Chinese farewell traditions

[bekster]

Nay ho,

I am doing some research and was wondering if anyone knew any chinese farewell traditions - for going away, not for death.

I have looked on the net but have found very little - can anyone shed some more light?

mgoy,

[zozzen]

If you talk about really old tradition, it's to write a poem.

Try this link: (google results about farewall poems)

http://www.google.com.hk/search?aq=f&complete=1&hl=zh-TW&rlz=1B3GGGL_zh-TWHK231HK231&q=%E9%A4%9E%E5%88%A5+%E8%A9%A9&btnG=%E6%90%9C%E5%B0%8B&meta=

[bekster]

Hi zozzen,

thanks for your help. Are there any other traditions or rituals for saying goodbye? Do people just give the person leaving a written poem or is the poem read out to them at a social gathering? I am doing this research for my website because I want to share with people the lovely ways people say goodbye in their cultures.

cheers,

[zozzen]

For ordinary people, no specific rituals were needed, they'd eat more, drink more because in the ancient time they never know if that'd be the last time they meet. Sometimes they may exchange a small gift which has meaning for them, like a sword too.

The remarkable stories about farewell is not really related to rituals. It's about how they accompanied their friends to go a long long way until they couldn't go further.

e.g:

燕莊公送齊桓公到齊境。桓公說：“不是天子，諸侯向送不能出境，我不可以對燕無禮。”於是把燕君所到的地方割給了燕國.

Another one is:

蒙古送朱祁鎮回明國，為表鄭重，領袖也先率領全體部落首領為朱祁鎮送行，當其他人回去時，伯顏帖木爾一直陪著朱祁鎮，走了一天，直到野狐嶺才停下，因為這裡已經是明朝的勢力範圍，他隨時有被殺的危險。伯顏帖木爾淚如雨下說：「今日一別，何時方得再見，珍重！」