Han And Tang Capital Of Etiquette Building Research

In ancient China, state level sacrificial rituals for the gods and ancestors, and warfare were viewed as the two most important functions of a government. In recent years, many ceremonial sites have been archaeologicaJly excavated in the capitals of Han-Tang Period. These findings are of the utmost importance to the study of the development of capitals and ancient ceremonial practices.hi this dissertation, the author collected archaeological materials and historical records on ceremonial buildings. My research plan is designed to answer some of the fundamental questions of imperial ritual practices of ancient China. They include the following aspects:1. How many and which kind ceremonial buildings were set up in a certain capital?2. The shapes and architecture structure of these ceremonial buildings.3. The structural arrangements of these buildings.4. The gods and deities sacrifices were offered to.5. The principles to be Mowed to construct and arrange these buildings.6. The ideology background of the ceremonial custom.7. The relationship between the ceremonial facilities and power structure of imperial Chinese cultureWe can find that during the Han-Tang Period, there existed two trends concerning the ceremonial systems: first, the ceremonial princple increasingly became more and more simple and systematic; second, ceremonial affairs gradually performed as the appendages of the political pidgins.With the forming of the national ceremonial law, it become a principle to worship the Gods of Heaven at the southern suburb of the capital, and correspondingly, the Gods of Earth at northern suburb, the God of Sun at eastern suburb, the God of Moon at the western suburb. It is also determined to place the imperial ancestral temple and the temple of the gods of earth and grain respectively at the left and right sides of the palace, and to build altars respectively at the eastern and western suburb to worship the Sun and the Moon.Ancient people build a spiritual world in which the Great Heaven God (昊天上帝) acted as the ruler, and other deities occupied responsible seats. It can be tested that this spiritual world was set up according to the real world. In the real community, members enjoyed their ceremonial rights according to their status. For example, it was regulated that only the emperors could worship the Great Heaven God, and only the most important emperors could perform the ritual of Feng-shan (++) .Ceremonial custom deeply reflected ancient ideology, Such as Cosmological ideology, the Five-Element Notion (Wu-xing,"五行学说"), and the Yin-yang Philosophy(" 阴阳学说") , etc. Also, the course of actions to construct a certain ceremonial building and to hold rituals in these establishments deeply reflected the politic position at that time.