Chapter 3 Chapter Two Strict Etiquette System - "Five Rituals"

Auspicious ceremony, that is, the ceremony of sacrifice, that is, the ceremony of worshiping ghosts and gods.Since the human beings invented sacrificial activities in ancient times, until the formation of the country, the ancients have always attached great importance to various sacrificial activities.They believe that all gods in nature dominate everything in the world, so offering sacrifices to ghosts and gods is directly related to the fate of the country, so they regard it as a "major event of the country" and list auspicious rituals at the top of the "five rituals".According to the provisions of Ji Li, the objects of sacrifice can be divided into two categories: one is gods, which refer to the gods that exist in nature in people's imagination.The gods mainly include the God of Haotian, the sun, the moon and the stars, Sizhong and Siming (Sizhong and Siming are the names of the two stars), Fengshiyushi (the god of wind and rain), and Sheji (the god of earth and the god of valley respectively). God), Wusi (referring to the five kinds of gods of the earth: the spring god Jumang, the summer god Zhurong, the central Houtu, the autumn god [ruru] harvest, the winter god Xuanming), Wuyue (referring to the five mountains, which are passed down according to legend) Shenduo lived here. Today it refers to Zhongyue Songshan, Dongyue Taishan, Xiyue Huashan, Nanyue Hengshan, Beiyue Hengshan. Historically, Nanyue used to refer to Tianzhu Mountain, Beiyue used to refer to Hebei Hengshan), mountains, forests, rivers, and all things in all directions.There are gods almost everywhere in nature, and there are gods that must be sacrificed.The second is ghosts.The so-called ghosts are the ghosts that people imagine after death.The ancients believed that the soul does not die when a person dies. After leaving the body, it goes to another world and continues to exist there.People live above the ground, where everything is overgrown and the sun is shining brightly, which is called "Yangjian".The ghosts are invisible, so people imagine that they live in a dark world, which is called "the underworld".People always have a feeling of nostalgia for their dead relatives, relatives and friends, and ghost sacrifices actually entrust this feeling.The ancient sacrificial activities mainly include offering sacrifices to ancestral temples, offering sacrifices to the country, and offering sacrifices to heaven and earth.

Ancestral temple, also known as ancestral temple and Taimiao in ancient times, is a place for worshiping and offering sacrifices to ancestors. "Zong, respect; temple, appearance. When you say sacrifices to the ancestral temple, you can see the respect and appearance of the ancestors." ("Book of Rites·Sacrificial Method·Zheng Xuan's Note") This section of ancient commentary points out the meaning of the word "ancestral temple". , that is to say, when offering sacrifices to the ancestral temple, the priests should be able to see the appearance of the sacrificed person during his lifetime.The purpose is to enable the priests to "touch the scene and give birth to emotion" when offering sacrifices to their ancestors, so that the nostalgia for the deceased relatives will surge in their hearts.Therefore, in the early ancestral temple sacrifices, there was a practice of letting the living accept the sacrifices instead of the dead. This sacrificial method is recorded in "Rituals·Shi Yuli", and the sacrificial person representing the ancestors is called "corpse".Zheng Xuan, a famous Confucian scholar in the Eastern Han Dynasty, explained in the note of "Yi Li Shi Yu Li": "The corpse is the master. The sacrifice of a filial son does not see the image of the relatives, and the heart has nothing to do. Standing up the corpse and thinking about it." "Corpse" It plays an extremely important role in the activities of worshiping the ancestral temple, so the choice of "corpse" is also a very serious matter.The "corpse" should be selected from among the grandchildren of the deceased. The selection of the "corpse" is determined by divination, and it is also called "筮 [shi is] corpse". "Corpse" is divided into male corpse and female corpse. The grandson who represents the grandfather is the male corpse, and the granddaughter who represents the grandmother is the female corpse.If the selected "corpse" is too young, it can be held by an elder to accept the sacrifice.If there are no grandchildren, or no suitable candidates, a person of the same generation as the grandchildren will be selected from the family with the same surname as the "corpse".There is another purpose in using the method of "corpse sacrifice" to worship the ancestral temple. "The grandson is the king's (deceased) father's corpse, and the father looks at it from the north, so it is the way for the son to serve his father." ("Book of Rites · Jitong") That is to say, through this method, the offspring are educated to inherit the legacy of their ancestors and understand the principles of life.The method of using corpses as sacrifices was very popular in the Xia, Shang, and Zhou dynasties.In the ceremony of offering sacrifices to the ancestral temple, the corpses of the Xia Dynasty had to stand from the beginning to the end;After the Warring States period, the method of using corpses as sacrifices was gradually eliminated, and corpses were replaced by "divine masters".The so-called "divine master" is the tablet set up for the deceased in the ancestral temple, also known as the "main card".The tablet placed in the ancestral temple has the same function as the corpse, and it is also a symbol of a certain ancestor.

