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卷十九 志第九 禮上

Volume 19 Treatises 9: Rites Part One

Chapter 19 of 晉書 · Book of Jin
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Treatise on Rites, Part One
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Human beings partake of the vital forces of heaven and earth, of yin and yang, and they feel sorrow and joy, anger and pleasure. The sages therefore set the pattern for the world, giving the people a polestar by which to live; they curbed wanton pride and excess and checked cruelty and rebellion. They honored heaven and earth, showed devotion to the spirits, set out who ranks above whom, and secured the moral bond of marriage—only then could a country and a family be ruled in good order. The Commentary records: “Master yourself for one day and come back to ritual, and the world will settle into humaneness.” Consider the age when the cosmos first divided and Suiren kindled fire: people’s aims still ran to reverence and thrift, and their hearts did not turn on gifts of jade and silk; they might ladle black water beside a spring torrent or burn a great boar beyond autumn woods—none of that can be dismissed as falling short. From the Yellow Emperor and Zhuanxu, who leaned on the divine, through Tang and Yu, who looked back to antiquity, on to high Zhou—by then the cultural forms of ritual were largely in place. Some issued standards for every office and framed laws meant to endure; others codified three hundred ritual texts and three thousand points of ceremony—all to broadcast heaven’s will and give shape to human moral order. In decadent times morals rotted, royal virtue faded, public life lost its brilliance, and even family ritual slipped into error. Zhao Jianzi questioned Grand Uncle about the etiquette of bows, yielding, and circling in dance; the answer was: “That is what people call outward form, not the inward substance of ritual.” From that moment the great norms that bind heaven and earth were more gravely incomplete than ever. In Duke Ai’s eleventh year Confucius came home from Wei to Lu, recovered the statutes of the three ages, and left a teaching for kings yet unborn; no worthy ruler appeared in his day, and the Way was stifled before it could flourish.
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西
When people chase every private inclination, the embankment of humaneness is thrown away; when shallow custom and wrongheaded practice spread, the moral air of the Zhu and Si stream is lost. That is why Han Wendi did away with the twenty-seven-month funeral, and why the restored Han trimmed the suburban cult to a single round—rites shift with the age, and so they should. Still, at Western Han’s Yuanding era and Eastern Han’s Yongping reign, jade pendants glittered at court and men of rank crowded in; academy doors swung wide and students flocked—never were the two capitals grander than in those moments. Later, coarse fare stood on the altar while the classical rules for offerings were cast aside; ritual and music were left in the dust and empty show became the fashion, yet the shell of suburban worship sometimes survived. The Wei dynasty, rising in full majesty, claimed this legacy as its model. Scholars like Wang Su and Gao Tanglong, steeped in earlier literature, reworked the three thousand ritual items and the seventeen canonical chapters to fit their own day—hardly a recipe, one might say, for making a monarch the peer of Yao or Shun. Their age wallowed in ornament while government rotted; Zhou’s received statutes often collided with popular habit, but even the tattered books that survived still repay reading. In Jingchu 1 they raised a round mound on Mount Weisu south of Luoyang; at the offering the first ancestor Emperor Shun received joint worship, the stand carried uncooked fish, and earthen cups held unstrained wine—without belted officials to hold the ritual together, such a revival could never have happened.
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輿
Under the martial reigns of the Xuan and Jing emperors there was no time to put this full program in place. After Taikang conquered Wu the realm was united; ritual manuals and bells and stones converged again, and classicists from Qi and Lu arrived bearing their silk-bound codices. Emperor Wu, in the first rush of crushing rebellion, already put ceremony and precedent ahead of everything else. For felicitous sacrifice he left the triple thatch unshorn and stayed the jade regalia at Riguan; for mourning he donned plain robes and cloth caps, left his seat, and sent away the dishes. He spelled out the lesson of yielding once and gaining thrice over, and moral instruction could at last take hold. After Emperor Yuan revived the house, policy leaned on makeshifts; ancient statutes dangled by a thread, ready to break. So the palace attendant Dai Miao appeared at the gate with a memorial: “Heaven and earth have turned a fresh page and every creature is starting anew; we must wash away the stains of late decades and lay down a pattern worthy of a thousand-year reign. Honor the discipline of the paired swords, and the fashion for feibai calligraphy will settle into custom; refine the deportment of carrying the qin, and the harmony of answering the melody will follow.” That was his way of stirring interest in ritual texts and asking the throne to show the way in person. After Emperors Mu and Ai, royal power thinned; Huan Wen seized the chief ministry and policy came from his hand alone, while some bureaus still paraded literary polish—sovereign prestige had long waned and ministerial will ran free. The Record warns, “Without the proper station you cannot enact ritual and music”—was it not pointing to exactly this?
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西
Early Jin saw Xun Yi and Zheng Chong frame the national statutes; south of the river Xun Song and Diao Xie adjusted court ritual. The Rites of Zhou lists five kinds—auspicious, inauspicious, military, guest, and joyous—and of the great auspicious observances none tops sacrifice; that is why the “Great Plan” counts sacrifice third among its eight policies. Sacrifice is how filial devotion to ancestors is made visible and how one reaches the spirits above. When Han arose on the ruins of Qin’s war on scholarship, its institutions seldom matched the old models. For more than four hundred years, through Western and Eastern capitals, those rules were repeatedly rewritten. Wei took over after Han’s final convulsions with classical law in ashes; the throne told palace attendant Wang Can and minister Wei Gu to sketch a court ritual from scratch. Once the Jin realm was founded, Emperor Wen told Xun Yi to build on Wei precedents and draft a new ritual code, weighing ancient and recent usage and revising the clauses; Yang Hu, Ren Kai, Yu Jun, and Ying Zhen collated the text into 165 chapters for presentation. Early in Taikang Vice Director Zhu Zheng asked that Masters of Writing aide Zhi Yu be put in charge of reviewing it. Zhi Yu tabled his views on what to cut or add, stating:
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I have been ordered to proof the Five Rituals compiled by the late Grand Commandant Xun Yi. A dynastic change that secures the line is a ruler’s finest achievement, and lifting ritual to teach the realm is a state’s first duty—hence my earlier plea that work on the code had stalled and ought to be finished and promulgated at once. I also believe the Mourning Dress section holds the most unresolved questions and needs emendation. I further argue that the present code is bloated with redundant fascicles and should be reorganized by topic into a leaner whole. Because it has dragged on so long, I worry the project will simply die in the files.
