The Feudal Lords Smear the Temple

AnonymousBashu Publishing House · ChinaJul 2024

3.7

Word count: 278 words
Chapters: 2

Summary

When a temple was completed, a sheep was sacrificed and its blood smeared on it. The ruler, in dark ceremonial robes, stood inside the chamber door facing south. The invocator, the temple officer, the steward, and the officiant in charge of victims all wore dark robes.

Editor's review

This passage records a fragment of the xin ceremony held after a ancestral temple was completed: sheep blood was smeared on the temple, the ruler stood in dark ceremonial robes inside the chamber door facing south, and all officiants—the zhu, zongren, zaifu, and yongren—also wore dark robes and took part. The text is extremely brief, yet it preserves concrete information about ritual space, dress, orientation, and the division of roles in ancient ritual institutions, making it a typical fragment of a ritual text. For general readers, it is more like a small window through which to glimpse the meticulousness and symbolic order of pre-Qin ritual activity; for readers concerned with ritual institutions, nomenclature, or ancient religious life, it offers keywords and clues for further investigation. This Bashu Press edition is very short and suitable as a taste of ritual studies texts, but one should not expect a complete exposition of ritual institutions. While reading, one might focus on the sense of order conveyed by the participants' positions and the uniformity of their dress, and appreciate how ritual texts govern complexity with brevity.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Traditional-culture enthusiasts curious about pre-Qin ritual institutions and ancestral temple ceremonies
Teachers and students who need short ritual-text materials for courses or reading-group discussions
Readers who enjoy approaching ancient nomenclature and institutions through minute textual details

Not a good fit for

Beginners hoping for systematic explanations of ritual institutions and detailed annotations
General readers expecting a complete narrative or a literary reading experience
Readers who need the book to directly guide real-life ritual practice

Reading tips

First read through word by word, marking official titles such as zhu, zongren, zaifu, and yongren, and look up their functions one by one.
Try drawing a simple diagram of the ritual site, marking the positional relationships between the ruler and each officiant.
After reading, consult other records of the xin ceremony in ritual texts and compare ceremonial differences across occasions.
If reading with friends, divide the work of investigating dress, orientation, and sacrificial offerings, then exchange findings.

About the publisher

Bashu Publishing House China · Founded in 1983

Bashu Publishing House is a publisher centered on collating and publishing classical Chinese cultural texts, with its main publishing areas covering classical literature, Eastern philosophy, ancient poetry, and educational classics. Its library currently holds 1,075 titles, including representative works such as Dream of the Red Chamber, the Preface to the Orchid Pavilion Gathering, Renjian Cihua, and Out to the Frontier, involving authors such as Cao Xueqin, Wang Xizhi, Wang Guowei, Wang Changling, Liu Xie, and Yan Yu. These reflect the publisher's focus on literary classics, poetry criticism, and philosophical readings. Its publishing character lies in working around ancient texts and canonical works, with attention to textual collation and presentation. Public information on its more detailed publishing background and series plans is limited; this introduction is based only on the library's book information.

版权信息
诸侯衅庙第七十三

FAQ

What does xin miao mean?

Xin miao was a ceremony held after an ancient ancestral temple was completed, in which sacrificial blood was smeared on various parts of the temple to expel evil and purify it, making the temple fit for use. This passage records the xin ceremony performed with sheep blood, with the ruler and officiants all wearing dark robes and completing the ritual procedure in specific orientations.

What roles do the zhu, zongren, zaifu, and yongren mentioned in the text play?

The zhu was the ritual officer who presided over prayers and invocations; the zongren managed ancestral temple ritual affairs; the zaifu handled related administrative arrangements; and the yongren was connected with the concrete handling of sacrificial animals and offerings. Each had their own duties, together forming the group of officiants for the xin miao ceremony and reflecting the clearly defined division of labor characteristic of ritual institutions.

This passage is very short—what can one gain from reading it?

The value of a short text lies in providing a concrete, minute observation point. Readers can see from it the attention ancient rituals paid to dress, orientation, and the division of roles, and then use it as a guide to investigate the ritual background. It does not offer a complete body of knowledge, but it can stimulate question awareness and is suitable as a starting point for deeper study of ritual learning.

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About the author

Anonymous Author

Anonymous is not a real personal name but a general Chinese designation for authors whose names are unknown, lost, or unsigned. Neither nationality nor dates of birth and death can be verified, and available public information is limited, so the works attributed to this name are the only basis for description. The collection holds 2,078 works under Anonymous, spanning medicine, classics, historical readings, ancient poetry, classical literature, and philosophy. Representative works include The Yellow Emperor's Inner Canon: Lingshu, Mencius, The Book of Documents, Nineteen Old Poems, Complete Song Ci, and The Peacock Flies Southeast. Most of these works took shape through long transmission and editing, emerging either from collective folk creation or from authors whose names were lost over time. In ancient China, the Book of Songs, the Great Learning, and many popular storybooks and plays were signed Anonymous because their authors could not be traced. Anonymous works cross the classics, histories, philosophical writings, medical texts, and poetry; their subjects are broad, and their styles vary from archaic simplicity to clear naturalness, making them important and influential sources for understanding ancient Chinese thought, medicine, and literature.