In the traditional Chinese calendar, the evening of the seventh day of the seventh month is named “the Seventh Evening” (七夕), and it is a traditional festival of Chinese people.
Before the Song Dynasty (A.D. 960-1279), Chinese people didn’t sit in chairs. They put a mat or a cushion on the ground, and sat with kneeling. Ancient Chinese people had many proprieties of sitting.
The normal sitting posture was kneel-sitting (跪坐). Not only ministers and common people, but also emperors, kings and monarchs, all sat with kneeling. If the sitting posture of someone was not kneeling-sitting, others would think that he was insolent.
The tribes who were led by Yan-Di (炎帝) and Huang-Di (黄帝) gave the Chinese nation a body, and the Zhou Dynasty gave the Chinese nation a soul. The founders of the Zhou Dynasty established a series of systems and rites for the whole society. Many systems and rites had military colors, because the Chinese nation was a warlike people at that time. Young noble men got educated since their childhood. The educational contents included proprieties (礼), music (乐), books (书), arithmetic (数), driving chariots (御), and archery (射). Young noble men must join battle, and they were the army’s elite.
The ceremonies of Guan (冠) and Ji (笄) were the grown-up ceremonies of young men and women in ancient times. Guan was a kind of ancient Chinese cap for a man. Ji was a hairpin for fastening the hair for a woman.
Ancient Chinese people respected proprieties very much. So the Central Nation was called “The Nation of Proprieties and Righteousness” (礼义之邦) in ancient times. There are three important works about Chinese proprieties: Zhou's Systems (周礼), Rites and Proprieties (仪礼), and Records of Proprieties (礼记).
The normal sitting posture was kneel-sitting (跪坐). Not only ministers and common people, but also emperors, kings and monarchs, all sat with kneeling. If the sitting posture of someone was not kneeling-sitting, others would think that he was insolent.
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