Ritual Texts Research Articles

拙修齋 趙泰徵의 師門 辨誣 考察

Jolsujae (拙修齋) Cho Tae-jing was a respected figure who studied under Myungjae Yoon Jeung pursuing sincere learning and devout practice. Both his poems and Mansi (挽詩) and ritual texts written by his acquaintances to express condolences after his death were published as 『Jolsujaejip』 consisting of six volumes and three books. Later generations evaluated Jolsujae as a person who strived for virtuous deeds rather than writing. like the evaluation, the poems he left are plain, instructive, and sincere instead of being literature full of splendid rhetoric or unique ideas. From the perspective of literature, it is difficult to say that he made noteworthy achievements in his works in terms of the quantity and quality, but <Shinbyeon Myeongjae Seonsaeng Pimuso (伸卞明齋先生被誣疏)> contained in Volume 3 seems remarkable in the aspects of Cho Tae-jing’s own devotion to the master (師門; Samun), the full account of destructing 『Rhoseoyugo』, and the logic of responding to Hoenisibi (懷尼是非). Since Cho Tae-jing has not been noted in the academic world, this paper first introduces his life and studies, considers the full story of Samun Byeonmu (師門 辨誣 ), and then examines the significance of Jolsujae’s petition.
 Hoenisibi ended officially in 1716 through King Sukjong’s Disposition of Byeongsin (丙申處分). Pointing out the deeds of Yun Seon-geo including the father and son’s and the problems of 『Rhoseoyugo』, Shin Gu filed a petition, which led to the Disposition of Byeongsin after all. When Oh Myeong-jun (吳命峻), Eom Gyeong-su (嚴慶遂), and Lee Hong-je (李弘濟) supported Shin-gu’s raising of the issue, King Sukjong defined his position to agree with Oh Myung-jun and so on. Later, when Kim Chang-jip (金昌集) raised an objection again, King Sukjong changed his position and ordered them to destroy 『Rhoseoyugo』. Accordingly, Cho Tae-jing wrote a petition with his Samun to defend them; however, it was not delivered to King Sukjong, and Cho Tae-jing was imprisoned in Uigeumbu instead. Cho Tae-jing who failed to make a defense passed away the following year, and the resentment of his failure was included not only in his poems but in the writings of his acquaintances, too.
 Cho Tae-jing’s logic of defense is similar to that of those who defended Yoon Seon-geo and the father and son. However, he made more precise logic by securing richer evidence. His logic was not only influenced by the arguments of the predecessors but had influence over the advocacy of the latter generations for Samun. One evidence is that Yun Gwang-so (尹光紹) quoted Cho Tae-jing’s phrases just as they were in his petition. Meanwhile, Cho Tae-jing argued that those who attacked Yoon Seon-geo and the father and son ignored the overall context of the article and drew up the report by selecting only the sentences they needed. However, he showed that limitation, too, as he used the same means.

