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Chapter 13 The new ritual vessels system established in the early Ming
lies in two parts. Firstly, the long-standing tradition of
The New Idea of Ritual making ritual vessels in ancient bronze shapes was almost
abandoned. Secondly, porcelain was elevated as the primary
Vessels in the Early Ming material for important ritual vessels employed in
worshipping ceremonies for both the state and local courts.
Dynasty: A Third System? The ritual vessels referred to in this chapter are those used
for the state’s most important ritual category of jili 吉禮
(auspicious or festivity rituals), including the worship of
Shih Ching-fei Heaven, Earth, the Sun and Moon, and the worship of
ancestors in the Taimiao 太廟 (Imperial Ancestral Temple)
and Confucius temples. In Chinese history, li 禮 (ritual
propriety) was regarded as one of the important foundations
for state rulership. It is thus crucial for a state to issue proper
ritual regulations, and the substantial content of the ritual
regulations relates to the Five Rites (wuli 五禮).
The Five Rites were festivity rituals (jili 吉禮), guest
rituals (binli 賓禮), military rituals (junli 軍禮),
congratulational rituals (jiali 嘉禮) and ‘inauspicious rituals’
(xiongli 兇禮, i.e. funeral rites). The system of the Five Rites
reaches a mature stage in the Tang dynasty, and the changes
between Tang and Song in the way of editing ritual books
were regarded by scholars as a profound influence on the
subsequent dynasties. The Hongwu 洪武 emperor
1
(r. 1368–98), founder of a newly established dynasty after a
long period of Mongol rule, claimed to reinstate the ritual
regulations of the Tang and Song dynasties and was keen to
establish a proper ritual system from the very beginning of
the Ming dynasty. Under his urging, Da Ming jili 大明集禮
(Collected Rites of the Ming Dynasty), also known as the ‘early
regulations of the Hongwu reign’ (Hongwu chuzhi 洪武初制)
was completed in 1370, but was not issued nor printed. It was
supplemented and published in 1529, the ninth year of the
Jiajing 嘉靖 reign (1522–66). However, at the same time, other
edited ritual books including Hongwu lizhi 洪武禮制 (Ritual
Code of the Hongwu Reign), collectively named the ‘finalised
codes of the Hongwu reign’ (Hongwu dingzhi 洪武定制), were
later issued during the Hongwu reign and were put into
2
practice from the early to mid-Ming periods. Due to space
limitations I will focus here on ritual vessels employed
during the early to mid-Ming periods. The picture becomes
more complicated from the Jiajing reign onwards, due to the
ritual changes of the so-called ‘Great Ritual Controversy’
(Daliyi 大禮議). 3
According to the 18th-century Ming Shi 明史 (History of the
Ming), in 1368 the Hongwu emperor quoted Confucius,
saying:
They served the dead as they would have served the living; they
served the departed as they would have served those still
present.
事死如事生，事亡如事存。 4
Hongwu decreed that all the ritual vessels for ancestor
worship in the Imperial Ancestral Temple should be made
after the likeness of the services they used when living. No
ancient ritual vessel shapes such as bian 籩 or dou 豆 should
be used. In the following year (1369), the Hongwu emperor
5
issued another order, that all ritual vessels should be made of
ceramic, which supposedly replaced all other materials
which were employed at this time for ritual use.
6
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