In ancient China, there was a custom of "avoiding taboos", that is, in order to show respect for the other party, especially for the elders, you should not call them by their first names, but use other titles instead.The same is true even for the deceased elders. Therefore, the memorial tablet of the ancestral temple cannot directly write its name, but another title, usually using the words "ancestor" and "ancestor", such as Gaozu, Taizu, and Gaozong. , Taizong, etc., this kind of appellation is called "temple name". The tablets enshrined in the ancestral temple and the sacrificial vessels such as tripod, Yi, and Zun are very sacred in people's minds, so they are protected. "Book of Rites · Qu Li"), otherwise it will be regarded as disrespectful to the ancestors.As for the tablets enshrined in the royal ancestral temple and the sacrificial utensils, they are even regarded as national treasures. As a symbol of the country, they must be properly preserved, and no mistakes are allowed.However, in the early years of the Southern Song Dynasty, the Jin army went south in a large scale. Song Gaozong Zhao Gou fled from Jiankang (now Nanjing, Jiangsu) to Hangzhou (now Zhejiang).

Beginning in the Northern Song Dynasty, in addition to the memorial tablets, the ancestors' "imperial appearance", that is, portraits, were also hung on the ancestral temple when offering sacrifices, and later there were statues.By the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, the royal ancestral temples also hung portraits of civil servants, prime ministers, consuls, and military officials above Jiedu as accompanying sacrifices.There are many "Yongrong" statues enshrined in the ancestral temples of the Jin Dynasty. Only Taizu Wanyan Aguda (Wanyan Min) has as many as 12 Yurong statues, including standing statues, sitting statues, busts, and military uniforms.The appearance of the portraits not only conforms to the meaning of the word "ancestral temple", but also allows the worshipers to directly look up at the appearance of the ancestors and make them feel attached.

The ancestral temple system and the patriarchal clan system complement each other.The patriarchal system originated from the clan society, and later developed into a system based on the blood relationship of the family, and according to the distance of the blood relationship of the members of the family, it is a system to distinguish the relatives of the prostitutes and concubines.The core of the patriarchal system is the eldest son inheritance system, the main content of which is to divide the members of the family into two series, the big clan and the small clan.The ancestral temple system strictly follows the patriarchal system of direct relatives and concubine relatives (that is, Dazong and Xiaozong), so as to achieve the purpose of passing on the family line and prospering the family business forever.Not only that, but there is also the rule of Zhaomu in the ancestral temple system. "There is Zhaomu for the husband's sacrifice. For those who are Zhaomu, there is no chaos in the order of father and son, distance, seniority, closeness, and closeness." ("Book of Rites · Jitong") The Zhaomu system is actually a manifestation of the patriarchal system , it is mainly used for the arrangement order of ancestral temples and tombs, that is, to distinguish the relationship between distance, closeness, and distance in temples and tombs.According to the provisions of the Zhaomu system, in the arrangement of the ancestral temples and tombs, the ancestors are in the middle, the left is Zhao and the right is Mu, the son is Zhao, and the grandson is Mu, in order.That is to say, from the first ancestor, the first generation, third generation, fifth generation, ... all odd-numbered descendants are Zhao, and are on the left side of the ancestor; the second generation, fourth generation, sixth generation, ... all even-numbered descendants They are all Mu, on the right side of the ancestor.According to this order of arrangement, the relationship between Zhao and Mu is Zhao Shengmu, Mu Shengzhao, and Zhaomu in the next order, and the same for a hundred generations.