Cultural and semiotic codes of Burkhanist wedding rites of the Altai-Kizhi

The Altai-Kizhi, as the central group of the Altaians, the titular ethnic group in the Republic of Altai, are the guardians of Burkhanism. Burkhanism refers to a belief system that emerged at the beginning of the 20th century as a “reformed” version of shamanism. In Soviet times, forbidden Burkhanism preserved in the intra-ethnic ritual culture, and in the post-Soviet period it began to revive. The purpose of the article is to identify Burkhanist con-cepts in the cultural and semiotic wedding codes. The material for the study was author’s own field accounts of 2020–2022, collected by the method of participant observation and interviewing informants, as well as archival records of A.V. Anokhin, an antiquarian of the early 20th century. When analyzing the source base, a comparative method of research was used. The bride’s transition into a category of married women occurs through the rite of changing the maiden hairstyle for two braids with a parting, and introducing her to the groom's ancestral hearth by ‘treating’ the fire with oil. In the ritual actions of the participants, the Burkhanist attitude towards ‘the positive’ and the observance of the custom of ‘bay’ are encoded. For the first time, on the basis of the collected material, an anthropomorphic code of the ritual practice of the wedding has been identified, associated with the key idea of Burkhanism - the veneration of Altai-deity, the upper heavenly world that provides earthly life. The temporal code of the ritual actions corresponds to the Burkhanist rule — the period of the new moon and morning is a ‘favorable’ time for proposal and marriage. The spatial code of the wedding ceremonies accounts for the contraposition of ‘east-west’, ‘right-left’, and ‘male-female’. The actional code consists in performing the ritual ‘posolon’ actions and an even number of times according to the Burkhanist symbolism. The object code involves sacred attributes — a whip, a gun, a sheath for opening bride's curtain, juniper, and dairy products for ‘feeding’ the hearth fire. The color code of the wedding is in observance of light symbols — bride's curtain, milk, and sacrificial ribbons. The verbal code is realized in the ritual texts of good wishes and songs. The character code is contained in the composition and role of the sex and age groups: elders as experts in the ritual; maternal uncles-taay and nephews of the bride and groom, whose participation means social recognition and approval of the marriage. The analysis of the wed-ding ritual actions reveals the ‘stringing’ of one code upon another, which enhances the significance of the ritual. One and the same ritual meaning can be expressed by means of different codes and by several of them simulta-neously. Despite the fact that the ritual codes are universal, their manifestation and significance in the wedding rituals of the Altai-Kizhi are unique, which is in accordance with the ideas of Burkhanism and is explained by the historical and ethno-confessional factors of the adaptation of the Altaian tribal society.

Brothers of the Rose Cross, the sum total of Renaissance and Reformation.

In this article we describe the cultural phenomenon of the Brotherhood of the Rose Cross. The basis is a number of texts that made a lot of fuss during the 17th century. The context was the Lutheran church, in which the realization arose that the Reformation had not succeeded, because Luther and friends only wanted to reform the church and society, while they didn’t had any attention for the individual. The Reformation was not finished, now they wanted to reform the person spiritually. This is what the authors wanted to achieve with their manifests and ritual text around Christian Rosenkreutz. We were convinced that this literary phenomenon points at a deeper pattern of the Christian tradition, namely the incentive for self-development.

“Гуулин улсын судар”-ын тухай

History of Goryeo Dynasty is one of the official histories of Korea and included Goryeo Dynasty’s politic, economy, social culture and biography of public figures which is most important fundamental source for our current studying the ancient history of that time. Therefore, many research studies has been made on the History of Goryeo Dynasty in perspective of manuscript study, literature study and culture study in apart from of history, at present in Korea. This source is written right after establishment of Joseon Dynasty as chronicle of the Goryeo Dynasty’s late period, whereas Korean scholars cannot eject view that political justification view point reflected on establishment of Joseon Dynasty.
 However, the Goryeo Dynasty’s all time king’s Joseon wangjo sillok (실록. 實錄Veritable Records of the Joseon Dynasty) was used as the main source of creating the History of Goryeo Dynasty and the people present at that time such as “Comprehensive records arranged by year (편년통록. 編年通錄)” by Kim Kwan-ui (김관의. 金寬毅), “Comprehensive records of Gangmo (편년강목. 編年綱目)” by Min Ji (민지. 閔漬), “Records of reflection from Mirror (금경록. 金鏡錄)” by Yi Saek (이색. 李穡)and Yi Yinbok (이인복. 李仁復), “Sikmok pyeonsurok (식목편수록. 拭目編修錄)” and “Prescribed Ritual Text of the Past and Present (고금상정례. 古今詳定禮)” by Choe Yun-ui(최윤의. 崔允儀), “Ikjae-nango(익재난고. 益齋亂藁)” and “Scribbles of Old Man Oak (역옹패설. 櫟翁稗說)” by Yi Jehyeon (이제현. 李齊賢), and “Jugwanyukik (주관육익. 周官六翼)” by Kim, Goo-Yong(김구용. 金九容) are used as reference. Thus, researchers conclude that it describe assure true history of that period and one can say it elevate the value of the source.

