Yu the Great Memorial Ceremony
01 · Historical Records
According to research by the "Xia-Shang-Zhou Chronology Project", Yu reigned for ten years and was buried in Kuaiji in 2062 BCE, more than four thousand years ago. From around 2059 BCE, when King Qi of the Xia Dynasty, son of the Great Yu, initiated the practice, the sacrifice at the tomb of the Great Yu in Kuaiji became an established institution. The sacrificial rite to Yu first created by King Qi of Xia is the prototype of state sacrificial ceremonies of the Chinese nation. In 210 BCE, Qin Shi Huang "went up to Kuaiji and sacrificed to the Great Yu". By the Ming Dynasty, the dispatch of envoys to perform special sacrifices had become an established institution. In the Qing Dynasty, the Kangxi and Qianlong emperors personally came to Shaoxing to sacrifice to Yu. During the Republic of China period, it was changed to a special sacrifice, held on September 19 each year, once a year. On April 20, 1995, the People's Government of Zhejiang Province and the People's Government of Shaoxing City jointly held the "1995 Public Sacrificial Ceremony at the Tomb of the Great Yu by All Circles of Zhejiang Province and Shaoxing City", continuing the Chinese nation's four-thousand-year tradition of honoring and worshipping Yu and opening a new chapter in the sacrificial regulations for venerating Yu in the new China. The public ceremony is held once every five years; local folk sacrifices and sacrifices by descendants' families are held once each year, continuing unbroken.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The Mausoleum of the Great Yu is located on Kuaiji Mountain southeast of Shaoxing City, Zhejiang Province. The Yuejue Shu, in its "Yuejue Waiji: Record of Geography" chapter, states: "Yu fell ill and died, and was buried in Kuaiji." The Mausoleum of the Great Yu is the national center for worshipping Yu. For more than four thousand years, the Mausoleum of the Great Yu has seen sacrificial vessels and silk offerings presented in unbroken succession; the solemn temple is grand and imposing, and the sacrifices have continued without interruption. The worship of Yu in successive dynasties was marked by the grandeur of ancient rites and has had enormous influence. Throughout the dynasties, the number of cases in which the emperor, having bathed and bearing ritual gifts, sent envoys to Kuaiji to sacrifice to Yu was even greater. The Great Yu is a great ancestor of the Chinese (Huaxia) people who laid the foundation of the state in the land of China. The outstanding contributions of the Great Yu have had a profound influence on the evolution and development of Chinese history. The sacrificial institutions at the Mausoleum and Temple of the Great Yu have continued for thousands of years; they are clear proof that later generations have learned from Yu's luminous virtue and carried forward the spirit of the Great Yu, an important measure for promoting the national spirit, and they play an irreplaceable role in binding the Chinese nation together. The institutions and rituals of the sacrificial ceremony at the Mausoleum of the Great Yu — including sacrificial offerings, vessels, music, dances, and sacrificial texts — are as brilliant as the starry river and embody extremely rich information about traditional ethnic culture.
Kuaiji as the centre of Yu's worship
The Yu Mausoleum on Mount Kuaiji is the national centre of Yu worship, a single tomb receiving the rites of successive dynasties.
The First Emperor's sacrifice at Kuaiji
In 210 BCE the First Emperor climbed Kuaiji to honour Yu, moving the rite from legend onto an actual mountain and into state ceremony.
The public sacrifice every five years
A joint provincial and municipal sacrifice in 1995 fixed public worship of Yu at five-year intervals, folding state ceremony into the calendar.
The special sacrifice of the nineteenth
Since the Republican era a special sacrifice has been held on the nineteenth day of the ninth month, once a year.
Annual folk and lineage sacrifices
Local folk and lineage sacrifices return every year, a denser rhythm than the five-year public rite.
The first sacrifice by Xia Wang Qi
The rite at Yu's tomb is said to date from Xia Wang Qi, the earliest model of state sacrifice in the tradition.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Shaoxing is the national center for worshipping Yu, and the place of sacrifice is concentrated at the Mausoleum of the Great Yu on Kuaiji Mountain; the line in the Yuejue Shu recording that Yu was buried in Kuaiji has been repeatedly cited by the sacrificial institutions of successive dynasties. A single mausoleum on one mountain range has sustained the sequence of sacrificial ceremonies from the Xia Dynasty to the present day. The timing of the sacrifices is divided into several institutional levels: the public ceremony established in 1995 is held once every five years; local folk sacrifices and sacrifices by descendants' families are held once each year; and the special sacrifice of September 19, dating from the Republic of China period, fixed the date in autumn. Official and family sacrifices are therefore often held one after another within the same period.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Strengthening the protection of the Great Yu Sacrificial Ceremony is of important historical, humanistic, and academic value for transmitting China's long-standing traditional culture.
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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