People regard the Jongmyo as the place where the spirits of the ancestors live, so the architecture of the Jongmyo is the same as the buildings in people's daily life.Just out of respect for the ancestors, the ancestral temples are generally built more carefully, showing a unique solemn and solemn style.In ancient Chinese society, both the emperor and his subordinates and officials established ancestral temples.However, according to the regulations of the etiquette, the number of ancestral temple buildings should be determined according to the rank of the official.In the Western Zhou Dynasty, there were as many as seven ancestral temples for the Son of Heaven. In addition to the Taizu Temple, there were also temples of Sanzhao and Sanmu.His subordinates can only build five or three temples, and those with the lowest official rank have only one temple.The ancestral temple of the supreme ruler, known as the Taimiao, is regarded as a symbol of the country. Whenever there are important events such as important agricultural activities, the emperor's ascension to the throne, and wars, ritual activities to worship the ancestral temple must be held.The location of the imperial ancestral temple also strictly followed the stipulations of "Zuo Zongmiao" in the etiquette system, and was built on the left side of the palace.In Beijing today, there is the Forbidden City, the palace city of the Ming and Qing Dynasties. The Taimiao of the two dynasties was built on the left side of the Forbidden City. The Working People's Cultural Palace on the east side of Tiananmen is the Taimiao built by the two dynasties.As for the ancestral temples of ministers and officials, most of them were built near their residences, and the common people's families who lived together mostly had their own ancestral temples in the clan residences.This kind of ancestral temple built by individuals or families is incomparable with the royal ancestral temple in any aspect, but they all follow the rules of the etiquette system.Such ancestral temples are mostly called family temples or ancestral halls, which also enshrine tablets and portraits of ancestors, and there are also Zhao and Mu in order.

In the activities of offering sacrifices to the ancestral temple, in addition to temporarily entering the temple to give sacrifices due to important events, there are also some fixed sacrifice regulations, and "moon sacrifice" is one of them.The Moon Festival is held on the first day of the new moon (that is, the first day of each month).Before the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, when the moon was held for sacrifices, the emperor would personally lead his ministers to the ancestral temple and slaughter a sheep to sacrifice to the ancestors.Then, the ministers will wear Pibian (a kind of hat worn by men in ancient times. It is made of white deerskin and sewn together, and its shape is like an upside-down cup), and listen to the emperor's instructions in the ancestral temple.The moon festival at the turn of summer and autumn is the most solemn every year.Because the ancient calendar is promulgated once a year, officials such as Wu, Zhu, and divination calculate the time of the new moon in the second year and whether it is necessary to add a leap month through the observation of celestial phenomena, and then write it into an almanac and store it in the ancestral temple. middle.At the time of the Moon Festival at the turn of summer and autumn, the Son of Heaven will issue the almanac to the princes of various countries as a unified calendar, so this month festival was paid special attention at that time.However, the moon sacrifice was gradually neglected by later generations. The emperor often no longer visited the ancestral temple to worship the ancestors, but just sent people to the ancestral temple to kill a sheep. "Four Seasons Sacrifice" is also a fixed ancestral temple sacrificial activity throughout the year, held at the beginning of the four seasons of spring, summer, autumn and winter every year.As for the sacrificial activities in family temples and ancestral halls, although they also follow the regulations of the etiquette system, they are not very strict.Whenever there is a major event in the family, the elders in the family, that is, the patriarch (or suzerain), lead the men in the family to enter the temple to pray.