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使
Capping, marriage, sacrifice, and public gatherings—the happy rites—vary only slightly in form; mourning dress, which the world relies on daily, is the easiest place to lose the thread. Thus Zizhang questioned Shang’s three-year vigil; Zisi barred his son from mourning a mother cast out; Ziyou held that half-brothers of different fathers deserved dàgōng mourning while Zixia insisted on zīcuī; when Confucius passed away even his own students could not agree what robe to wear. They were acute scholars trained in ceremony, steeped in the Zhou odes and Confucius’s school—yet at a deathbed they still wavered, which shows how easily funeral rules confuse and how carefully they must be spelled out. Moreover, texts have since been burned or lost, we stand further from the sages, and garbled mourning practice is inevitable. So a slim Mourning Dress fascicle, barely a handful thick, breeds endless wrangling. On the three-year term Zheng Xuan counts twenty-seven months, Wang Su twenty-five. On dress for reinterment Zheng prescribes sī hemp for three months, Wang ends mourning when the bones are settled. If a stepmother remarries away, Zheng demands mourning from both sons; Wang grants it only to a child she actually reared. For infants who die without a named grade Zheng maps one day of weeping to a one-month baby, Wang swaps the “day of crying” for the month of garment change. Examples could be multiplied at length. The classic Mourning Dress lines are terse; commentary is needed before they make sense; the appended “traditions” are fuller, and tradition credits them to Zixia. Zheng and Wang each upheld text and subcommentary yet disagreed; the realm could not decide whom to follow, while Xun Yi simply copied the archaic classic, stripping Zixia’s gloss and older notes—an edition no one could actually perform. In practice officials would still circulate rival opinions, first one school then another—no way to establish a single rule. I propose we mine the Book of Rites, adopt the clearest glosses, plug the gaps, and harmonize conflicting readings. Wang Su’s Mourning Dress: Changes and Removals can supply the pattern—once categories read clearly, doubt dies and everyone walks one road through the gate.
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A code meant for the whole empire must not be wordy. Xun Yi produced 165 chapters, one scroll each, totaling some 150,000 characters—yet even that feels heavy: too many fascicles say the same thing twice. The “Canon of Yao” lists victims and silks in full only for the eastern peak; every other mountain sacrifice is dismissed with “do as before.” Zhou ritual repeats “the same procedure” whenever heaven, earth, the five emperors, or royal ancestors share a step—brief language, complete sense. Our draft gives a new chapter whenever the label changes though the act is identical—fat, inelegant, and hard to use. We should prune verbiage, merge like with like, and note exceptions only where the rite truly changes. That alone could cut the bulk by a third.
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使
Wei Mingdi’s Taihe 1, day dingwei of the first month: a suburban offering paired Emperor Wu with Heaven; in the Bright Hall an honoring sacrifice paired Emperor Wen with the Supreme God. Western and Eastern Han precedents were still intact, so Wei’s tweaks are easy to trace. In the fourth year, eighth month, the emperor traveled east through Fanchang and told the chief of police Zang Ba to stand in as Grand Commandant and offer a singled-out ox at the abdication terrace. Jingchu 1, tenth month, day yimao: work began on a round altar on Mount Weisu south of Luoyang. An edict declared: “Early Han, picking through Qin’s wreckage of the classics, patched missing pieces to keep suburban worship alive. Between Sweet Springs, the Yong earth altar, and the five shrines, countless spirit seats lacked canonical warrant; cults rose and fell at whim, and for four centuries the great di sacrifice disappeared—lines the ancients had carefully restored were left broken. The house of Cao claims descent from the line of Shun of Youyu. Henceforth the round altar honors Supreme Heaven as “August August Emperor Heaven,” with first ancestor Emperor Shun as correlative. The square altar addresses “August August Queen Earth,” paired with Shun’s consort of the Yi clan. The southern suburb names the spirit “God of August Heaven,” with dynastic founder Emperor Wu as partner. The northern suburb names “Numen of August Earth,” partnered by Empress Wuxuan. Inside the Bright Hall we revere Imperial Father Gaozu Wendi as correlative to the Supreme God.” Closing the edict—on winter solstice, day renzi of the twelfth month, the court first worshiped “August August Emperor Heaven” on the round mound with Shun of Youyu as joint honoree. After the Zhengshi era Wei abandoned suburban sacrifice entirely.