Origins of the ritual of Puliša (CTH 407)

The Hittite text of the ritual of Puliša describes the way of counteraction to the plague in the army which returns from a military campaign. The king and his officers should appease the angry gods of the enemy land. Two prisoners are presented to the gods among the ritual carriers. Puliša’s place of birth and profession are in lacuna that is why it is impossible to determine the ritual tradition which inspired Puliša to compose this text. The only way is to compare this composition with other rites. The ritual of Zarpiya from Kizzuwatna against pest (CTH 757) contains Luwian incantations. The ritual practitioners ask the gods to stop the epidemic in exchange for the offerings. The ritual of Zarpiya is very different from the ritual of Puliša, while the rituals against plague from Arzawa have a lot in common with the latter. The rituals from Arzawa (CTH 394, 410, 424.1) use the ritual carriers for transporting the epidemic to the enemy and for pacifying the angry gods. The vocabulary of Puliša’s ritual is close to the one of the royal substitution rituals (CTH 419, 421), which were held for saving a king from the ominous signs. But the sense of the rituals is different. The ritual of Puliša is not focused on the royal power. The conclusion is reached that the ritual of Puliša was created in the ritual tradition of Arzawa by a scribe that was familiar with the texts of the royal substitution rituals.

Опера П.И. Чайковского «Пиковая дама» в свете поэтики погребального обряда

Tchaikovsky's opera «The Queen of Spades» is considered in the context of the poetics of the funeral rite. The correspondences between the musical and ritual text can be traced at the level of the concept (comprehension of the phenomenon of death as a spatial displacement, transition from one's own to someone else's), and its embodiment. Parallels can be seen in the interpretation of the structure of texts (the unfolding of the opera's thanatalogical plot unfolds according to the rites de passage scheme: separation — intermediate period — joining), intra-textual structures (interpretations of the key form of dialogues representing the struggle of life and death, the idea of a difficult path), symbolic functions (one's own/life, someone else's/death, staying between one's own and someone else's). Special attention is paid to the analysis of the semantic motives of the opera, identical to the motives of the funeral rite at each of its stages (end, dying, farewell, alienation, omen — at the first, movement, transition — at the second, redistribution of the share — at the third). Consideration of the «Queen of Spades» in a mythopoetic perspective reveals the com­poser's composition in a new light.

ФОЛЬКЛОР І ЗВИЧАЄВЕ ПРАВО: ПРАВОВІ СМИСЛИ В УКРАЇНСЬКИХ НАРОДНИХ ТРАДИЦІЯХ

Folklore is a key source for understanding the fundamentals of legal relations in the traditional Ukrainian society. The proposed article focuses on customary law as an archaic form of legal relations that developed as a creative product with characteristic features of a folklore text, namely variability, anonymity, syncretism, where ritual becomes a tool for manifesting and implementing the custom, making it public. In this context, folk poetic creativity emerges as the oldest source of the Ukrainian legal culture. The research highlights that folklore texts contain significant elements that help reveal the characteristic features of traditional legal systems, including labor relations, rituals, social contracts, and sales agreements. A philological approach to deciphering legal relics, based on the analysis of folk tales, songs, proverbs, sayings, and rituals, is a novel direction in folklore and humanities research in general. Through this approach, the article reveals the diversity of cultural traditions that served as a legal basis in the Ukrainian society and shows how customs regulated labor and social relations. The study offers a new perspective on the importance of folk poetic texts as a source of legal culture demonstrating how they reflect and shape societal norms, reinforcing them with collective rituals and ceremonies. This approach helps uncover hidden meanings and legal principles that define traditional life, making them accessible to the modern reader. The study draws attention to the underexplored ways of understanding the specificity of the unique Ukrainian legal culture through the decoding of the legal semantics in oral texts and ritual actors’ regular practices. The proposed ideas are based on the experience of studying the history of the Ukrainian customary law by scholars from the University of Saint Volodymyr and the author’s interpretation of folklore as a semiosphere of traditional meanings, where legal senses are significant, and their variable, as well as public expression through ritual texts has sanctioning power and is part of collective communication.

Рукописный текст садханы «Юток-ньинтик» Халха Дамцик Дордже из тибетского фонда Центра восточных рукописей и ксилографов Института монголоведения, буддологии и тибетологии Сибирского отделения РАН. XIX в.