However, in Chinese history, there are still some special ancestral halls.These ancestral halls do not have the nature of ancestral temples, but to commemorate an outstanding figure in history, so that future generations will always remember his achievements and inspire future generations to inherit and carry forward his moral style.Although these ancestral halls have the same name as the ancestral temples, most of them were built by non-family members or even the government. Wen Tianxiang Temple located in Fuxue Hutong, Dongcheng District, Beijing today is a typical representative.Wen Tianxiang was a famous anti-Yuan general at the end of the Southern Song Dynasty. After being captured by the Yuan army, he would rather die than surrender, and wrote the poem "Crossing Ling Ding Yang". heroism.Until he was escorted to Yuan Dadu (now Beijing), he still refused to surrender in the face of Kublai Khan's repeated persuasion, and was finally killed.After the Ming Dynasty fell to the Yuan Dynasty, the Wen Tianxiang Temple was built in the ninth year of Hongwu (1376 A.D.), and a statue of Wen Tianxiang was carved in the ancestral hall as a commemoration and for people to pay tribute to.In the sixth year of Yongle (AD 1408), the Ming government officially included the sacrifice of Wen Tianxiang in the imperial court's ceremonies, which became an important part of the "auspicious rites" in the "five rites" of the Ming Dynasty.Of course, the sacrificial etiquette of this kind of ancestral hall is not as complicated and complicated as that of the ancestral temple sacrificial etiquette, but the "edmonition" contained in it, that is, the function of educating future generations, is more prominent than the ancestral temple sacrificial ceremony.

Offering sacrifices to Sheji, this important sacrificial activity originated from ancient legends.She and Ji are the two gods in the legend, the God of Earth and the God of Valley.According to legend, in the time of the Yellow Emperor, there was a Gonggong family. His son Goulong was able to level the water and soil.There is another Lishan family whose son Nong (also known as Zhu) can sow and plant hundreds of grains, and later generations respect him as the God of Ji.The ancients believed that the god of society was the god of good fortune and nurturing living beings and all things, while the god of Ji was the god of grain and food that was in charge of nourishing human beings.State-owned land and people with food are the most basic conditions for realizing the prosperity of the country and the people's safety, so the ancients especially respected the country. "The god of the founding of the country, the Sheji on the right, and the Zongmiao on the left." ("Zhou Li Chunguan Xiao Zongbo") According to the provisions of the etiquette system, the Sheji and the Zongmiao are both important symbols that are indispensable for the establishment of a country, and they are built separately. On the left and right sides of the palace.The places where the gods of earth and valleys are sacrificed are generally called Sheji.In ancient times, Sheji was therefore often used as a symbol of the country and as a synonym for the country.The purpose of offering sacrifices to Sheji is to pray for a good harvest of grains, which is also called "praying for grains" in history.

To offer sacrifices to the gods of the society and the god of Ji, a high platform must be built first, called an altar, and the main activities of the sacrifice will be carried out on the altar.In the pre-Qin period, the god of society and the god of Ji were sacrificed separately, so the altar was also built separately.At the beginning, a tree was planted on the social altar, which was the "community owner".Later, a wooden tablet was used to replace the tree "community owner".The altar of Ji is square, and five directions of east, south, west, north, and center are placed on the altar, and five colors of soil, blue, red, white, black, and yellow, are placed respectively.During the Western Zhou Dynasty, when the emperor divided the feudal lords, according to the location of the fiefdom, he should take a pinch of colored soil in the corresponding direction from the altar and give it to the feudal princes as a symbol of the feudalism.Beginning in the Eastern Han Dynasty, the gods of the society and the gods of Ji were sacrificed together, but the two altars were still separated.After the Tang Dynasty, the system of offering sacrifices to Sheji was gradually fixed. The "shezhu" on the altar was made of strip-shaped stones, and the altar of Ji was placed with five colors of soil. Only in the Yuan Dynasty were all loess placed.After Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang established his capital Yingtianfu (now Nanjing, Jiangsu), when he built the capital, he combined the two altars of She and Ji into one, and they were collectively called the altar of Sheji.The altar is still square, and the stone as the symbol of "community owner" is located in the center of the altar, but only a pointed end is exposed.In addition, separate the wooden tablets of She and Ji.When Ming Chengzu Zhu Di built the city of Beijing, according to the etiquette regulations of "You Sheji", the Sheji Altar was built on the right side of the Forbidden City, which was symmetrical with the Taimiao.The Sheji Altar still inherited the form of Nanjing Sheji, and was followed by the Qing Dynasty after that.In the Ming and Qing dynasties, the place where Sheji was sacrificed was the Zhongshan Park on the right side of Tiananmen Square today. People are used to call it "five-color soil".In the center of the altar, there is a slightly pointed stone, which is the "community owner".In the north of the five-color soil in Zhongshan Park, there is also a main hall (called Zhongshan Hall today), which is the place where the activities of offering sacrifices to the country were held at that time.Sacrifice is held in Zhongyue (the second month of each season) in spring and autumn every year, mostly presided over by the emperor himself, and cattle, sheep, and pigs are offered in the sacrificial hall.After the ceremony begins, bells and drums will be used to play music.In addition to the Sheji Altar in the capital city, local prefectures, prefectures, and counties also built altars dedicated to the two gods of She and Ji. Of course, their specifications cannot be compared with the Sheji Altar in the capital.However, on the same day when the emperor presided over the sacrificial offerings to the country every year, local sacrificial activities were also held, presided over by the prefects, prefectures, and county magistrates.

