《仪礼·士昏礼》用雁问题新证

清代一些学者基于鸿雁难以猎获等考虑,认为《仪礼.士昏礼》所记礼物“雁”是指家鹅。这种解释不符合礼书原义和周代礼俗。《仪礼》有“雁”和“舒雁”(鹅)对称之例;汉初婚礼使用鸿雁系上承周礼;周人具备短期饲养鸿雁的能力,下层贵族又多在秋末春初举行婚礼,取用鸿雁并不困难。这三方面事实足以证明《士昏礼》之“雁”本是特指鸿雁。婚礼用雁是在社会高度重视射猎技能和勇武品质的背景下产生的礼俗,“纳采用雁”的原始意义是把鸿雁这种猎物作为求婚者精于射技,具备社会和家庭责任能力的一种象征,汉代及后世学者从鸿雁的生理特性着眼对用雁象征意义的解释均属附会。战国礼书所载用贽等级带有设计成分,依据此种等级得出的“士级婚礼用雁属于临时使用大夫礼仪”的观点不足凭信,婚礼用雁应是周代各级贵族共用的通礼。

Also on the problem of presenting wild geese in The Book of Rites: Weddings of the Gentry

Considering the fact that it's difficult to capture wild geese, some scholars in the Qing dynasty believed the gift “geese” in Rites: Weddings of the Gentry had to be domestic geese. However, this explanation does not in accord with historical records and the customs of the Zhou dynasty. “Wild geese” and “domestic geese” had been mentioned simultaneously in the Book of Rites; the rites of presenting wild geese in weddings in the early Han dynasty were inherited from those of the Zhou dynasty; people in the Zhou dynasty had the ability to breed wild geese so as to keep them alive for a period of time and the low-noblemen often held weddings in early spring or late autumn, when it wasn't difficult for men to use wild geese in weddings. These facts help us to determine that the geese mentioned in The Book of Rites must be wild geese. The custom of presenting wild geese came into being in an era when valor and the ability of hunting were highly valued, and the original meaning of “the rites of presenting wild geese as betrothal gifts” was to testify that the suitor was skillful in hunting and could bear the responsibility for both the society and the family. Those explanations that wild geese were used just for the symbolic effects created by the physiological characters of that bird are obviously far fetched. Gift-presenting according to grades as was documented in some rites books in the Warring States period was partly a matter of design, and the view that the rites of presenting wild geese for the“shi” estate was temporarily borrowed from those for the“dafu”estate does not stand. The rites should apply to every estate of Zhou dynasty nobles in common.