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使 便 便
Wei Yuandi, Xixi 2, day jiazi of the twelfth month: credential-bearing attendant-grand tutor Zheng Chong and acting grand commandant Li Xi, also metropolitan commandant, delivered the seal-straps and abdication edict, ceding the mandate to Jin. On bingyin Emperor Wu of Jin laid out a southern suburban precinct, burned kindling, and reported the dynastic change to Heaven; no ancestor shared the offering yet. the second year of Taishi, first month: an edict read, “Officials asked to keep Wei’s provisional suburban form; I underestimated how hard true reform would be and let it stand as permanent—debate gridlocked, deadlines slipped, and heaven and the ancestors went unserved on schedule. Days grow short while I wait; I have trimmed my meals and lost rest—authorize the suburban rite at once.” Ministers argued that the Five Emperors are simply aspects of Heaven: the royal qi shifted with the seasons, so the titles multiplied, yet only one god stood behind them. They urged removing the five thrones from the Bright Hall and southern altar, renaming the five directional gods as five essences of the single “August Heaven Emperor,” each with one seat. At the earth altar drop the joint offerings to late empresses. The throne accepted every point. Second month, day dingchou: the suburban cult paired Emperor Xuan with Heaven; the Bright Hall cult paired Emperor Wen with the Supreme God. Eleventh month of the same year: officials revisited the issue—classically the mound rite and suburban rite were one; they proposed combining round and square altars with the south and north suburban sites and rebuilding the platforms so winter and summer solstice offerings matched the twin suburbs. The emperor agreed again, adopting in full the program Wang Su had once urged on Emperor Xuan of Wei. That month, winter solstice on gengyin, the sovereign personally worshiped at the southern suburban round altar. Afterward no separate round mound or square pool stood apart from those suburban sites.
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Taikang 3, first month: the emperor led the suburban sacrifice in person, with the crown prince and all imperial sons assisting at the offerings. An edict in the tenth month of the tenth year quoted the Classic of Filial Piety: suburban worship joined Hou Ji to Heaven, while the Bright Hall cult joined King Wen to the high god. The Rites of Zhou adds that heaven is worshiped by “marshaling” the high god and earth by “marshaling” the four directional vistas. Since the “four wang” are not simply “earth,” the “Supreme Lord” honored in the Bright Hall cannot be the same as “Heaven” at the mound altar. The earlier decision to strip the Five Thrones from the Bright Hall does not hold up when checked against canonical wording. The Odes preface traces King Wen’s and King Wu’s merit to Hou Ji, which is why he ranks as heaven’s partner. Emperor Xuan’s martial founding already earned him a share of heaven; adding another dynastic father to the same honor upsets the logic of the pairing. Restore the Bright Hall layout and the five thrones at the southern suburban altar. Emperor Min never finished founding suburban and ancestral shrines at Chang’an before his line collapsed.
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便
After the court fled south, Taixing 2 opened discussion on how to stage suburban sacrifice. Diao Xie and Du Yi insisted work should wait until the throne moved back to Luoyang. Xun Zu countered with Han Xiandi’s example: suburbs were raised at Xu on short notice, so Jiangnan could do the same. Wang Dao, Xun Song, Hua Heng, and Yu Liang sided with Xun Zu, the southern altar was dedicated on ji ground. He Xun drafted the liturgy, borrowing heavily from Western Han and Western Jin forms. On xinmao in the third month the sovereign led the suburban offering himself, matching Emperor Wu’s inaugural southern rite. With no northern altar yet, chthonic gods were crowded into the sky-cult precinct.
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宿 西
Mingdi authorized a northern site in Taining 3 but died before builders finished. Chengdi revived the project in Xianhe 8, placing the altar south of Mount Fuzhou. The southern roster listed the five celestial hosts’ aides, luminaries, constellations, polar asterisms, weather gods, and more—sixty-two seats. The northern roster covered mountains, rivers, lakes, and the spirit of the plow—forty-four names. Small Jiangnan peaks received shrines the way Guanzhong’s brooks did in Chang’an days. The xinwei offering introduced Empress Xuanmu Zhang as earth’s consort, copying Wei rather than Western Jin.
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When Kangdi prepared a northern rite in the first year of Jianyuan, officials quarreled over details. Gu He’s memorial recalled Taishi reforms that folded both solstices into the paired suburban sites. Classics never pin the northern date—some argued midsummer, others the same yang-month slot as the south. Guangwu’s first northern altar fell on xinwei of the first month, matching the southern calendar. The eastern exile had collapsed seven cults into one hill for lack of statutes—an emergency measure. Xianhe discussions split the altars yet kept the first-month timing. Wei followed Eastern Han in pairing earth with a first-month heaven offering. Gao Tanglong cited Zhou precedent that heaven stands alone at suburb and that true kings use the Xia-style opening month. The court adopted Gu He’s line. He presided in person at southern xinwei and northern xinsi the same month.
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輿使輿
In Yuanxing 3 Liu Yu expelled Huan Xuan from the capital region. On jimao he announced the punitive success before the southern altar. The sovereign was still exiled at Jiangling. When the next annual rite came due, ministers wanted the Zhou model: the Minister of Rites as proxy, the three excellencies conducting the liturgy. Wang Nazhi objected: the embalmed sovereign still reigns in name, so ministers act on mandate; proxy sacrifice needs no further plea. This is not like ordinary times when the throne sits empty. Critics answered that current edicts already empower the three dukes. Heaven’s suburban altar is uniquely august—only the emperor may approach it. Lesser kin offer at home shrines, but heaven demands the ruler’s own warrant. Wang added that Jin Wu used the second month and Yuan the third for their first suburbs. The calendar still allows the true sovereign to arrive in time; haste would cheat him of the rite. The throne took Wang Nazhi’s side.
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Classical rules name victim hues, but Qin favored bay foals and Han spoke only of “calves.” Eastern Jin used black oxen at both suburbs and red at Bright Hall, shrines, and earth gods.
