A study of the di sacrifice rite in the Spring and Autumn Period

Abstract

ABSTRACT The di sacrifice rite (dili 禘禮) is an important traditional Chinese religious ceremony for offering sacrifices to ancestors. The rites of the Shang, Western Zhou and Spring and Autumn Periods have evolved in terms of the person who conducts them, as well as regarding the recipients, forms and the time of the ritual. In the Shang Dynasty, the di sacrifice rite was performed by the king. In the Western Zhou Dynasty, the person who presided over the ceremony was first the King of Zhou, and then the counsellors. The Spring and Autumn di sacrifice rite inherited these practices and understandings. It involves a more detailed ritual: those who preside over the ceremony are first the feudal lords (zhuhou 諸侯), then the counsellors (qing dafu 卿大夫) and finally descending to the rank of officials of counsellors (jiachen 家臣). The di sacrifice addressees are also mainly close ancestors. The di rite eventually evolved to give rise to guan rituals (guanli 灌[祼]禮), auspicious ancestral rites, private di sacrifices, procedures for determining generation order of the clan temple (ding zhaomu 定昭穆), and other rituals.