Lu Worship, The Ritual Culture Of Transmutation

In the view of Zhou Dynasty people, the system of rituals included five parts contents, sacrifices was the most important among them. As the domain of Zhou Gong, the State of Lu was praised for " possessing the most complete ritual system of Zhou Dynasty ". Therefore, etiquette system of sacrifices in the State of Lu is representative. The thesis attempts to study the rise and decline of sacrifices in the State of Lu under the background of ritual and music cultural transmutation. In this way, it will promote the pre-Qin period study on ritual system.In the transition period from Shang Dynasty to Zhou Dynasty, people deeply pondered over the concepts such as"Heaven "," People "," Monarch " and so on. They had gradually realized the importance of "humanism". Under this great background, sacrifices had increasingly turned into the dependency of politics.When Boqin became Duke of Lu, King Cheng of Zhou awarded him various kinds of utensils, vestment and clergies. Therefore, the State of Lu had a series of important sacrifices. For example, it offered sacrifices to King Wen of Zhou and Zhou Gong with the specification of the emperor. The perfection of sacrifices system needed a very long time. However, at the very beginning of the State of Lu, it had already established the special position in the sacrifices.In the research of sacrifices in the State of Lu, the Sacrifice of Jiao and Di had disputed for a very long time. The thesis will firstly make clear the sacrifice of Jiao and Di of Zhou King. It will investigate the forming and development of the sacrifices system of Xizhou.The forming of the sacrifices system would not be earlier than the shaping of the system of rituals and music. We should not deny that it had no regular system in the whole time of Xizhou. In Zhou Dynasty, the solemnest sacrifice of Jiao can be divided into the regular and casual Sacrifice of Jiao. The former was customized, including the Sacrifice of Jiao in Huanqiu on the Winter Solstice day and the Sacrifice of Jiao praying for good harvest in the first month of the lunar year. Both offered sacrifices for God matched with Houji.They have nothing to do with Ku. People from Zheng Xuan in Han dynasty to the Confucian scholars in Qing Dynasty generally misunderstood Di as Jiao. In fact, "offering sacrifices to God matched with Ku" was one of the solemnest sacrifices of Di. In addition, it needed to divine in order to confirm concrete time on the Winter Solstice day. The State of Lu had the memorial ceremony for Jiao and Di because of the Zhou king's munificent largess. The Confucian scholars in the past affirmed that the State of Lu had the sacrifices of Jiao praying for good harvest in the first month of the lunar year and denied the case or considered it arrogating that the sacrifice of Jiao was held on the Winter Solstice day.Di is the general designation of offering sacrifice to ancestors. It was the violentest dispute about the "Big Di"that was considered by Zheng Xuan to offer sacrifices to Heaven and offer sacrifices to ancestor by Wang Su. hi fact, it was only a kind of memorial ceremony for ancestor .It had nothing to do with offering sacrifices to the Heaven. There was much difference in the memorial ceremony held in imperial family of Zhou and in the State of Lu. The traditional view that the "Big Di" was held by Zhou in Hou Ji Temple is untenable, because father cannot been offered sacrifices in the temple of his son. Therefore, it can only be held in the countryside. Similarly, the "Big Di" in the State of Lu should be held in King Wen Temple. In addition, there are sorts of memorial ceremonies .the State of Lu offered sacrifices to Zhou Gong with regular system in Zhou Gong Temple. Jidi should be held in the temple when three-year-funeral period had finished. Moreover, Di for four seasons should also be held. Among them, first two kinds were the privilege of the State of Lu.In the middle and later spring and autumn periods, society presented the situation of " ritual broken down and music damaged ", among which jishi" 8 dancing rank on front yard " and" sacrfice to Mount Tai " in the State of lu was a more typical case. At that time , for monarch ,the power of sacrificing was more important than reign, so it was power contradiction that became the focus of the contention between Duke Zhao of Lu and Jishi. At last ,the former was...