Sacrificing to heaven and earth was an extremely solemn activity in ancient times.This ancient sacrificial activity appeared in the legendary Shun and Yu periods.According to literature records, there was already a ritual of offering sacrifices to heaven called "Lei" at that time.Heaven and earth are the gods of nature in people's imagination, and they are personified.In the oracle bone inscriptions of the Yin and Shang Dynasties, the god of heaven is recorded as "Emperor" or "God". In the eyes of the people of the Shang Dynasty, it became the master of nature and even human beings.Around it, there are also a group of gods such as the sun, the moon, the wind, and the rain, as the companions of the gods, assisting it in governing all things in nature.People in the Shang Dynasty had the highest level of admiration and faith in the gods. Whenever they worshiped the gods, they would not hesitate to spend a lot of wealth, and even killed a large number of captives and livestock as sacrifices.Since the Western Zhou Dynasty, the supreme ruler had the title of "Tianzi" again, which means the proud son of heaven.This allowed King Zhou to rule the world with the power of the gods, and also deified the power in his hands.It can be seen from this that offering sacrifices to the gods not only shows people's awe of nature, but also becomes a deceptive tool for the rulers to strengthen their rule.Therefore, despite the greatness of the Supreme Ruler, one should still serve the gods as one would serve one's father.The ceremony of offering sacrifices to heaven in the etiquette system was formulated for this reason.In later generations, there are more and more titles for the gods, such as Haotian, Huangtian, Haotian God, Huangtian God, Weihuang God, Tiandi, etc.And the sacrificial activities for this imaginary and personified god became more sacred and solemn. To sacrifice to the gods, altars should also be built.In ancient times, there was a saying that "the sky is round and the earth is round", that is, the ancients believed that the sky was round, the earth was square, and the sky was like a pot turned upside down on the ground.Therefore, the altar of offering sacrifices to heaven is a circular altar, called the Circular Mound.The Circular Mound was built in the southern suburbs of the capital to worship the sky and the earth. Because altars were built in the suburbs for sacrifices, they are often collectively referred to as "suburban sacrifices".During the Shang and Zhou dynasties, "corpse" was used as a substitute for offering sacrifices to heaven, and then the "corpse" was gradually replaced by the tablet of the god.The more special ritual in the ceremony of offering sacrifices to heaven is "burning", in which the sacrifices to be slaughtered and enshrined will be placed on firewood together with offerings such as jade bi, jade gui, and 缯[zengzeng] (the collective name for silk fabrics in ancient times) , by the emperor to light the firewood.Immediately, the fireworks rose and went straight to the sky. People thought that this would make the gods smell the smell.The ritual of offering sacrifices to heaven is held on the day of the winter solstice every year. In ancient times, there was a saying that "the father is the sky and the mother is the earth", that is, the god of heaven is regarded as the father, and the god of the earth is the mother. It can be seen that the ancients also respected the god of the earth.The god of earth is called "dishi [qiqi]" in ancient literature, and it is also written as "dizhi".Dishi is the god of the earth, which is different from the god of the society. The god of the society is usually considered to be the god of a certain land. Therefore, it is recorded in "Book of Rites · Wang Zhi": "The son of heaven sacrifices to the heaven and the earth, and the princes sacrifice to the country." Every year on the day of the summer solstice, the place is held on a square hill built in the water in the northern suburbs of the capital.The altar for offering sacrifices to the earth is square, which is in line with the saying of "the sky is round and the earth is round".Built in the water, it means that the earth is surrounded by the four seas.The ceremony of offering sacrifices to the gods of the earth is basically the same as the ceremony of offering sacrifices to heaven, but instead of using burnt fire, after the ceremony of offering sacrifices, an earth hole should be dug on the ground and sacrifices, jade and silk, etc., should be buried in it. In addition to the Circular Mound to worship the heaven and the Fangqiu to worship the land, in the ancient