Description

This book is a matchmaker’s guide to weddings. The traditional Chinese wedding required much involvement by “matchmakers,” a term that came to mean all persons or events that acted as go-betweens in a marriage between two families. The guide is a 24-juan work in two parts, each consisting of 12 juan, printed in Jianyang in the late Southern Song dynasty, or around 1225–79. In Part 1, juan 1 discusses wedding etiquette; juans 2–6 trace the origins of family names; juans 7–9 deal with essential stories; juan ...