A Research On The Official Ritual Encyclopedias In Qing Dynasty

In this paper,the so-called official ritual encyclopedias include records about rituals in the official history books,Qing Collected Statutes,Qing santong and other ritual content in encyclopedia dealing with Government,and Special ritual encyclopedias.Among them,Special ritual encyclopedias is the main research object.official ritual encyclopedias are important carriers of Confucianism and official ideology and they are also important tools of expression for the centralization,unification and orthodoxy in ancient China.So the rulers of all dynasties took them seriously after they ascended the throne.Since the pre-Qin and Han dynasties.The compilation of official ritual encyclopedias has experienced a historical evolution from Confucian classics to official history books,encyclopedia dealing with government,and then to Special ritual encyclopedias.Successive dynasties carried on profit and loss,develop ceaselessly perfect.To the Qing dynasty,the compilation of the official encyclopedias has been unprecedentedly completed in aspects of compiling institutions,personnel management,historical data collection and arrangement style.There is no doubt that it is of great significance to study the historical function of the official ritual encyclopedias in Qing dynasty and the idea of the Qing rulers seeking Manchu and Han cultural identity.However,after consulting a large number of relevant materials,the author found that the current research on the official ritual encyclopedias in Qing dynasty has not gained enough attention from the academic circle.Therefore,on the basis of previous studies,the author selected the topic “A Research on the official ritual encyclopedias in Qing Dynasty”.In this paper,three books on Special ritual encyclopedias,namely The ceremony of Qing dynasty,Patterns of ritual vessels of Qing dynasty and The Manchuria ceremony of sacrifice to god and heaven,which were compiled by Qianlong dynasty,are studied as the core objects,and this paper also involves other official ritual texts.This paper inherits the scientific research method,carries on the systematic research to the compiling background,compiling process,compiling characteristic,historical function and value,politics and social influence of the mentioned three books.The paper centers at Qianlong dynasty,and the background of ritual encyclopedias will be traced back to Shunzhi,Kangxi and Yongzheng dynasty.The study on the supplements and emendations,spread and influence of ritual encyclopedias will extend to the middle and late Qing dynasty.This paper will focus on the writing and practice of ritual texts.On the one hand,the author makes a systematic study on the background,main idea,process,compiling style,content characteristics and the influence on the writing of official and private books in Qing dynasty.On the other hand,the author makes a further study of the court and social practice of the official ritual encyclopedias of the Qing dynasty.This paper combines macro and micro perspectives.On the one hand,the author makes a macroscopic textual research and statement on the compilation ofritual encyclopedias and relevant historical facts by using traditional research methods of history.On the other hand,this paper makes a micro analysis of the elements of ritual contents contained in ritual encyclopedias by properly applying the theory of ritual in anthropology.Then it explores the important role of ritual encyclopedias in rulers' seeking for cultural identity and highlighting their ruling power.Specifically,this paper is mainly composed of the following six chapters:The first chapter makes a macroscopic introduction of the academic and political background of the compilation of official ritual encyclopedias in Qing dynasty.In terms of academic background,the rise of Confucian Ritualism in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties promoted the gradual formation of thought about replacing neo-confucianism by the study of rituals and governing the country with rituals in the early Qing dynasty.During the scholars compiled the ritual books,this academic thought profoundly affect the academic purpose of compilation of official ritual encyclopedias.In terms of political context,from the beginning of the throne until the arrival of Qianlong dynasty,the Qing rulers continued to promote the Han culture.Influenced by the advice of courtiers,the regulations of rituals were formulated and the practice of court rituals were gradually carried out.In this historical process,the ruling group of Qing dynasty gradually formed the idea of rule by ritual,which was applied to the world,and turned into the core compilation idea of Special ritual encyclopedias in Qianlong dynasty.The second chapter deals with the reasons and main subjects,the style of compilation,compilation institutions,personnel management,and the