成年禮是人生禮儀中極具代表性的一項重要節目，乃接納青少年進入成人社會，使其承擔人生責任的一種古老習俗，幾為世界各種族所共有之生命禮俗；中華民族傳統的成年禮，係以有周以來中原漢族的男冠、女笄之禮為其代表形式，並普為後世所遵行；唯亦不免隨時空之移轉而有所因革損益。 本文依據先秦兩漢經傳、歷代正史「禮志」與會要「禮卷」、歷代典制史「禮典」與禮書、歷代地方志「禮俗」與「禮儀」等四大額文獻資料，考論歷代成年禮的沿革與特色；先述論先秦成年禮的概況──天子以至士人階層冠齡、冠儀的同異、冠禮的意義、笄禮與冠禮的異同等──及其特色；其次，探討歷代冠、笄年齡的變化實況；再次，析論歷代成年禮儀節的特色與沿革；最後，由社會、制度、經濟、政治、習俗與生理等因素，探討成年禮衰亡的諸多背景與原因。於中華民族成年禮之若干問題，庶或可得相當程度之釐清。

The Initiation Rite is a very important and representative ritual in Rites de Passage. It is a ceremony to accept adolescent to enter grown - up society, and also to ask them to take responsibility of life. The Initiation Rite is probably the most universal ritual in all – human races. The traditional Chinese Initiation Rite began with the Han people and started from the Zhou dynasty, and the representative ritual of it usually included male's "Guan - Ceremony" and female's "Ji - Ceremony". In general, every dynasty in Chinese history followed the above ritual, however it has also changed through times. This paper is based on four kinds of data: classics from Pre – Qin era and Han dynasties, documents of Rites such as "Li -Zhi ( 禮志 ) " and "Li -Juan ( 禮卷 ) " in official history of each dynasty, "Li –Dian ( 禮典 ) " in each dynasty, and ceremonies and customs recorded in local chronicles. At first, we focused on the Initiation Rite in Pre – Qin era, discussed about the differences of "Guan - Yi ( 冠儀 ) ", the meaning of "Guan - ceremony ( 冠禮 ) ", and the differences between " Guan -ceremony" and "Ji -ceremony ( 笄禮 ) " among different levels from the emperor to Shi ( 士 ) . Secondly, we talked about the change of "Guan - age ( 錧齡 ) " and "Ji-age ( 笄齡 ) ". Thirdly, we analyzed the characteristics and change of Initiation Rite through different times. Finally, we would explore the reasons and backgrounds of why the Initiation Rite declined, according to the social, institutional, economical, political, physical, and folklore factors. This paper hopes to clarify some questions about Chinese Initiation Rite.