The main characteristics of etiquette in Qing Dynasty are hierarchical, symbolic and political.

Data expansion:

The study of etiquette is the general name of all academic activities about etiquette in ancient and modern times, and it is a specialized academic with etiquette as the research object. From the content aspect, the study of etiquette and China's traditional philosophy, religion, politics, morality and other disciplines intersect and penetrate each other, and at the same time are relatively independent, with a unique basic category and self-contained system.

As far as the traditional Confucian classics or Confucianism in China is concerned, the study of etiquette is its core component, but from the historical reality, the study of etiquette is not completely limited to Confucian classics or Confucianism.

The formation of etiquette;

The origin of "ceremony" naturally goes back to the sacrificial ceremony in the primitive period. Xu Shen said in Shuo Wen Jie Zi: "Rites go with you. Therefore, everything is blessed by God. " Wang Guowei, a modern scholar, said that the "ceremony" in Oracle Bone Inscriptions is like using two pieces of jade in a vessel as a tribute to show respect for ancestors or God.

With the development of social life, "ceremony" has been extended to the behavior rules in the patriarchal clan system, forming a set of ideology with the connotation of distinguishing between honor and inferiority. Later, from the clan to the political life of the country, "Li" formed a strict social hierarchy. After the Western Zhou Dynasty, it further developed into the core political thought of safeguarding the interests of the ruling class, which is the complete theoretical system of "rule by courtesy".

Because this kind of "ceremony" can "govern the country, settle the country, settle the people and benefit future generations", it plays an important role in guiding the political decision-making of the rulers, restraining the behavior norms of all social members and realizing political stability. Since the Western Zhou Dynasty, the ruling class and its royal intellectuals have regarded how to improve and utilize the ritual system as a major sociological topic.

After nearly 800 years of theoretical exploration and social practice, by the middle of the Western Han Dynasty, China ancient etiquette had formed a relatively mature theoretical system. In the feudal society of more than 2000 years, almost all the etiquette measures of the ruling class did not go beyond the basic theoretical scope of etiquette in pre-Qin period.

At the same time, the discussion on the theory of rule of etiquette, which began in the Western Zhou Dynasty, has been the core part of traditional Confucian political theory for more than two thousand years, and has formed a complete set of academic-etiquette.