Chapter 21 3. Kunning Sacrifice

The shaman sacrifices in Kunning Palace include New Year's Eve, Spring and Autumn Festival, Four Seasons Festival, Moon Festival and Sun Festival (Morning Festival and Evening Festival). There are sacrifices every day, 365 days a year.During the great sacrifice, behind the Jiaotai Hall and in front of the Kunning Palace, there are cattle on the east side and horses on the west side, which reproduces the legacy of both farming and fighting in Manchuria.The horses and cattle after the sacrifice are not slaughtered, but the cattle and war horses are cared for, and sold to the accountant, and the money obtained is used to buy pigs for later use.

Regular sacrificial offerings: the Western Kang is dedicated to the gods of the dynasty, offering sacrifices to Shakyamuni Buddha, Guanyin Bodhisattva, Emperor Guan, etc., at Yin (4 o'clock in Yinzheng) and Mao (6 o'clock in Maozheng); Lihan God (Manchurian God), Portrait God, Mongolian God, etc., at the time of Wei (14:00) and Shen (18:00), use pigs, and set incense dishes, clean water and yellow rice cakes.During the sacrifice, the shaman recites divine songs, delivers congratulatory speeches, plays sanxian, plays the pipa, beats tambourines, and vibrates waist bells.

The sacrificial ceremony of Kunning Palace moved the primitive, vulgar, rough, and cumbersome sacrificial etiquette of Manchuria shamanism into the royal palace, and wore the crown of court sacrificial ceremony.Kunning Palace is a place for slaughtering pigs, making cakes and making wine when offering sacrifices to gods.For example, a live pig used for sacrifice is carried to the edge of the kang in Kunning Palace, and hot wine is poured into the two ears of the pig. The pig is scalded until it screams.Meanwhile, pray and play music.Then put the live pigs on a large tin-wrapped case, slaughter them, receive blood, peel them, dissect them, and cook them in a big pot.Cut the cooked pork into cubes, called "胙肉", and put them on the table for sacrificial rituals.How many pigs are used for sacrifice in Kunning Palace?Usually, 2 pigs are used for daily sacrifices, and 39 pigs are used for one annual sacrifice. There are more than 1,000 pigs in total in a year, and each pig is 11 taels of silver, which is more than 15,000 taels of silver ("Ministry of the Ministry of Internal Affairs").There are also rice cakes, sticky rice and yellow rice for making wine, about 700 shi per year. ("Regulations on Observations and Actions of the Imperial Household Office") When making sacrificial wine and cakes, use the spring water from Yuquan Mountain.

During the Kunning Palace Grand Sacrifice, the emperor and queen, clan princes, civil and military first-rank officials, as well as Mongolian nobles, kings, Baylors, university scholars, six ministers, etc., went to Kunning Palace to eat the "gizzard meat" after offering sacrifices to the gods.All the ministers wore python robes to make up their clothes, kowtowed to the gods in the west, and kowtowed to the emperor again.Afterwards, the emperor was seated on the southern kang, and everyone sat on the kang. The ministers of the dining room, etc., held the meat such as the front elbow and the back elbow, divided them into plates, and presented them up.The emperor cut his own flesh with his own sword, and all his ministers also cut their own flesh.After eating, tea will be offered and everyone will kowtow.The emperor returned to the palace, and the ministers withdrew one after another.That night, each of them gave meat and cakes, and took them home. ("Xiaoting Miscellaneous Records") The empress is in Dongnuange, leading the imperial concubine and below, to receive the same meat and eat it separately.

During the sacrifice, it is presided over by a female shaman.The chief sacrificial female shaman receives a three-tier salary and enjoys deputy ministerial treatment.Enter Shenwumen every morning and go to Kunning Palace to worship God. (Note to "Qing Palace Ci") In Laba, the year when Emperor Qianlong succeeded to the throne, he worshiped the gods in Kunning Palace.Emperor Qianlong, princes and ministers participated in the sacrificial offerings and entered the sacrificial meat.How did this breakfast go?There are files, recorded as follows. On the dining table with gold ingots, put one piece of sacrificial meat, one piece of offal (big silver plate), one piece of sacrificial meat (silver bowl), one piece of shredded pork soup (No. , four items of porridge and vegetables (Huang Zhong), a gold spoon, chopsticks, knife, and a large silver plate, after setting them up, present them in.Comes with one piece of japonica rice meal, one piece of Laba porridge (both yellow bowl No. 3), and two boxes of dry and wet snacks (both for carnivorous adults).The princes and adults eat meat, and they all use silver plates and ebony chopsticks.Empresses, concubines, nobles, etc., eat meat in Dongnuan Pavilion, and use the usual table, all with porridge and vegetables in bowls. ("The First Year to the Third Year of Qianlong in the Palace as usual meal base file")

