This article will be Chapter IV in Lun yi li yu jingzhuan suoji di xia (On grand worship ceremony and di (禘) and xia (祫) ancestor worship as recorded in the classics and their commentaries) by the author. Chapter I of this book has already been published in Zhongguo shi yanjiu (Studies in Chinese history) 2002. 1-2002. 2.
In Chapter I, I have pointed out that the inscriptions on Tianwu gui-bowl (天亡簋) of the early Zhou Dynasty say that after Duke Zhou had become the Regent, he worshipped Heaven first and then offered grand worship ceremony to King Wen.
In the poem “King Wen” of the Book of Odes, it says: “When the Yin Dynasty had not yet lost the world, it could cooperate with God.” Therefore, we know the oracle bone inscriptions failed to record the worship of God before Shang Jia, a late ancestor of the Shang Dynasty. The oracle bone inscriptions recorded that since the time of Shang Jia, after worshipping God, then some people were killed as human sacrifice in the grand worship ceremony (殷).
In the Zuo Commentary of the Spring and Autumn Annals, it is said that King Shao Kang of the Xia Dynasty who revived the Xia rule offered sacrifices to Xia ancestors as well as to God. Thus we know: During the Xia, Shang, and Zhou dynasties, after worshipping God, an important ceremony was performed to worship all the ancestors.
In the oracle bone inscriptions, it is mentioned “ancestor worship ceremony for Wang Hai, an early ancestor” and “worship ceremony for Huang Shi”. We thus know that after worshipping God, worship ceremony was also performed for all the ancestors; then for the meritorious early ancestor Wang Hai; and then for the meritorious minister of the early king, Huang Yin. This is also confirmed by the Chapter “Pan Geng” in the Book of History.
Since worshipping all the ancestors after having worshipped God was the grandest ceremony and worshipping all the ancestors was actually a continuation of worshipping God, so Little Yu ting-cauldron (小盂鼎) of the time of King Kang of the Zhou Dynasty changes the term yin-ceremony (殷) to di-ceremony (禘). Only the Son of Heaven could worship Heaven, but the wooden tablets of the dukes, princes and sage ministers could also, after they passed away, be placed by the side of the deceased king and they helped in the service of God. Therefore, these dukes, princes and sage ministers could also follow the rule of the royal house and call the worship ceremony for all ancestors as di-ancestor worship ceremony.
After worshipping God, all the ancestors would be worshipped together. And the wooden tablet used as a symbol of the newly deceased king of the Yin Dynasty also would be included in the imperial ancestral temple and worshipped after the mourning was over.
In the oracle bone inscriptions, according to my interpretation, there are the sayings: “Should the King of Yin speak?” and “The three year mourning for the deceased king of Yin is over, should there be a grand worship ceremony, so that the wooden tablet of this newly deceased king of Yin can be placed in the ancestral temple to be worshipped together with the other deceased kings?” There are also the di (禘)-ancestor worship ceremony and the yin (殷)-grand worship ceremony in the inscriptions of the West Zhou bronzes Fan you-flask (繁卣) and Big gui-bowl (大簋).
In the Spring and Autumn Annals, it is said: “On the day Jiyou of the 5th moon of the 2nd year of the reign of Duke Min, the Duke worshipped Duke Chuang in auspicious clothes.” The three year mourning period was supposed to be completed in twenty five months. Now Duke Min did not wait for the completion of the mourning of twenty five months and worshipped the deceased Duke Chuang in auspicious clothes; he put the wooden tablet of Duke Chuang in the imperial ancestral temple and worshipped Duke Chuang together with other deceased ancestors. Therefore, the Spring and Autumn Annals recorded this to ridicule him.
Based on the Book of Odes, the Book of History, and the oracle bone inscriptions and bronze inscriptions, we can see the character di (禘) in the Spring and Autumn Annals contains a radical di (帝). This di (帝) referred to God. Some former scholars said di (禘) here referred to ‘reviewing carefully the sequence of zhao (昭) mu (穆) ancestral temples, but this is incorrect.