The study of the written heritage of prominent Buddhist figures in Mongolia and Buryatia is an important area of research for Russian centers in the field of Tibetology and Mongolian studies, as it provides correct understanding and objective evaluation of all aspects of spiritual life of the Mongolian-speaking peoples and interaction of Mongolian-Tibetan cultural traditions. The present study is relevant because, in the Russian oriental studies, works considering texts from the cycle of medical teachings gYu thog snying thig, compiled by Mongolian authors, are almost non-existent. The main purpose of this article is source analysis of the work called bDud rtsi'i snying po (gYu thog snying thig rigs bsdus kyi sgrub thabs bdud rtsi'i snying po), the authorship of which is attributed to the Mongolian Buddhist figure Khalkha Damtsik Dorje (Khal kha dam tshig rdo rje, 1781–1855). In Western and Russian Tibetology, this work has not yet been specially studied. The study has used the handwritten version of this work, stored in the medical collection of the Tibetan fond of the Centre of Oriental Manuscripts and Xylographs of the Institute for Mongolian, Buddhist, and Tibetan studies at the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (COMX IMBT RAS). The article shows the particularity of texts created by Tibetan masters over the centuries and included in the gYu thog snying thig’s rich anthology, which we tentatively divide into three parts: Buddhist, medical, and ritual texts. According to our classification, the considered work bDud rtsi'i snying po belongs to the first group of texts, more specifically, to the practice of the “three roots” (rtsa ba gsum) of the generation stage (skyed rim): Outer, Inner, and Secret Guru Yoga practice. The composition is written in the s?dhana genre for the cycle of medical teachings gYu thog snying thig and has a structure corresponding to it: the preliminary part (taking refuge, the development of bodhichitta), the main part (visualization of the buddhas and ??ki??s, repeating the mantra), and the final part (dedication of merit to all living beings). The article shows that bDud rtsi'i snying po is an abridged version of the dPag bsam ljon ?bras s?dhana (gYu thog snying thig gi sgrub thabs rgyun ?khyer dpag bsam ljon ?bras), included by Khalkha Damtsik Dorje in the 10th volume of the collected works (gsung ‘bum). It has been established that these two versions differ only in text length and certain features in the description of some parts of the practice. A comparative analysis of key elements in the content of extensive and abbreviated s?dhana versions is provided. The study of these two s?dhanas proves that the author of the bDud rtsi'i snying po was Khalkha Damtsik Dorje. The introduction into scientific use of this previously unknown work of Khalkha Damtsik Dorje, found in the Tibetan fund of the COMX IMBT RAS, enriches the source base of modern research in the field of traditional spiritual practices and history of the development of Buddhism and Tibetan medicine in Mongolia and Tibet in the 19th century.

Toponyms in the Context of the Winter Farewell Rite on the Belarusian-Ukrainian

The article offers an analysis of the toponyms found in rhymed sentences accompanying the local rite of celebrating a farewell to winter and welcoming spring in Western Polesie (Brest, Volyn, Rivne regions). The ceremony is timed to the first Sunday or Monday after Easter and is a typical example of ritual expulsion (in this case, of the calendar season). The range of toponyms, as well as the vector nature of the expulsion of winter from its “own” to some “outer” space bring insight into the local ideas about symbolic boundaries, as well as the formation of mental maps reflecting the mythology of space in the minds of (micro)local population. Verbal formulas including toponyms demonstrate different ways of structuring space by means of a language (from the center to the periphery, inside and outside of the “own” space, crossing symbolic boundaries), outline the main vectors of the ritual path of the mythologized character (the winter) — microlocal, local, regional, state. In some cases, the choice of the place of winter’s exile from a particular locality is determined by its status and significance for the local confessional tradition. Some forms of toponyms recorded in folklore texts are conditional on the structure of the text (the name changes under the influence of rhyme, consonance, alliteration). The vocabulary of the winter send-off ceremony is organically consistent with the ethnodialect subdivision of Polesie. The expulsion of winter to the west is determined by the clear western border of the region where the rite takes place (the Drogichin — Pruzhany — Kamen-Kashirsky line). Taking into account the division of the Polesie region along the north-south axis, the author argues that for the rite that is spread exclusively in the northern part of Western Polesie, the south (southwest, southeast) becomes the priority direction of the expulsion of winter from the “own” into the “outer” space which is evidenced by toponyms from ritual texts.