etiquette system, there is also the ritual of offering sacrifices to the heaven and the earth together, which is called "Feng Chan".Feng Chan will be held on Mount Tai. "On Mount Tai, earth is built as an altar to worship the heavens and repay the merits of the heavens, so it is called Feng. On the hill under Mount Tai, the land is removed and the merits of the land are repaid, so it is called Zen." It is a ritual activity dedicated to offering sacrifices to heaven and earth held on Mount Tai.The reason for choosing Mount Tai is that Mount Tai is Dongyue and the first of the five mountains, so it is also called Daizong.Feng, to be held on the top of Mount Tai, because it is closest to the sky; Zen, at the foot of Mount Tai.Although Feng Chan is a joint sacrifice to heaven and earth, in fact, Feng Chan is more important than Zen.Fengchan Taishan, like other sacrificial activities, is also restricted by the rules of the etiquette system. Generally, the emperor personally goes to Taishan to preside over the Fengchan ceremony, and non-emperors cannot enjoy this kind of power.During the Spring and Autumn Period, Duke Heng of Qi appointed Guan Zhong as his chancellor and carried out a series of reforms, which made the state of Qi grow rapidly.After that, Duke Heng of Qi annexed the surrounding small countries and defeated the mighty Chu State, making Qi's prestige in the Central Plains great.Therefore, Duke Huan of Qi wanted to become hegemony. He invited the monarchs of Lu, Song, Wei, Zheng, Xu, Cao and other countries to hold an alliance meeting in Kuiqiu (now east of Lankao, Henan), and even the emperor of Zhou sent people to attend.At the meeting, Duke Huan of Qi signed covenants with the monarchs of various countries.After the Kuiqiu alliance, Duke Heng of Qi became the overlord of the princes of the Central Plains, and he could coerce the emperor to command the princes.But he was still not satisfied, and wanted to imitate Zhou Tianzi and enshrine Mount Tai. His intention was to be on an equal footing with Zhou Tianzi.But Shangqing (the highest consul under the monarch) Guan Zhong told Qi Henggong that according to the rules of the etiquette system, only those who are appointed as kings are eligible to perform the ceremony of enshrining Zen.Although Qi Henggong dominated the Central Plains, he did not get the status of emperor, so he had to give up this plan. The difference between Fengchan and other sacrificial activities is that it does not stipulate a clear time for sacrificial offerings, so it is not held every year.According to the records, only Qin Shihuang, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, Emperor Guangwu of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Emperor Gaozong of Tang Dynasty, Emperor Xuanzong of Tang Dynasty, and Emperor Zhenzong of Song Dynasty were the only emperors who held the ceremony of conferring Zen on Mount Tai in history.In the third year after Qin Shihuang unified the six kingdoms (219 BC), he traveled eastward to the hometown of Lu State. After discussing with the local Confucian scholars, he decided to perform the ceremony of enshrining Zen, so he led his accompanying officials to climb Mount Tai. .After holding the ceremony of offering sacrifices to heaven, the group returned to the foot of the mountain to prepare for offering sacrifices to the ground.Unexpectedly, there was a sudden storm on the way down the mountain, and Qin Shihuang and his subjects had to take shelter under a big pine tree temporarily, and did not continue down the mountain until the rain passed and the sky cleared.Because of the meritorious service of this tree, it was named "Five Doctors" by Qin Shihuang.There are still "Wudafu pine" on Mount Tai so far, but it was replanted in the Ming Dynasty.In the thirteenth year of Tang Kaiyuan (725 A.D.), Emperor Xuanzong of Tang Dynasty conferred Zen on Mount Tai.Because enshrining Zen is a grand ceremony in the sacrificial ceremony, Emperor Xuanzong of Tang Dynasty issued an edict that all officials below the Sangong should be promoted to a higher level.After the edict was issued, all officials were promoted to one level, but only Zheng Jian, the son-in-law of Prime Minister Zhang Shuo who served as the altar envoy, was promoted from the original nine-rank official to the fifth-rank official, and the official was promoted to the fourth rank.When Tang Xuanzong learned about it, he was very surprised. He asked his officials what happened, but no one answered.Later, an actor (musician) named Huang Fanchuo played and said: "This is the power of Mount Tai." His answer was very ingenious. He used Fengchan