper figures.
After the funeral, there are memorial ceremonies for the seventh, seventh, centenary and anniversary, and the memorial tablet belongs to the ancestral hall, which has changed from a ceremony for people at the funeral to a ceremony for "ghosts" and "ancestors". In addition, the Han nationality also has the custom of "returning to burial", that is, transporting the bodies that died in other places back to their original places.
During the funeral, the relatives of the deceased should wear mourning clothes and wake in the mourning hall. In the ancient etiquette system of China, filial piety was divided into five grades according to the kinship with the deceased. There is also a word "five clothes" in modern Chinese to express the distance of blood relationship. Filial piety is made of white cloth, which is quite different from the custom of westerners wearing white clothes to make dresses. In the Qing Dynasty, an Englishman came to China for the first time. When he met the funeral procession, everyone was dressed in white, but his expression was painful, sad and strange. In ancient times, people sang elegies at funerals. The elegy of later generations evolved from the elegy of ancient times.
The scale of the funeral ceremony is closely related to the status of the deceased. In feudal society, there were strict regulations on funeral ceremonies for people with different identities and status. Princes, nobles and rich people often show off their power with large-scale funerals.
After the death of the elder, children and grandchildren should stay at home for 27 months, during which time they should stop socializing and entertaining. Officials also have to leave their jobs and go home to be filial, which is called "keeping the system."
eating habits
The Han nationality is dominated by agriculture, with wheat, corn and rice as staple foods, supplemented by vegetables, bean products and non-staple foods such as chicken, fish, pigs, cattle and mutton. Tea and wine are traditional drinks. People who live on rice are used to making rice into different foods such as rice, porridge or rice noodles, rice cakes, glutinous rice balls, zongzi and rice cakes. People who live on wheat are used to making steamed bread, noodles, flower rolls, steamed buns, jiaozi, wonton, fried dough sticks, spring rolls, fried cakes, pancakes and so on. Paying attention to and being good at cooking is a major dietary feature of the Han nationality. Through long-term practice, the Han people in different regions have adopted cooking methods such as frying, roasting, frying, steaming, roasting and cold salad, forming different local flavors. Guangdong cuisine, Fujian cuisine, Anhui cuisine, Shandong cuisine, Sichuan cuisine, Hunan cuisine, Zhejiang cuisine and Jiangsu cuisine are famous at home and abroad.
traditional festival
There are many festivals of Han nationality, mainly Spring Festival, Tomb-Sweeping Day, Dragon Boat Festival, Lantern Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival and so on. Celebrating the "Spring Festival", also known as the Chinese New Year, is a traditional festival of the Han people for thousands of years, and it is also the most grand festival in a year. During the Chinese New Year, there will be vigils on New Year's Eve and New Year's greetings on the first day of the lunar new year.
Traditional festivals of the Han nationality mainly include La Worship, offering sacrifices to stoves, Spring Festival, Lantern Festival, social day, Tomb-Sweeping Day, Dragon Boat Festival, Chinese Valentine's Day, Mid-Autumn Festival and Double Ninth Festival. Among festivals, the Spring Festival is the grandest.