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使 使
Classics tell ministers to notify ancestral shrines and the she altar, not the suburban mound. Han only notes the grand commandant proclaiming the temple name south of the city. Cao Pi before an eastern campaign had a single ox reported at the southern altar. Zhong Yao’s posthumous proclamation for Cao Pi was likewise a southern-suburb affair. Jin abandoned it after crossing the Yangzi.
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西 西 西 殿西 西
Canon fixes vernal equinox dawn rites eastward and autumnal dusk rites westward. Wudi left his bamboo lodge before sunrise to salute the sun eastward and the moon westward the same night. Those bows happened at Tai, not at dedicated east-west altars. Later emperors bowed twice daily by habit. Cao Pi complained that Han’s hallway bows looked domestic, not celestial. His Huangchu 2 eastern-gate sun rite ignored the true equinox timing. Mingdi restored east and west suburban equinox observances in Taihe 1. Taikang 2 officials asked to skip the emperor’s vernal equinox trip if weather disagreed. Wudi replied that wavering from the codex leaves no stable custom. He had indulged shortcuts during rebellion; peace demanded consistency. The edict shows he resumed personal equinox worship. Later courts let it die out.
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Western Jin rotated heaven’s partner between Wendi and Xuandi, then settled back on Wendi. Suburban and Bright Hall pairings therefore never quite matched. Zhi Yu noted old Bright Hall cults honored five celestial lords. The new code collapsed them into the single high god. Reform stripped the five thrones, leaving one high god. Confucius still distinguished mound heaven from Bright Hall’s “Supreme Lord.” Zhou text pairs “marshaling heaven” with the high god and earth with the four vistas. Once “wang” is not mere soil, “Supreme Lord” cannot equal “Heaven.” The open-air mound uses simplest vessels and far ancestors to echo origins. The hall’s rich spread resembles ancestral shrines, so a nearer father joins the god. The two venues, offerings, and regalia diverge sharply. Dual pairing and repeated offerings within days prove two distinct divinities. Archaic sage-kings became phase patrons after death. Those five powers answer heaven at the directional altars and the hall. Heaven and the five hosts share the same grand fur regalia. Commentators call them the five “quintessence” spirits aiding heaven’s nurture. Tradition held until early Jin innovators disagreed. The gengwu reform cleared five thrones for a single sky god. Han Yang asked to revive the five-lord cult. Taikang 10 made it policy. The memorial urged codifying the old five-god pattern for hall and suburb. The throne agreed. Eastern Jin never reconstructed it amid turmoil.
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Han astrologers issued calendars and, before five seasonal nodes, read the “five commands” while the sovereign shifted robe colors. Officials entered with the written command, read it kneeling, and drank a ritual cup. Cao Wei kept the ceremony. A clerk noted Wei never read a “great heat” yellow-season edict. Gao Tanglong explained earth’s central yellow patch inside each season. Yellow robes close the “fire” fortnight; other quarters skip a fifth reading. Seasonal edicts number four, so no standalone “earth” reading exists. That is why Wei omitted the great-heat proclamation.
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祿
Western Jin copied the system. Fu Xian described autumn’s first day: white carriages and flags in the palace. Hence autumn ceremonies favored white equipage. Xianhe 5 saw a debate on reciting the autumn command. Xun Yi and Cao Yu said the handbook lacked detail. Hua Heng recalled Wudi suspending only the hot-season readings. Ancient kings timed proclamations to nature so regalia would awe the court. Regalia remains patchy and the weather sweltering; we recommend skipping the summer reading, as Hua Heng urged. The throne assented. In the sixth year’s third month officials noted the sixteenth would mark the beginning of summer. With full ritual dress restored, reciting the summer edict would again align the court with celestial rhythm. The request carried.
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The Monthly Ordinances tell the king to pick an auspicious day, shoulder the sacred plow, and lead the high nobility through the symbolic furrows of the imperial field. Qin’s war on books killed the ceremony. Western Han revived it starting with Wendi. Each of Wei’s three temple emperors worked the sacred acre.
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使 輿 便
the fourth year of Taishi officials asked to combine plowing with First Farmer worship; the emperor agreed to delegate the liturgy. An edict declared that worship and farming anchor the realm. Sage-kings hoed the imperial plot so temple grain would be pure and so peasants would take their cue from the throne. Lately the “plowing” shrank to a few steps—a hollow antique show that fed no altars and taught no one, while processions still cost a fortune. Reviving the thousand-mu field means sharing the sweat of real tillage with the nobility to set an example. Bureaus were told to lay out plots east of the capital above the Luo River. Where no public acre existed, officials might swap plots but never seize private soil. The emperor rode a plain wood cart through the furrows and offered a full tai-lao to First Farmer. After Huidi the rite died out again.
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As eastern Jin planned the ceremony, the ministry asked whether the emperor must officiate at First Farmer himself. He Xun answered that Han codes implied personal attendance without spelling out every step. The Zhou canon still lists distinct crowns for personal cults to land and hearth spirits. He proposed drafting parallel handbooks for the two questions. Their handbook proved too thin and the plan stalled. Aidi’s later attempt likewise failed.
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Local Han calendars tied First Farmer, wind, and rain offerings to stem-branch days with sheep or pigs. Spring’s first day brought green banners to the eastern outskirts. Courtiers saluted the returning spring heralds without an altar service. Summer, autumn, and winter held no such parade.
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Wei’s emperors hoed, but princely domains skipped the classical hundred-mu lesson. Late in Wudi’s reign ministers cited the feudal hundred-mu rule meant to feed state altars and teach husbandry. They urged each enfeoffed prince to copy the rite. Nothing came of it.