Representations of Time in Texts about Space (Based on the Materials of Vastuvidya Texts in the Puranas)

The Puranas (“Tales of former times”) are a kind of presentation of the “history” of the world. In the Puranas, in comparison with the previous literature, much attention is paid to the idea of time. In these huge works devoted to the history of the creation of the universe and its consistent description, the entire universe is presented as a manifestation of the supreme deity (depending on the direction of the Purana it could be Vishnu or Shiva). The importance of the temporal component is explained by the fact that the supreme god has not only a material, “bodily” manifestation in the form of Purusha (a being from which the universe originated), but also in the form of Kala (kala), i.e., time. Indirectly, the length of time in the Puranas is related to the “length” of the text (the duration of its reading or reproduction), which affects the volume of these works, they include a huge corpus of works, ranging from mythological and ritual texts, ending with treatises on various branches of knowledge. The key to the formal integrity of the Puranas is that all texts, even highly specialized ones, are processed in accordance with some general guidelines. At the same time, a temporary component appears in the presentation of any topic. This has even affected texts such as vastuvidya (texts on construction and architecture), which are devoted to the category of space rather than time, since they set out the principles of organizing and sanctifying the space of any man-made objects and their surroundings. In the Puranas, the past appears in vastuvidya texts. This is a kind of “history” of the origin of the main rituals (for example, the history of the appearance of the vastu-mandala). But the main direction of time is the future. Recommendations about the most preferred sizes, proportions, and layouts are supported by predictions about how this will affect the fate of residents of buildings under construction. For this purpose, the folk tradition of fortune-telling and signs is used. The article shows these and other ways in which the highly specialized text of vastuvidya is transformed into a “puranic” text.

The Heavenly Field: A Reconsideration of Mother Earth in the Æcerbot Rite

The Heavenly Field: A Reconsideration of Mother Earth in the <i>Æcerbot</i> Rite

Antiochos I, the Rēš Temple and Hellenistic Uruk: Commentary on YOS 20. 87

The article concerns with the Late Babylonian text YOS 20. 87 which contains valuable information on the building of the Rēš Temple in Early Seleukid Uruk. The chronology of the text covers the period from 290 to 275 B. C. that corresponds to the time of Antiochos I’s coregency and the first years of his sovereign reign. There was a number of “instructions” (ṭēmu) regarding the building of Bīt Rēš, one of them seems to be the letter of Antiochos himself. The king apparently supported this initiative although he most likely did not personally participate in it. The mention of Queen Apama, mother of Antiochos and the first wife of Seleukos I, in YOS 20. 87 indicates that c. 290 B. C. she was probably alive and together with her son contributed to the building the Rēš Temple. Kidin-Anu, the āšipu priest of Anu, can be identified with the chief priest (šešgallu) of Bīt Rēš known from several Late Babylonian ritual texts. The evidence finds a parallel in so-called Uruk prophecy which may also contain allusions to the first Seleukids. All these sources provide an important evidence on the early stage of the history of the Rēš Temple. It also demonstrates that royal patronage of the first Seleukids (especially Antiochos I) was not limited only to Babylon and Borsippa.

Céline Debourse. “Late Babylonian Temple Ritual Texts with Cultic Commentaries. Aspects of Form and Function”

Céline Debourse. “Late Babylonian Temple Ritual Texts with Cultic Commentaries. Aspects of Form and Function”

