A Textual Research On The Ceremony Of The Anniversary Of The Days In Ming Dynasty

The worship rites on the death anniversary have been a significant way for the descendants to mourning their ancestors since ancient times.Research on rituals of the death anniversary can provide a more comprehensive understanding to the ancestor worship rites.Research object of this paper is the death anniversary rituals in the Ming dynasty,presenting a clear picture about it by examining details and features of the imperial and personal rites.Rituals in Ming dynasty observed the customs of Zhou,Tang and Song dynasty,and developed regulations in Jia Li,book written by Zhuxi.Its construction was related to the evolution of funeral regulations.The Ming court banned music,bells and drums on the anniversary,which has been an imperial tradition since Tang and Song dynasty.Besides,rites in the inner temple and Feng Xian Hall were important parts of the sacrificial system of the imperial death anniversary in Ming dynasty,whose development reflected the integration of rites between the national sacrifice and the royal sacrifice.On the basis of old conventions in Tang and Song dynasty,there were huge changes on the form of the imperial rites in Ming dynasty.The grand prayer service once prevailed in Tang and Song dynasty was almost disappeared in Ming,which was rarely recorded in the related sources,due to the relocation of the imperial Buddhist temple and the change of religious policies of the imperial rulers about Buddhism and Taoism.The war at the end of Yuan Dynasty resulted in massive destruction of Buddhist temples.And emperors of Ming restricted the development of Buddhism,taken the religion as a tool of political ruling.The disappearance of the prayer service on the imperial death anniversary may indicate the return of traditional Confucian rituals in the Ming dynasty.Personal rituals of the death anniversary in the Ming dynasty were based on regulations made by the court and Jia Li of Zhu Xi.Government officials and common clansmen offer sacrifice to their ancestors in the ancestral hall or the lobby,and worship objects of the latter were extended.On the death anniversary,people worship their ancestors by wearing white and living outside at night.Meat and alcohol were forbidden.The literati in Ming dynasty also write poems and funeral oration for their dead family and friends.Rulers of Ming dynasty built up the imperial ritual system by making laws and regulations for common people,and the scholar official improved the personal ritual system by writing,painting and making local conventions.The development of ritual systems popularized the rites of the death anniversary in the local societies.