漢文化是以敬愛生命一切正向價值，有歷史感、文化意識、慎終追遠、深厚的家國情懷為其特色。就哲學而言，禮者理也，仁者人也。若人能本著吾人內在的仁心仁性、人倫的天秩天序，應物處事就是禮。漢人所建立禮文化的哲學基礎，即是《荀子．禮論》所謂的「禮有三本」（天地、先祖、君師）。漢人禮俗中的敬天祭祖，則是禮文化最高的表達形式。臺灣是以漢人為主的移民社會，至今仍有大致保存良好的生命禮俗，即指從一個人的出生、成年、結婚到死亡，以及接受子孫祭祀的一切禮俗。禮文所反映「物本乎天，人本乎祖」，對家族生命以及人文精神價值的態度和相應的禮儀規範。論其來歷，遠溯可至先秦冠婚喪祭禮，近則承自南宋《朱子家禮》，可謂源遠流長。本文之作，主要根據儒家禮學經典：《儀禮》、《禮記》、《朱子家禮》，探討臺灣生命禮俗的文化根源，梳理臺灣地區現行漢人生命禮俗，並詮釋貫穿其中的人文精神價值，以期習焉而不察的現代人，能正視生命禮俗存在至今的人文精神。

The Han culture is characterized by the love for all positive values about life, the sense of history, the awareness of culture, the reverence for ancestors and the feelings for home and country. With regards to its philosophy, rituals are principled and benevolent people are humanist. “Ritual” refers to dealing with all things in the spirit of the inward benevolence and heavenly order of ethics. The philosophical foundation whereby Han people build the culture of rituals is the three elements of rituals (heaven and earth, ancestors, monarchs and teachers). Heaven worshipping and ancestry veneration as part of the Han etiquettes and customs is the supreme expression of the culture of rituals. The Taiwan society is mostly made of Han immigrants with well-preserved etiquettes and customs of life, that is, all the etiquettes and customs about being born, reaching adulthood, getting married, dying, and being worshipped by descendants. The culture of rituals reflects the saying, “all things originate from heaven, and man originates from his ancestors,” which is the attitude toward the family life and humanist sprit as well as the corresponding etiquettes and norms. Such a historical culture can be traced back to the pre-Qin rituals of coming-of-age, weddings, funerals and ancestor-worshiping on the one hand and Zhu `s Family Rites of the Southern Song Dynasty on the other hand. This article, based on such classics of Confucian doctrine of rituals as Rites and Ceremonies (Yi Li), The Book of Rites and Zhu’s Family Rites, inquiring the cultural origins of the life etiquettes and customs of Taiwan, sorting out the existing Han etiquettes and customs in Taiwan, and interpreting the humanist values throughout in wishes that modern people, who are too habituated to be sensitive to them, can respect the humanist spirit still contained in the life etiquettes and customs.