Taishan and Zhang Shuo as the envoy of the altar to imply the reason why Zheng Jianguan was promoted to the fourth level.Later, there was the title of calling his wife and father Mount Tai.These two allusions related to Fengchan Taishan also reflect some conditions of the ritual system of Fengchan. After the Southern Song Dynasty, Feng Chan was no longer performed alone, but was merged with the "suburban sacrifice" held in the suburbs to worship heaven and earth, and Feng and Zen were also performed together.The etiquette system of building the Circular Mound to sacrifice to heaven and earth has changed from time to time in later history.After Zhu Yuanzhang established the Ming Dynasty, he revised this etiquette system in the tenth year of Hongwu (AD 1377).He ordered the rebuilding of the Temple of Sacrifice to Heaven in the southern suburbs of Yingtianfu City, and built a circular hall on the altar, called the Hall of Great Sacrifice, to cover the Temple of Sacrifice to Heaven.It is also stipulated that every year in the first month of Mengchun, there will be a joint sacrifice to heaven and earth.After Ming Chengzu Zhu Di moved the capital to Beijing, he built the Temple of Heaven and Earth in the south of Zhengyangmen (now Qianmen) according to the shape of the Temple of Heaven in Nanjing, and also built the Great Hall of Sacrifice on the altar.After it was completed in the eighteenth year of Yongle (1420 A.D.), it became a place for worshiping heaven and earth in the Ming Dynasty.After Emperor Jiajing came to the throne, he believed that the joint sacrifice of heaven and earth did not conform to the ancient etiquette system, so he ordered to build another round altar in the south of the Great Sacrificial Hall, in order to take the meaning of "round sky and place". Rooftop, worship the rooftop.The altar is divided into upper and lower floors, and the series of railings, pillars and steps on each floor are all "days" (also called "yang numbers", which are nine and its multiples).Every year on the winter solstice, the emperor would lead his civil and military ministers to come here to worship the sky.According to the etiquette regulations of "four o'clock sacrifices", Emperor Jiajing chose another place in the northern suburbs of the capital to build the "Fangze Altar", also known as the Earth Altar.The altar faces north and is a two-story square altar made of white marble. It is specially used by the emperor and his ministers of culture and military to worship the gods of the earth.Since then, every year on the day of the summer solstice, an earth sacrifice ceremony is held here.In addition, the "Chaori Altar", also known as the Ritan Temple, was built in the eastern suburbs of the capital.The altar is west-facing, with a square platform on the first floor, where the emperor worships the Great Ming God (that is, the sun).The "Xiyue Altar", also known as the Moon Altar, was built in the western suburbs of the capital.The altar faces east, and it is also a square altar, where the emperor worships the God of Yeming (that is, the moon).After the completion of the four altars of heaven, earth, sun and moon in Beijing, the etiquette system of the Ming Dynasty was further improved.After the Qing Dynasty established its capital in Beijing, it continued to inherit the Ming Dynasty's ritual system of "sacrificing at four o'clock", and carried out several reconstructions on the four altars, and built supporting buildings for each altar, so that each altar was more in line with the provisions of the ancient etiquette system.However, because the ancients believed that offering sacrifices to the gods of heaven and earth was a major sacrifice, while offering sacrifices to the sun and moon gods was a middle sacrifice, so there are differences in the specifications of the altar and supporting buildings.But no matter how different they are, as supporting buildings for sacrifices, they are inseparable from buildings such as altars, halls of worship, pavilions for slaughtering animals, pavilions for wells, palaces for fasting, and halls for clothing.For sacrifices to the four gods of heaven, earth, sun, and moon, except for the winter solstice and summer solstice, when the heavenly stems are Jia, C, E, Geng, and Ren, the emperor personally goes to the Altar of Chaos to worship the sun, and the rest In the new year, civil servants will perform sacrifices on their behalf; every year when the Earthly Branches are Chou, Chen, Wei, and Xu, the emperor will personally go to the Xiyue Altar to offer sacrifices to the moon, and in other years, military officials will perform sacrifices on