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Zhou law placed the queen’s silkworm cult north of the city. Han empresses fed silkworms east of the capital and offered a pig-and-sheep pair to tutelary silk spirits. Cao Pi moved the harem rite to the northern field in Huangchu 7 to match Zhou.
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西 使 西 西 便
Taikang 6 Hua Jiao reminded the court that kings and queens once shared the plow and the silkworm tray. He praised the emperor’s virtue and noted the empress still lacked a public silk ceremony. He asked for a full classical observance. The throne answered that grain and silk from royal hands once proved filial care and moral teaching. Plowing had rules; silk rites lapsed amid busy government. Peace allowed the court to finish what war had postponed. Officials should blend old texts with recent examples for adoption the following year. Silkworms moved to the western field to balance the eastern plow plot. Cheng Can wrote the liturgy. They built a square mound with ramps beside the queen’s temporary palace and silkworm house. Six noblewives supervised the trays. On hatching day she dressed in green with Han-style regalia and rode a decorated six-horse coach. Female scribes in formal pins rode along with harvest baskets. The whole female nobility trailed in green with picking gear. Forty-eight hours ahead, attendants spread newly hatched worms on mats. At dawn a tai-lao announced the rite before the queen appeared. Leftover sacrificial meat went to helpers. She mounted the western terrace with noblewomen ranked to her east. She took three sprays; higher-ranking women five; lower ranks nine; matrons fed the worms. Afterward they feasted and distributed silk by rank.
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Western Han lacked a state grain shrine until Wang Mang, who later removed it. The usual layout was twin soil shrines sharing a single grain god.
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Western Jin copied Wei’s arrangement intact. Taikang 9’s temple project shifted the twin altars. An edict proposed unifying the duplicated soil worship. Fu Xian answered with a memorial.
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The Canon of Sacrifice distinguishes royal field-altar from national altar. The king dons regalia for heaven and ancestors, then takes the plow. The furrow ritual supplies pure grain for ancestral vessels. The private royal altar thanks the soil that feeds the sacred acre. A second altar speaks for common farmers. Two purposes require two mounds.
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Wang Su tied the royal altar to spring petitions and autumn repayment. Wang called the national altar a realm-wide shrine for subjects, not a capital-only cult. Wang Su quoted the Canon of Sacrifice. The text allows local “placed” village shrines. Wang equated them with modern hamlet shrines. His commentary keeps village cults separate from state cults. Elsewhere Wang blurred the national altar into a mere local shrine—incoherent. The great altar serves all subjects under the king’s charge. A suburban scripture insists the national altar stand open to sky. Open-air placement shows it belongs to everyone. Local shrines multiply under place names like Qingqiu. Village earth gods cannot replace the capital’s national mound.
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The same canon lists seven domestic spirits for the people and seven personal to the king. Personal cults serve the royal house alone. Public cults embrace all subjects. The grammar matches royal versus national rites. Some scholars collapse seven into five by sleight of hand. Five are major; seven are minor domestic offerings. Zhou labels them secondary, ink-crowned services. Wang Su explained plague gods as wronged spirits given rest. Dual-altar skeptics quote Wang Su yet ignore explicit classical lines. If Wang Su’s word can overthrow scripture, nothing in his corpus is safe either.
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The Shang founding chapter offered one bull at a single altar—strong evidence against duplication. Literalists who cite one bull forget grain needs its own offering. Traditional gloss: mention earth, millet follows. If synecdoche works for grain, it can defend twin altars too. Statecraft rests on altars and armies. Better a redundant mound than a rash demolition. Tradition supports preservation; merger lacks proof.
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The border-warden passage in the Rites of Zhou speaks only of earthworks around the soil altar, never the word grain. The royal field-altar omits grain icons following that passage. Still, idiom pairs earth and millet as the realm’s twin pillars. The king’s linen crown for the combined cult proves his altar honors both earth and crops. Scholars treat the missing “grain” as shorthand; millet is still implied. Fu Xian urged keeping twin earth shrines while adding a grain seat to the royal field-altar.
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''' ' '''' 便
Cheng Can used Wang Su to attack Zheng’s reading of the national altar. Liu Xian replied that Cheng’s logic undoes Wang Su’s own commentary. The Mao commentary equates the “great mound” with the state altar. Wang Su’s reading of the poem depends on that equation. Wang also read the Yu document as mandating five-colored clods at the capital for enfeoffment. That reading puts the grand altar squarely in the capital after all. Liu Xian called Cheng’s view incoherent with Wang’s own exegesis. He protested despite modesty. Liu Shi sided with Liu Xian. The emperor refused merger: one god might sit under two names. The court kept Wei’s twin-altar layout.
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Zhi Yu reopened the debate with the Canon of Sacrifice’s paired definitions. Zhou’s minister of lands rings both earth and millet— the national cult. The royal furrow-altar appears in the border officer and military clauses. The public altar’s seasonal reports cannot lapse. Campaign rites carry the earth god’s tablet for a reason. Classics and history both respect the pairing. Earlier reformers cited Shang founding lines to justify cutting the royal altar. Zhi Yu warned against letting pre-Zhou fragments overturn Zhou and ritual-canon law. The Taikang move had already sparked controversy. Emperor Wu had fixed the dual-altar doctrine for all time. The code should codify both mounds again. The throne accepted Zhi Yu.
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Eastern Jin’s first year mirrored Luoyang: two earths, one millet. The national altar’s hymn praised earth’s universal bounty. They raised the altar to shield all states. The poem called the realm to trust the gift of soil. The royal field-altar hymn stressed the capital’s bond with chthonic power. They framed it as making the soil cult numinous. Timed worship would draw fortune down.