completion time of compilation of the three ritual encyclopedias of The ceremony of Qing dynasty,Patterns of ritual vessels of Qing dynasty and The Manchuria ceremony of sacrifice to god and heaven.Compared with the previous generation,the compilation of the three ritual encyclopedias has its own characteristics.The compilation of The ceremony of Qing dynasty strives to integrate the ancient and modern,popularize all levels,and tomake this encyclopedia simplified and practical.The compilation of Patterns of ritual vessels of Qing dynasty carries on the rigorous research to clarify the ritual connotation with pictures of ancient utensils.By integrating manchurian shaman beliefs and rituals,the compilation of The Manchuria ceremony of sacrifice to god and heaven tries to preserve its own ethnic language and cultural characteristics.The third chapter focuses on analyzing the textual structure and content characteristics of the above three ritual encyclopedias.This chapter focuses on the evaluation of Qing rulers,compilers and officials in institute of Sikuquanshu on the ritual encyclopedias,and makes a diachronic and synchronic comparison between the three ritual encyclopedias,and the ritual encyclopedias of the past dynasties and the various official ritual texts of Qing dynasty.The author strives to have a comprehensive and in-depth understanding of the advantages and disadvantages of the layout of the three ritual encyclopedias,the historical value of the contents contained,and the complementarity with other ritual texts of Qing dynasty.The fourth chapter focuses on the influence of the three ritual encyclopedias on the later official and private books,such as the Record of Laws and Systems of Qing Dynasty,The three encyclopedias about Qing dynasty system,the Local Chronicles and private books.It includes providing historical material for compilation of later classics.The compilation style and other compilation ideas of the three ritual books can also be used a reference for compilation of later classics.The fifth chapter mainly makes a concrete investigation on the practice of using the official ritual encyclopedias in Qing dynasty.How did the Qing rulers realize the cultural identity and balance between manchu and Han ethnic group by combining manchu and Han ritual under the guidance of official ritual encyclopedias in Qing dynasty.In order to explore the role of the practice of court ritual in maintaining Qing dynasty's order of multi-ruling in the border areas,this paper takes the ritual of annual pilgrimage of the Mongolian princes and dukes as an example,uses the anthropological ritual theory to interpret the official ritual books and foreign literatures and analyze the process of ritual performance from the microscopic perspective.Chapter six moves the research perspective down to examine the practice of official ritual encyclopedias in local society in Qing dynasty.First of all,the author try to investigate how the local government uses the official ritual encyclopedias to carry on the construction of the ritual system and the ritual performance.Secondly,the localscholars and gentries criticized the social discourtesy in their works by quoting the official ritual encyclopedias.And in order to turn the people into civilized life,they take the lead to practice official rituals.Thirdly,this chapter makes a preliminary investigation on the popularization and promotion of official ritual encyclopedias and the rituals of the central plains in frontier areas,and explores its important role in promoting the integration of border areas and inland areas.Finally,this chapter also discusses the problems that the promotion and application of official ritual encyclopedias in local society.Due to the huge volumes of official ritual encyclopedias and the ineffective publicity of local officials,promotion and application of official ritual encyclopedias are hindered and the social influence is quite limited.The epilogue sums up the value of the official ritual encyclopedias in Qing dynasty from three aspects: Firstly,in terms of academic value,compared with the previous dynasties,the official ritual encyclopedias of Qing dynasty are characterized by simplicity and practicality.And they emphasis on both pictures and texts,and integration of Manchu and Han rituals.Secondly,the compilation of ritual encyclopedias also reflects the political appeal of Qing ruling group.As minority,they try to strengthen the legitimacy of their regime through the dual construction and identification of Manchu and Han cultures.Finally,with the introduction and promotion of local officials,scholars and gentries,the official ritual encyclopedias played an important role in correcting the vice and undesirable customs of local society and popularizing the official rituals.Meanwhile,in the process of promoting and popularizing official ritual,many obstacles and limitations are also presented.