his behalf.The Four Altars in Beijing, which were first built in the Ming Dynasty, have been preserved to this day despite hundreds of years of wind and rain. However, they are no longer a place for worship, but a park for people to visit and rest.From the existing buildings, it is not difficult to see the strictness and norms of the sacrificial system in ancient China, and feel the solemn and pious sacrificial atmosphere. In addition to offering sacrifices to the four gods of heaven, earth, sun, and moon, the ancients also set up gods to offer sacrifices to other things in nature, such as stars, mountains, and rivers.It’s just that these sacrificial activities belong to middle priests or even minor priests in the etiquette system. People pay far less attention to them than heaven and earth, so the architectural specifications are very small, and some even attach sacrifices to other gods, and only set up a memorial tablet. . Different sacrificial activities have different ceremonies and procedures according to the regulations of the etiquette system, and they have changed from time to time in the past dynasties, some of which are extremely cumbersome and some are very mysterious.However, all kinds of sacrifices also have something in common. This is because the ancients believed that offering sacrifices to gods and ghosts was a very serious and sacred matter, and human reverence and devotion must be reflected in the whole process of sacrificial activities.Therefore, before holding various sacrifices, one must first "fast", that is, bathe, change clothes, and live alone to cultivate one's character.Fasting is generally divided into two steps, "seven-day fasting, three-day fasting".Jie, also known as Sanzhai, refers to living in the outer room of the bedroom for the first seven days of fasting; fasting, also known as Zhizhai, refers to living in the main palace of the bedroom for three days after "jie".During the ten days of fasting, you must stop participating in all entertainment activities, let alone mourning and funerals. The purpose is to calm people, to eliminate distracting thoughts in their "heart", and to carry out "five thoughts": thinking about their residence, thinking about their laughter , thinking about his will, thinking about his pleasure, thinking about his addiction, so as to achieve the effect of "sincerity" (see "Book of Rites Jiyi").During the fasting period, fishy and meaty things should also be avoided, so as to avoid the "filthy smell" in the mouth during the sacrifice, which would blaspheme the ancestors or gods.The time of fasting was set at ten days in the etiquette system established in the Western Zhou Dynasty, and it was shortened to three to five days or even shorter when it was passed down to future generations.On the day of the sacrifice, the host and participants have to get up very early. After bathing, they change into auspicious clothes (the clothes and accessories worn during the sacrifice), and then go to the place of worship to hold the formal ceremony. On the day of sacrifice, those in mourning are not allowed to cry, and those in mourning clothes are not allowed to enter the city, so as not to offend the gods.When offering sacrifices to gods and ghosts, "sacrifices" must be prepared as sacrifices. "Sacrifice" refers to livestock with pure coat color, while "sacrifice" refers specifically to cattle, sheep, hogs (pigs), etc.When emperors offer sacrifices to gods and ghosts, they usually offer three animals: cattle, sheep, and hogs. All three animals are called "Tailao".When the princes offered sacrifices, cattle were not allowed to be offered, and only sheep and hogs were used, which was called "Shaolao".It can be seen that it is also a sacrificial activity, but because of the different status of the host, there are grades in the objects enshrined.In addition to sacrifices, jade wares such as Bi and Cong [cong Cong] and bundles of silk were also often used as offerings for sacrifices.Bi is a round jade with a hole in the center; Cong is a square column or square round jade with a hole in the center.Shubo is a colorful silk fabric with a length of 10 ends (one end is one foot eight feet long and two feet four inches wide).During the sacrifice, the bi and the cong should be placed on the bundle of silk respectively, held by the priest, and enshrined in front of the tablet of the gods and ghosts.At the beginning and during the sacrifice, the band composed of court musicians should follow the procedure of the ritual, play the corresponding ritual music, sing and dance, and at the same time enhance the atmosphere of the sacrifice.