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殿 便
Han began each month with astrologers delivering the calendar and ministers reading commands. They greeted the solar node at the earth shrine with libations. Eclipses triggered sheep offerings at the altar of earth. Participants dressed in prescribed crimson-trimmed robes. Jin required three days’ martial alert before predicted conjunctions. Zhi Yu prescribed red kerchiefs to strengthen the sun’s fire. The sovereign withdrew to undyed robes while the palace locked down. Observers on the tower triggered gate drums at first bite. Courtiers armed themselves in red caps when drums sounded. Every senior scribe stood sword in hand at his office. The captain of the guard rode patrols to check defenses. Community altars echoed the drums per Zhou law. Red cords lashed the earth god while priests scolded him. The earth deity ranked as a lord deserving rebuke when heaven misbehaved. Rites ended once daylight recovered.
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Late Han astrologers predicted a New Year eclipse. Ministers asked Xun Yu whether to cancel court. Liu Shao noted even legendary clerks erred in forecasting. Canon lists eclipse among rites that halt mid-ceremony. Liu argued sages refused to scrap court on a forecast alone. The court met; no eclipse came; Liu Shao won renown.
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退 退 使
Eastern Jin faced the same New Year eclipse question. Yu Bing circulated Liu’s memo. Critics called the precedent a mistake. Cai conceded forecasters could be wrong. But claiming sages ignored omens misreads the canon. Heaven’s warnings demand austerity, drums, and personal penance. Piety prefers excess to negligence. Sages once stopped a funeral cortège for an eclipse—uncertainty justified pause. Liu’s policy ignored that example. Lu Huan’s mistimed sacrifice drew canonical blame. Continuing banquets while a sky omen loomed was worse than Lu’s fault. Cai read the “halted rite” rule as applying to surprise eclipses, not forecast ones. Liu misapplied the passage. Liu contradicted the same book he quoted. Cai hoped to stop the bad precedent. Yu Bing canceled court after Cai’s essay.
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Later Yin Hao wanted Liu’s permissive rule. Wang argued the four interruptions cover emergencies, not scheduled eclipses. Court again accepted Wang Biaozhi.
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Classicists disputed the “six ancestries” for centuries. Wang Mang mapped the cult onto hexagram lines. Cao Rui consulted Wang Su and kept the six shrines. Early Jin briefly abolished the set. Zhi Yu cited Shun’s sequence to separate six zong from heaven and peaks. Zhou pairs “zong” with soil in one clause. Local officers also sacrifice to zong seasonally. Parallel wording equates zong with the earth cult’s rank. Village zong rites omit soil, implying a different deity. State ritual elevates zong alongside the greatest chthonic cults. Monthly Ordinance’s “celestial zong” identifies the six. Guangwu revived the Shun-era formula at his accession. Eastern Han placed the altar northwest like the great earth mound. Wei officials fought over definitions in Jingchu 2. Liu Shao offered a metaphysical reading. He defined them as spirits of cosmic equipoise. Different books name the same sixfold power. Wei adopted Liu Shao’s definition. The cult became a major dynasty-wide observance. Established rites gain inertia. Zhi Yu asked to restore the full six-shrine round. The emperor agreed.
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Canon lists seven domestic tutelary gods for the royal line. Spring’s swallow omen triggered the fertility cult with a great victim. Mao tradition tied a poem to the agrarian star altar. Liu Bang copied the star altar. Wudi’s kitchen god cult began with a fangshi’s advice. The birth of crown prince Liu Ju brought the matchmaking spirit’s shrine. Han statute lists five household cults below the great earth altars in rank yet still on the books. It mandated a spring fertility altar outside the south gate with a singled-out offering. The same month honored Canopus at its southern chapel. They also fed the kitchen god at summer’s start and the “heart” asterism in autumn. Western Jin tourists still called the Luoyang mound a meteor shrine. Eastern Jin folded Spirit Star into the southern sky cult and dropped the seven domestic gods.
45
Canon backs the spring rain dance when the dragon constellation rises. Han law ordered local earth shrines swept during prolonged drought. Officials wore black, built clay dragons, and rotated children’s dances weekly. A spring drought struck Xianning 2. An edict ordered empire-wide rain prayers in the fourth month. Mid-summer opened joint appeals to earth and landscape gods. Timely rain fell on wuzi. Such was classical drought ritual. Taikang 3 and 10 repeated the sequence. Floods brought red regalia, bound earth gods with crimson rope, and scarlet drums.
46
使 使 使使
Zhou’s king catalogued sky, weather, earth, and nature gods in one system. Cao Pi standardized river and peak cults with submerged jade. In the sixth year he sailed the Huai campaign. Envoys drowned a ritual jade in the river that autumn. Mingdi’s eastern tour included a Tai Mountain ox. The last Wei emperor honored Mount Hua near Chang’an.
47
' '西 輿
He Qi quoted sage-king tours that burned on every peak. Orderly seasons followed faithful worship. Later ages kept peaks and rivers tied to noble ranks. Metropolitan streams gained great-river status by proximity to the throne. The southward flight wrecked northern peak cults. One Anhui peak still had a token garrison. Local magistrates improvised seasonal rites on the mountain. Even that lapsed after Xianhe. Illegal village cults now crowd the map. Proper names expose them as vulgar spirits. Their cost bleeds taxpayers. True landscape gods starve while bogus shrines multiply. War left no time to regulate worship. Peace should restore orthodox cults. River basins await renewed moral sway. Royal tours and peak-burning rites remain in abeyance. Full reform waits on reconquering the north. Officers should draft lean, honest liturgies. Outlaw shrines need pruning by law. The court ignored He Qi then.