In Chapter I of my book -- “Lun yi li yu Shangdai zhouji zhidu” (On grand worship ceremony and the worship cycle institution in the Shang Dynasty) -- I have discussed the grand worship ceremony, the ancestor worship ceremony and also explored the general rules and uncommon rules of the worship cycle institution of the Shang Dynasty.
In Chapter IV, I have discussed the sequence of ancestor worship ceremonies as seen in the bronze inscriptions of West Zhou and the Spring and Autumn Annals. I have also offered correct interpretations for yin ji (殷祭, grand worship ceremony) and yin shi (殷事, grand matters) as seen in the Book of Rites, the Zuo Commentary of the Spring and Autumn Annals and the Gongyang Commentary of the Spring and Autumn Annals.
I also offered new explanations for the sentences in Yi Li (儀禮, Systems of ceremonial forms) such as “At mid-month, taking off mourning clothes” and “The two temples, (first go to the temple of the deceased father, then go to the temple of the deceased grandfather.)”
Concerning the system of ancestral temples of the West Zhou Dynasty, Tang Lan defined the ‘Kang (康) Temple’ in the phrases of Ling yi-casket (令彝) ‘Sacrifice at Jing (京) Temple’ and ‘Sacrifice at Kang Temple’ as the Temple of the King Kang of the Zhou Dynasty. However, in my Zhou gong kongzi yanjiu (Studies of Duke Zhou and Confucius), I used the sentence in the Book of Odes: “The three hou (后) are in Heaven, the wang (王) accompanied them at Jing Temple” and explained that the three hou worshipped at the Jing Temple were Hou Ji, Gong Liu and Gao You and the wang that accompanied them referred to Tai Wang and Wang Ji.
Based on “Kang gao [The injunction of King to his brother Kang]” of the Book of History, “Lu song” [Songs used in ancestral temples of the Kingdom of Lu] in the Book of Odes, and “Zhou song” in the Book of Odes, I define the character ‘kang’ in “King Wen ‘kang’ it” as ‘continue’. I believe King Wen became king according to the mandate of Heaven; the career of overthrowing the Shang Dynasty which King Wen had inherited from Tai Wang was completed by King Wu at the Battle of Mu Ye. Therefore, Duke Zhou built Kang Temple to worship King Wen and King Wu.
The ‘Gong (公) Temple’ in the oracle bone inscriptions “gong (公) gong (宮) yi (衣)” refers to the temple of the late ancestor Shang Jia, and the ‘Ming (皿) Temple’ in the oracle bone inscriptions “ming (皿) gong (宮) yi (衣)” refers to the Temple of King Cheng Tang of the Yin Dynasty. Therefore, the Jing Temple and the Kang Temple built by Duke Zhou were actually imitations of the institutions of the Yin Dynasty.
There were a total of seven temples of Jing Temple and Kang Temple. Later, there was the institution of ancestral temples of remote ancestors and the removal of the wooden tablets after five generations. Therefore, by the time of King Gong of the Zhou Dynasty, the Son of Heaven had seven temples: Jing Temple worshipped Hou Ji; Kang Temples worshipped King Wen, King Wu, King Cheng, King Kang, King Zhao, and King Mu. Father was zhao, and was on the left hand side. Son was mu, and was on the right hand side. King Wen was zhao, King Wu was mu. King Cheng was zhao, King Kang was mu. King Zhao was zhao and King Mu was mu. This was the origin of the ancestral temple zhao mu system of the Zhou Dynasty.
In this essay, I further indicated that based on Chapter “Di yu taimiaoli” (Worshipping ancestors at the ancestral temple of kings) in the book Yi Li (逸禮), if the seven temples referred to were those temples with owners in them, then owners of the temples being worshipped were Hou Ji, King Wen, King Wu and the great great grandfather, the great grandfather, the grandfather, and the father of the current king.