Collection of Manuscripts in Oirat in Ulan-Khol khurul of Kalmykia

This article presents a brief overview of the collection of manuscripts in the Oirat language stored in the fund of the Ulan-Khol Temple of the Republic of Kalmykia. The collection under consideration is relatively small (50 manuscripts), but it contains very interesting materials. The manuscripts of the Ulan-Khol Temple were a part of a significant collection of Buddhist writings in Tibetan, Old Mongolian and Oirat in the library of the Shars-Bagut (Northern) Temple, which was located from 1889 to 1939 in the area of Bora, Shars-Bagut aimak located in Erketenevsky ulus. The manuscripts were transferred to the Ulan-Khol Temple by relatives of the clergymen Bodgur Ochirov (1892-1955) and Tsagan Atkhaev (1900-1981). The collection seems to be extremely heterogeneous: it includes fiction literature works, orders, prophecies, ritual texts, prayers, astrological works, texts of divination, weather signs and traditional folk medicine texts. Some collections contain texts in Oirat with Tibetan inclusions as well as ones in Tibetan with Oirat interlinear. The fact proves Kalmyk monks were equally fluent in Tibetan and Oirat. The heterogeneity of the composition of the manuscript collection of the Ulan-Khol khurul indicates that the monks of the Shars-Bagut Temple in their main practice were not only clergymen, but also astrologers, soothsayers, healers. The presented texts are a valuable source for studying traditional religious beliefs, philosophy, ethics, old written Kalmyk literature, astrology and Kalmyk cult rituals.

Is There Magic in the Text? Ritual in the Priestly Pentateuch and Other Ancient Near Eastern Literature

“Magic” is a term that continues to feature in popular and scholarly circles, yet scholars continue to disagree vehemently about its definition and utility. This article uses the various definitions of magic as lenses through which to compare the ritual texts of the Priestly Pentateuch, ancient Egypt, and ancient Mesopotamia. The results offered illumine both the texts and the scholars who interpret them. Regardless of the definition employed, the biblical and other ANE ritual texts are quite similar, leading to the conclusion that magic should not be used as a dividing line between biblical Priestly and other ANE ritual texts.

A NEW LOOK AT THE AKKADIAN ROYAL RITUAL FOR AVERTING DIVINE ANGER

The Babylonian royal ritual text edited in this article prescribes the performance of two kinds of prayers: Šigû prayers and Emesal prayers. The text has four cycles, in each of which the target is one of the great gods (Marduk, Anu, Enlil, and Ea), as well as the minor gods functioning as intercessors on behalf of the king. The Marduk cycle is distinctive, compared with the other cycles, probably because of the special relation of Marduk with the king, kingship, and Babylon.

Documentary culture in Catalonia and England, c .975–1050

The records connected to Oliba (d. 1046) and Wulfstan (d. 1023) offer a compelling method for comparing documentary cultures in Catalonia and England. This article examines documents preserved in each region to guide research into analogous documents in the other. From the Oliba diplomatari, the most suggestive are the most unusual items: inventories, ritual texts, records of oblation, and letters of appointment, all of which find parallels in the English material. From the Wulfstan corpus, it is the broader categories of diploma, writ, and chirograph (carta partida) that prompt best a new look at the documentary landscape of comital Catalonia.

General and specific traits in the folklore and ritual life of the peoples of the Caucasus (ethnolinguistic aspect)

The article deals with the cultural connections between the speakers of Caucasian and Iranian(Ossetian) languages which reflect the flexibility of the language as well as cultural values and preferences. These connections are revealed through main rituals such as the ritual of killing old people to prevent them from a disgraceful death by age, funeral and wedding rituals, as well as ritual object and their names. The authors aim at establishing the common and unique traits in the ritual and cult life of the peoples of the Caucasus. The research proved that the life of the Caucasian peoples constituted a cultural unity. It was determined both by the internal life of the peoples and the common source of cultural and language loan, namely the multilanguage Caucasus inhabited by Iranian, Caucasian, Turkic, Arabic and Indo-European language speakers. The authors underline and analyse the resemblance of different elements of rituals and study the linguistic parallels in ritual and cult texts. The comparative -typological analysis reveals many common traits in the studied rituals, the verbal representation of which reflects to which extent the traditional values are preserved in the culture and contributes to interpretation of the semantics and symbolic of the ritual text.