48
Zhou Wu ennobled Shang and Xia lines at once. Confucius died without a noble title. Yuandi first titled the Kong heir as Lord Bao-cheng. Cao Pi made Kong Xian “Marquis of the Sagely Ancestor” with a temple guard. Jin renamed the title to “Lord of the Sagely Altar.” Capital and Qufu both offered three victims seasonally. Mingdi funded Kong Ting’s offerings like Western Jin.
49
Reform moved the judge-god beside the law office to mirror Confucius at the academy. Date shifted from earth festival to early autumn. Zhi Yu argued Gao Yao’s cult honored verdicts, not statute drafting. The academy ranks with high ritual, deserving the sage’s altar. The law office sat below the high court; moving the cult there demoted the god. Zhi Yu wanted Gao Yao back at the justice ministry. Spring honored life; autumn matched executions—ill fit for a trial god. He asked to revert both site and season. The edict said yes.
50
Year’s first morning planted peach charms and killed roosters at every gate. Han used midsummer peach plaques without cock sacrifice. Wei added roosters under He Yan’s rules. Peach amulets supported Han’s “Liu” prophecy; Wei kept some Han exorcism toys. No one recorded why the date moved to New Year. Cao Rui banned unlisted landscape cults.
51
使
Sima Yan opened his reign by listing orthodox nature gods. Virtuous rule keeps spirits mild and folk religion sober. Late Han licentious shrines drew Wei’s purge. Jin would reward true benefactor gods and ban impostors. A later edict struck unlisted plague rites.
52
殿
The Royal Regulations cap royal shrines at seven. Xian made Cao Cao duke of ten Hebei commanderies. Cao Cao raised five lineage halls as a feudatory. Kingship kept the five-shrine layout. Cao Pi elevated grandfather and Lady Ding when he took the Wei throne-in-waiting. After Han’s cession he raised Cao Song and Cao Cao’s temple names. He fed Cao Cao in a palace hall like a private wake. The digest criticizes palace-room sacrifice as fit only for commoners.
53
使
Cao Rui added remote ancestors to the Ye complex. Four bays held recent lines; Martial Emperor stood alone forever. Luoyang completion shifted distant tablets to a park shrine but kept four indoor bays. Jingchu reform proclaimed three eternal Wei ancestors. Cao Cao became “Founding Ancestor.” Cao Pi became “High Ancestor.” Cao Rui took the title “Fiery Ancestor.” Flanking halls housed Cao Pi and reserved Cao Rui’s line. Three shrines gained perpetual worship. Four lesser bays would cycle like Zhou’s removal system.
54
使
Lady Zhen’s disgrace kept her off the main altar. Cao Rui rehabilitated his mother’s name at her mausoleum. Ministers compared her to Jiang Yuan’s side shrine. They praised her moral legacy to the throne. She lacked an indoor shrine despite her rank. They asked for a separate mortuary shrine in Zhou style. The throne agreed. Ye gained her chapel in Taihe 1. Builders unearthed a seal blessing maternal devotion. Moved, he offered a great victim in report. Her cult moved to Luoyang with full music; Ye closed.
55
The final Wei ruler elevated Sima Zhao and his forebears. Sima Zhao died that autumn as “King Wen.”
56
西 便 西 西
Sima Yan’s first act raised three generations of Sima kings to emperors and titled their wives. Ministers asked for the full seven-shrine Zhou layout. Wudi shrank the project to one building for economy. They cited the single-hall model of high antiquity. Zhou had multiplied halls for genealogical clarity. They flattered his choice to imitate Shun’s frugality. They argued Shun kept Yao’s hall, so Jin could keep Wei’s. Reuse Cao Wei’s ancestral complex. Approved. Six forebears plus three emperors filled the six alternating niches. Wang Su’s count left the founder’s bay open until Xuan’s tablet rose. Wudi had second thoughts about reusing Wei brickwork. He ordered a fresh Jin temple. Construction began on Jin’s own hall. Sima Shi’s wife gained empress honors. A critic said she predated the dynasty. Wudi overruled the objection. A princess received main-hall placement without classical warrant. Ming of Wei had given his daughter a side shrine; Jin folded her in. Collapse triggered debate on seven separate buildings. Wudi preferred one building with seven bays. He kept the single-complex plan. A lavish rebuild still faced the canonical direction. Tablet procession mimicked an imperial cortege. Deaths triggered removal of oldest tablets per rule. Child heirs received shadow niches outside normal rotation. Yang Zhi’s rehabilitated cult stayed apart from the seven bays.
57
西
Sima Rui claimed spiritual succession to Sima Yan like Guangwu to Western Han. Eastern Jin carved fresh tablets for everyone. Diao’s brother-count rule emptied two niches prematurely. Removed tablets sat in limbo. Yuandi admitted he had been vassal to the last two Luoyang emperors. He felt wrong delegating pour at his former lords’ tablets. He sought a ritual fix. One faction cited Guangwu’s hands-off model. Others wanted three exiled emperors split off. Heng argued room count should flex with tablets. Shang precedent showed more than seven worthies. Restore removed forebears to fill seven lines. Wen Jiao distinguished Sima Rui from Guangwu’s usurpation narrative. Yuandi had legitimate title to pour wine himself. Both agreed to reinstate two tablets. Wang Dao backed Wen Jiao. He warned against skipping the father line. Sima Rui adopted the full program. The three tragic emperors kept permanent side niches.