If we define these ancestor worship ceremonies as performed in auspicious clothes, then both the owners of the temples and the remote ancestors of the owners of the temples had to be worshipped together. And the seven temples included the shi [In ancient sacrificial ceremonies, a living young offspring was seated at the seat of the ancestor being worshipped to symbolize the spirit of the ancestor and receive worship on behalf of the ancestor. This young offspring was called shi ] for Hou Ji, zhao shi Bu Zhu, for King Wen, mu shi King Cheng, for King Wu, and zhao shi King Kang.
If we define these ancestor worship ceremonies as performed in auspicious clothes by the dukes and princes, then the owners of the temples and the remote ancestors of the owners of the temples must both be worshipped. Then there were also seven shi: The shi of Taizu, the shi of Zhao, the shi of Mu, and the shi of the great great grandfather, the great grandfather, the grandfather and the father of the king.
When we discuss the ancestral temple system of the Zhou Dynasty, we should base our discussion on the Book of Odes, the Book of History as well as the bronze inscriptions of the West Zhou Dynasty and should not base our discussion on late Zhou Dynasty documents such as “Wang Zhi” (王制) and “Ji Fa” (祭法).
In this essay, after studying the ancestor worship ceremony in the ancestral temple of the king, the author further studied ‘Zhou Kang Gong Mu Gong’ (周康宮穆宮) and ‘Zhou Kang Gong Zhao Gong’ (周康宮昭宮) in the bronze inscriptions of West Zhou and decided that ‘Kang Gong’ was the ancestral temple of the kings of the Zhou Dynasty, ‘Zhou Kang Gong Mu Gong’ was the temple of King Wen among the ancestral temples of the kings of the Zhou Dynasty, and ‘Zhou Kang Gong Zhao Gong’ was the temple of King Wu among the ancestral temples of the kings of the Zhou Dynasty.
Concerning the theory of the rites of late Zhou, for instance, the chun di qiu chang (spring ancestor worshipping and autumn worshipping) and xia di qiu chang (Summer ancestor worshipping and autumn worshipping) in the Book of Rites were mistaking ancestral worshipping for seasonal offerings.
Again, in the Book of Rites, it says: “According to the rites, the persons who are not kings will not perform ancestor worship ceremony, the king performs ancestor worship ceremony for the ancestors of his grandfather and also performs ancestor worship ceremony for his grandfather on the side.” This was also not the institution of the Yin Dynasty and the Western Zhou Dynasty.
There is not the character di (禘) or xia (祫) in Zhou li (Rites of Zhou) either.
I will discuss all these after Chapter V in my book On Grand Worship Ceremony and di and xia Ancestor Worship as Recorded in the Classics and Their Commentaries.
My book studies Yi li (衣禮). I read yi (衣) as yin (殷) or yin (禋), as the yin (禋) appearing in the Chapter “Luo gao” of the Book of History, [which includes the words between King Cheng and Duke Zhou when Luo Yi City was built and Duke Zhou was appointed to garrison it] and the poem “Wei Qing” in the Book of Odes [According to the Song Dynasty scholar Zhu Xi, this is a poem for the worship of King Wen]. My book Zhongguo yuangushi yanjiu (Studies of the history of remote antiquity of China) reads the sentence “Yin yu liu zong” (禋于六宗) in “Yao dian” of the Book of History [Recording matters of Yao] as after worshipping God, grand worship ceremony for the six earliest masters of the world before Emperor Yao and Emperor Shun -- Emperor Yan, the Yellow Emperor, Gonggongshi, Taihaoshi, Shaohaoshi as recorded in the Zuo Commentary of the Spring and Autumn Annals and Emperor Zhuanxu. On the other hand, the so-called ‘three sage kings and five virtuous emperors’ and the so-called Youcaoshi, Suirenshi, Fuxishi, Shennongshi and Huangdishi were the historical philosophy of the late Zhou Dynasty. When we discuss the system of history of remote antiquity, it is better to base our discussion on oracle bone inscriptions, bronze inscriptions, the chapter ‘Yao dian’ in the Book of History and the Zuo Commentary of the Spring and Autumn Annals.
Yi li (衣禮), the mourning of three years, grand worship ceremony, grand matter, ancestor worship ceremony at ancestral temple of the kings, Zhou Kang Gong Mu Gong
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