Shundi Memorial Ceremony
01 · Historical Records
In 2006, the site of the mausoleum and temple of Emperor Shun was proclaimed a key cultural relic under national protection in the sixth national-level batch. After the Qin and Han dynasties, through the Southern and Northern Dynasties and the Sui, Tang, Song, and Yuan dynasties, the incense offerings to Shun never ceased. Liu Yu, Emperor Wu of the Song dynasty of the Southern Dynasties, sent the officials Zhang Shao and Yan Yanzhi, and Li Longji, Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang dynasty, sent the official Zhang Jiuling to Jiuyi to offer sacrifices to Shun; sacrificial texts from these occasions survive. According to statistics, there were fifteen imperial sacrifices in the Ming dynasty. There were four provincial-level sacrifices in the Republican period. Within the Mausoleum of Emperor Shun there are still preserved thirty sacrificial steles of the Qing dynasty and four of the Republican period. From the founding of the People's Republic of China to the 1980s, there were also sporadic folk activities of sacrifice to Shun. Since the 1990s the Mausoleum of Emperor Shun has been repaired and renewed, and ten relatively large-scale sacrificial activities have been held in all, including two provincial-level sacrifices, two municipal-level sacrifices, three county-level sacrifices, and three sacrifices by folk organizations.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Emperor Shun is one of the Five Emperors, the ancestors of the Chinese nation. The Records of the Grand Historian records that Shun "made a southern inspection tour, died in the wilds of Cangwu, and was buried at Jiuyi in the land south of the Yangtze". Beginning with Yu the Great's sacrifice at the Mausoleum of Emperor Shun and passing through dynasty after dynasty, sacrifice at the Mausoleum of Emperor Shun gradually became an established institution. According to relevant historical records, Yu of the Xia, Qin Shi Huang, and Emperor Wu of the Han all faced south toward Jiuyi and offered remote sacrifices to the Mausoleum of Emperor Shun. …sent the Hanlin Academy compiler Lei Sui to the Jiuyi Mountains to offer sacrifices to Shun. The Qing dynasty inherited the Ming system, and imperial sacrifices reached forty-five times. Thus official sacrifice spurred that of organizations, and organizations in turn spurred folk sacrifice, so such activities became increasingly frequent. In particular, the organizations of lineal kin descended from Shun at home and abroad have come to the Jiuyi Mountains without interruption to sacrifice to their ancestors and visit the mausoleum, demonstrating the unbroken transmission of sacrifice at the Mausoleum of Shun from antiquity to the present. The sacrificial rites of the ceremonies at the Mausoleum of Emperor Shun both preserve the traditional ceremonial procedures and add modern elements such as presenting flower baskets, bowing, and folk-artistic performances. The whole sacrificial ceremony is divided into the guest-welcoming rite, the guiding rite, the main sacrificial rite, the paying-of-respects rite, the mausoleum-visiting rite, and the unveiling rite of the sacrificial-text stele; it both carries on history and keeps pace with the times, appearing solemn and rich in local character.
Welcoming guests and leading the procession
The first stage of the rite: guests are welcomed and then led into position, fixing people and order before the sacrifice can begin.
The central sacrifice
Officiants lay out the vessels, offer silk and read the prayer, with flower baskets and bows added beside the old forms.
Reverence at the tomb
After the rite the visitors ascend to the tomb, clans filing up by surname, while the inscribed steles record each occasion.
Unveiling the stele of the sacrificial text
The sacrificial text is carved on stone and unveiled in ceremony; thirty Qing and four Republican steles remain as direct evidence.
The ancient precedent of sacrifice at Jiuyi
From Yu's sacrifice onward envoys came from every later dynasty, with fifteen imperial sacrifices in the Ming and forty-five in the Qing.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
At Ningyuan, the ceremonies at the foot of the Jiuyi Mountains draw participants in several concentric circles. The innermost circle is the imperial sacrifices of the Ming and Qing dynasties together with successive provincial, municipal, and county sacrifices, the largest of which drew twenty or thirty families of officials, gentry, and ceremonial masters; the middle circle is the organizations of lineal kin descended from Shun at home and abroad, who hurry to the mausoleum carrying genealogies and climb the mountain in teams divided by surname branch; the outermost circle is the common people of the Ningyuan area, who arrive in multitudes. The three circles each follow their own ceremonial procedure yet converge at the one sacrificial ceremony, and the names, native places, and reign titles left on the sacrificial texts and stele inscriptions mark this genealogy in its layered form.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
In the fourth year of Hongwu (1371), Zhu Yuanzhang of the Ming dynasty personally composed the imperial sacrificial prayer for Emperor Shun. The Emperor Shun sacrificial ceremony is a heritage transmitted and developed over several thousand years and an important component of the treasure-house of the cultural heritage of the Chinese nation; it will become an important means of rallying Chinese people at home and abroad — especially the two hundred million Chinese of the ten great surnames descended from Shun — and will exert a profound influence on the reunification of the motherland and the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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