Historical Books: 1 Chronicles–2 Maccabees

Historical Books1 Chronicles–2 Maccabees Christopher T. Begg, Brian J. Meldrum, and William J. Urbrock 2214. [Commentaries on 1 and 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther] James C. Pakala, "A Librarian's Comments on Commentaries 46: 1 & 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther," Presb 47 (1, 2021) 170-76. P. has been writing his librarian's comments concerning commentaries on the books of the Bible (OT and NT) for many years. The above contribution is a follow-up to his survey of English-language resources on the five biblical books of his title that appeared in Presbyterion 24 (1998) and 25 (1999). In it, P. calls attention to the abundance of new commentaries on the books in question that have appeared in the intervening decades. His survey includes commentaries of a primarily scholarly character as well as those whose principal aim is to assist ministers looking to preach on the five books.—C.T.B. **2215. [The Priestly Tent of Meeting in Chronicles] Jaeyoung Jeon, "The Priestly Tent of Meeting in Chronicles: Pro-Priestly or Anti-Priestly?" JHebS 18 (2018) 1-15 [see Editor's Notes, p. 981]. This paper examines how the Chronicler treats the Pentateuchal tradition of the Priestly Tent of Meeting. The Chronicler consistently mentions the Tent of Meeting, but its cultic significance is reduced and placed in an inferior relation to the Davidic cultic system in Jerusalem. Such ambivalent treatment of the Tent of Meeting in Chronicles can be understood in the socio-historical context of the Persian period, especially in terms of the Levites' ideological struggle against the dominant Zadokite priestly group. [Adapted from published abstract—B.J.M.] **2216. [The Altar in Chronicles] Itamar Kislev, "The Role of the Altar in the Book of Chronicles," JHebS 20 (2020) 1-16 [see Editor's Notes, p. 981]. The Book of Chronicles, in several passages that relate the establishment of the temple, features an emphasis on—and an elevation of the status of—the altar and the sacrifices offered on it. By contrast, this elevation of the altar's status in the parallel accounts of Samuel and Kings is lacking. My article examines this phenomenon and suggests that [End Page 821] the shift is part of the Chronicler's attempt to cope with a fundamental theological problem regarding the Second Temple. [Adapted from published abstract—B.J.M.] 2217. [The Reception of Ritual Laws in the Second Temple Period; Ezra-Nehemiah and Chronicles] Julia Rhyder, "The Reception of Ritual Laws in the Early Second Temple Period: Evidence from Ezra-Nehemiah and Chronicles," Text and Ritual in the Pentateuch, 255-79 [see #2504]. R. addresses the relationship between text and ritual in the early Second Temple period through a close reading of selected texts from Nehemiah and Chronicles. She begins by noting that the notion that the writing down of ritual texts fosters ritual standardization has become axiomatic in ritual studies, and the existence of narratives recounting the celebration of festivals mandated in the Pentateuch provides us with a fine opportunity to verify this notion. While these descriptions do not reflect actual historical events, they inform us nonetheless about "the diverse ways in which … scribes imagined that the law might be ideally applied." Basing her analysis on three key texts (Nehemiah 8; 2 Chronicles 30; 2 Chronicles 35), R. argues that in each of these accounts the description of the given festival claims to adhere to the instructions for its celebration found in earlier laws, while in fact they simultaneously present many examples of adaptation, innovation, and revision with regard to those laws. Thus, the story of Nehemiah 8 presents a "new conception" of how the feast of Sukkot (Booths) "was to be applied to the urban context of Jerusalem specifically," whereby the feast is connected more closely to the household than is the case with the corresponding law of Leviticus 23. 2 Chronicles 30, which recounts Hezekiah's Passover, presents substantial deviations from the pentateuchal model for this festival—such as the celebration of the feast in the second month instead of the first, or the eating of the sacrificial meat by unclean members of the community...

Xiaoling and Nanjing: Mapping the Imperial Mausoleum in a Fourteenth-Century Capital in China

This paper is about the unique spatial arrangement of the capital (Nanjing) and imperial mausoleum (Xiaoling) in fourteenth-century China. According to Confucian principles and traditional practices, the location of tombs should be separated from the space of the living for philosophical and emotional reasons. However, this convention was challenged by the Hongwu emperor (1368–1398), founder of the Ming dynasty (1368–1644), who built his own imperial mausoleum, Xiaoling, within the confines of the capital, an unprecedented act. According to primary sources—ritual texts, gazettes, tour books, and poetry—this innovative capital–mausoleum plan suggests an extension of the pattern by which the Hongwu emperor honored his ancestors through spatial arrangements and incorporated the imperial ancestors into dynasty-building.