58
西
Another death cycle bumped Yuzhang. Genealogy chaos filled ten bays. Mingdi’s death still left ten slots in use. Expanded west wing held “distant” tablets. Yang Zhi entered the hall under Chengdi. Brother emperors froze one removal step, swelling to eleven.
59
西西 西 西 西 西 '' 西 西 西
Yonghe 2 scheduled Jingzhao’s retirement. Old removed tablets had lived in a western closet. Feng’s relabeling them a distant shrine was questioned. The math put remote lords above Sima Yi’s seat. Zhou’s deep pedigree justified stacking. Jin anchored on Sima Yi. Four lines sat above their descendant’s founder title. The great colligation rite would demote the founder’s role. Cai Mo cited Zhou kings honoring distant line. West-general tablet would sit north of Xuan in the big service. Removed tablets stayed in the western distant shrine with seasonal grain. Feng suggested altar storage for distant tablets. They quoted Zhou storage of early kings. Jin tablets should nest under Xuan. More architecture was needed. East-facing seat repeated for the grand rite. Sun defended Sima Yi’s moral precedence over seat order. Xu cited the altar-and-field downgrade chain. Stone crypt plus occasional altar rites. Xu Chan consulted Yu Xi. Yu listed Han-Wei burial spots for old tablets. He preferred sealing them away. They never received full emperor honors. Future Emperor Jianwen’s faction proposed the stone-room compromise. Fan Xuan compared to Shun’s humble forebears. They were lords, not cult emperors. Shun-era burial stayed near heirs. Xia buried elsewhere than main stairs. Fan proposed a transitional hall above Xuan. Officials coalesced on Cai’s east-facing rite. Zhang dismissed order worries among removed tablets. Yu above Gun justified odd vertical order. Jingzhao joined the western distant-shrine storage; eleven main bays remained. Brother successions skipped a removal round. Sima Yu’s line restored two tablets. Another cycle removed Yingchuan.
60
便 '' 殿西 西 西
Taiyuan 12 reopened capital cult reform. He asked for round-mound and Bright Hall plans. Xu Miao cited Sima Yi’s precedent on one heaven altar. Eastern Jin’s twin suburbs should stand. Leave suburban layout alone. Sima Yan’s six niches. Sima Yi was both founder and grandfather line. Founder’s seat stayed blank while four generations filled in. Brother emperors collapsed generational count. You cannot crown Xuan while only five lines show. Canon allows lateral heirs to reset tablets. Xu Miao’s fix: restore Jingzhao bay, defer Xuan’s supremacy until removals catch up. Xu Miao said retired Jingzhao tablets should live in a crypt, excluded even from great colligations. Why should that be? “Ascend” implies promotion, not demoting an ancestor. Child heirs and their paired shrines rise and fall as one when niches rotate. He urged finishing Bright Hall and its high-god pairing. Dual capitals did not fault Eastern Zhou or Eastern Han. Which deity shared Bright Hall remained disputed. The Classic of Changes merges high god with royal fathers. Zhou lumps special and routine heaven reports because both use the same jade. If high god were only the five directional lords, the wording would differ. Che Yin concurred. He pleaded flexibility on Bright Hall architecture. Form should follow function and the age. Defer monumental works until the north is reconquered. The court tabled major reform. Taiyuan 16 expanded the hall to sixteen bays. Procession matched Taikang except for four lords’ reduced pomp. Western Jin had given those tablets full imperial escort; Jin did not. Interim offerings marked installation. Second offering marked final seating. Sima Yu’s mother received a chapel beside the main line. Another emperor’s death cycled Jingzhao into western storage like before.
61
西 西 祿
Liu Yu’s court reopened the tablet-storage fight. Dewen argued four lords should leave the active line. Eastern Han buried old tablets without niches. Seal them in a side hall and stop feeding them. Xu Guang resisted outright burial. Western annex as remote shrine without di inclusion. Yuan wanted status quo until reform. Liu Yu sided with Dewen but delayed action. Jin fell before the rite was settled.
62
使
National mourning silenced high cults and banquets. Court skipped music at yin after a death. Fan cited three-month suspension after an in-palace death. He questioned applying the rule to a baby princess. Ministers delegated the steam rite to the three dukes.
63
Evening victim inspection skipped the bow on exit. Scholars pleaded precedent. He demanded a respectful bow. Western Jin made the bow norm; Eastern Jin dropped it again.
64
殿殿 殿 殿
Cao Wei kept a north-side robing room. Jin reform opened a southern approach. Zhi Yu called the southern layout immodest. Revert to Wei’s north entry. Court agreed.
65
使 使
Classical report rites lapsed in empire. Same campaign notice to heaven as before. Death also reported south of the city. Eastern Jin dropped temple announcement after suburb. Exile court revived report rites at a field shrine. They accused Su of wrecking dynastic order. They listed his pollution of the realm. Generals claimed credit for crushing the coup. Prayer invoked recent emperors to bless the loyalists. They pledged total sacrifice.
66
使
Cao Rui warned lateral heirs against ennobling birth parents. Liu Xun’s case showed the temptation. Han Aidi’s fathers’ cult veered into impropriety. Petty consorts gained empress parity. Good ministers averted a worse flame. Later Han kept repeating the mistake. Cao Rui commanded memory of Han errors. Adopted heirs must obey main-line duty. Death for those who ennoble private parents. The oath was metal-bound and archived. Later Wei child emperors skipped private parent cults. Western Jin’s last emperor could not title his father emperor. Some wanted Sima Rui’s father elevated. He Xun blocked “emperor father” for the late prince. Sima Rui accepted restraint.
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