Participating in the shaman sacrifice of Kunning Palace and eating gizzard meat is a kind of qualification and treatment.The Kunning Palace eats meat, and only the king, Baylor, etc., and first-rank ministers are eligible to be invited (except for individual appointments).The second-rank officials and the Hanlin of the South Study Room may also participate sometimes.For example, in the twelfth year of Daoguang (1832), Yongxuan, the eighth son of Emperor Qianlong, Prince Yi, was 88 years old.Another example is that Ruan Yuan was retired and registered (now Yizheng, Yangzhou City, Jiangsu Province). Emperor Daoguang sent people to send people to Kunning Palace to worship the meat party during the New Year. Ruan Yuan "kowtowed only to collar".Another example is Zeng Guofan, who was sent to Kunning Palace to eat meat on the first day of October in the ninth year of Tongzhi (1870).Yinzheng (4:00) entered the court at one moment, and Maozheng (6:00) entered the Qianqing Palace at two moments, and stood and waited with all the kings and ministers.Enter at three quarters and go to Kunning Palace.The emperor was already sitting on the kang in the southwest corner, with his back against the south window and facing north.The kings and ministers sat in turn facing the god's curtain on the west wall.Taking the south as the top, the first row to the south is Yichen, the king of Dun, and Yichen, the king of Gong, and then to the north.The second row is from south to north, and Zeng Guofan sits first in the south of the fifth row.First, a plate of side dishes, pickled melon, etc., second, a large silver plate of white meat, second, a bowl of rice with shredded pork, second, a glass of wine, and second, a cup of milk tea.After about two quarters, exit. ("Chronicle of Events of Duke Zeng Wenzheng")

Shaman sacrificial rituals in Manchuria are generally held at the end of the year in the homes of scholar-bureaucrats, and guests are invited to eat gizzard meat.After the guests arrive, a banquet is held on the kang, with salt, sauce, garlic, leeks and other condiments, sliced ​​white meat, placed on a plate, and eaten one by one. The guests eat more as auspicious (this is not in line with modern healthy diet).All night long, the dawn will be scattered. The shaman sacrifice of the Qing court in the Kunning Palace lasted until the early Republic of China.During the reign of Emperor Guangxu, after the Kunning Palace sacrificed to the gods, Empress Dowager Cixi sat on the North Kang, and Emperor Guangxu sat on the South Kang.If the Empress Dowager Cixi did not participate, Emperor Guangxu would sit on the Beikang.All the ministers who had been announced filed in. Emperor Guangxu kowtowed to the Empress Dowager Cixi, and all the ministers kowtowed to Emperor Guangxu again, and then took their seats on the kang.The ministers of the Ministry of Internal Affairs held a plate of meat and distributed it to the Empress Dowager Cixi and Emperor Guangxu to go to the court. All the ministers kowtowed at the same time.Distributed meat, pickles and god cakes to all the ministers, and they all kowtowed to thank them.Then, into the milk tea.Exit after eating.

In the Kunning Palace, the Kitchen God is also worshipped.In ancient society, men ruled outside, women ruled inside, and the second house of heaven and earth was the same.Although the queen doesn't cook, the sacrifice to the Kitchen God is still in Kunning Palace.Every year on the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month (December), the Kunning Palace offers sacrifices to the stove.On that day, the chief eunuch of the palace led the chief eunuchs and others to set up a confession case in Kunning Palace, enshrine a god tablet, prepare incense candles, burner stoves, and worship mats, and set up offerings in the imperial tea room and imperial dining room. .The chief eunuch of the palace invited the emperor to go to Kunning Palace before the Buddha, the God, and the Zaojun, burn incense and salute, and then invite the queen to return to the palace after saluting. ("Existing Regulations in the Palace")

The Kunning Palace Festival gradually relaxed.During the Yongzheng period, eunuchs stole sacrificial meat and sold it.It was even worse in the late Qing Dynasty, when eunuchs stole sacrificial meat and sold it to Xisi Restaurant. The casserole white meat of "Sha Guo Ju" was made from sacrificial pork stolen and sold by Kunning Palace in the early years.During the period of the Republic of China, it became a famous dish in the capital, and it is quite famous even today. In short, the courts of the Qing Dynasty not only worshiped the heavens in the Temple of Heaven, but also worshiped the heavens. They not only absorbed Confucian culture, but also worshiped Shaman culture. The situation where different ethnic groups, different religions and cultures coexist and coexist harmoniously.This is the brilliance of the Qing court, and it is also a great mystery why the Qing Dynasty ruled the Central Plains for 268 years.