从礼制史到社会文化史——礼仪研究的三个维度

From the History of Rites to the History of Social Culture-Three Dimensions of Ritual Studies

中国传统礼仪的研究方向,主要在于对礼经和礼制的研究。前者关注《周礼》《礼仪》《仪礼》三部礼经以及其他儒家经典所记载的礼,后者关注各朝史书、礼典和礼书中的礼仪制度。两者考察的重点在于统治阶级与上层社会对礼的规定和实践,对地方和底层社会则几乎没有涉及。而随着社会学、人类学等学科研究方法的引入,以“礼仪如何下乡”的社会史和社会文化史渐次成为学界的重要议题之一,极大地拓宽了礼仪研究的视野,至今依然方兴未艾。

The research direction of traditional Chinese etiquette mainly focuses on the study of the classics of rites(礼经)and ritual systems(礼制).The former pays attention to the rites recorded in the"Zhou Li"(Rites of Zhou《周礼》),"Yi Li"(Etiquette and Ceremonial《礼仪》),"Li Ji"(Book of Rites《仪礼》),and other Confucian classics,while the latter focuses on the ritual systems found in the historical records,ritual classics,and books of rites of various dynasties.The emphasis of both is on the regulations and practices of rites by the ruling class and the upper echelons of society,with little attention paid to local and lower social strata.However,with the introduction of research methods from disciplines such as sociology and anthropology,the social and cultural history of"how etiquette reaches the countryside"has gradually become one of the important topics in academia,greatly broadening the horizons of etiquette research,and it continues to flourish to this day.