As the saying goes: There are seven things that you don’t give away, and if you give them away, you lose your money. What are the “seven don’ts”? Does it make sense?
China is a nation with a long history. Many treasures have been born in the long history, and some good qualities have also been preserved.
Since ancient times, China has been a country of etiquette. In the process of communication between people, they will send gifts to each other to express their ideas. Especially now that the living conditions are better, most of the gifts are based on expensive standards. Both the giver and the recipient are very happy and have the best of both worlds.
But in the past, the ancestors were very particular about gift giving, which must be satisfactory and in line with etiquette.
Ancient Confucianism believed that a gentleman valued friendship, and a villain valued interests, so it is embarrassing to give a heavy gift.
So there is a saying among the folks: don’t give away anything, and give it to someone to waste your money. Maybe you have heard this sentence from the mouth of the old man at home. How much do you know?
What other seven things made ancestors so taboo? Let's talk about it today.
no bell
In ancient times, bells were divided into chime bells for playing and Buddhist bells or half bells for temple time telling. The old bells and the end of the pension are homophonic. If they are used as gifts, people will feel unlucky and feel that they are looking forward to the death of others, so they cannot be brought. give away.
In fact, clocks and watches are not the first choice when giving gifts now, because not only do they not get the favor of the other party, but they also get complaints.
no fish tank
In the eyes of the ancestors, water is wealth, and only when Feng Shui is good, the wealth of the family will flow in, so some places call it the God of Wealth, which means keeping wealth.
If you send the fish tank out, it means sending out the family's wealth.
There are also some places where fish tanks can be given away, but no fish can be brought. The wealth of fish in the eyes of the ancients is also the reason why there are fish every year. If the fish and the fish tank are given away together, it will affect the wealth of the family.
Three do not send purse
Purse has a high status in ancient times. For women, sending men purses is love for men, so purses will not be given away easily.
For a family, a wallet is a wallet. If you give something that holds money to someone else, isn't that even giving away your own wealth?
Therefore, in ancient times, purses could be used as tokens of love, but not as gifts.
Four no shoes, five no umbrellas
The homonyms of shoes and umbrella are evil and scattered, both of which have very bad meanings. Generally, the ancients would call bad things evil, evil, etc., so shoes cannot be given as gifts.
Here we want to focus on San, there are too many unlucky idioms related to San, such as ghosts do not disperse, beasts gather and birds scatter, wind and clouds disperse, people's hearts are scattered, such as birds and beasts scatter, wives and children scatter, etc. There are almost no good words related to San , so ancestors would not take umbrellas as gifts.
Six don't send pillows
It can be found from the film and television themes or historical records that ancient pillows have a common feature, that is, they are made relatively high, which also contains the meaning of peace of mind.
Secondly, as a personal item, pillows also represent the meaning of sharing the same bed between husband and wife. If you give someone away, you will not only send away your own pillow, but also send away the pillow of the husband and wife.
From this, it is also easy to understand why Cao Pi would be furious when he heard that his wife Zhen Mi gave his younger brother Cao Zhi a pillow.
Seven do not send candles
Nowadays, the main use of candles is aromatherapy, but it is customary to burn incense with a little wax when worshiping ancestors.
Therefore, in the eyes of the ancients, candles were for the dead, and it would be inauspicious to give candles to the living as gifts.
As far as the meaning of each thing is concerned, some are to send away one’s own fortune, some are to send away bad luck and troubles, and in the end, the purpose of maintaining the relationship is not achieved, and the two parties break up unhappy. Empty, that is what it means.
epilogue
With the advancement of people's thinking, these common sayings that are widely circulated among the people have also faded out of people's sight. But it is undeniable that the cultural forms shown by the sayings are enough to show that the ancestors attached great importance to etiquette, and it is not too much to say that China is called a country of etiquette.
Ancestors can summarize some taboos when giving gifts by observing all aspects of life, and use common sayings to warn future generations, which is still worth learning.
Today’s topic: Have you given any of these items as gifts?