Abstract
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>Every Chinese dynasty expended enormous time and resources on perfecting cult sacrifice to the most powerful gods in the universe. Ritual officers of imperial courts exhaustively studied the Classics, which recorded the rites devised by the ancient sages, debated details of the proper rites at the imperial court, composed the liturgies based on their understanding of the Classics, personally conducted the rites, and assisted their sovereign in conducting canonical rites at official temples and altar terraces. The rites devoted to these gods constituted an essential mode of governing, which imperial sources call “ritual governance” 禮政. Each dynasty promulgated a register of sacrifice, which configured the imperial cults as a “pantheon,” a system of relations among the canonical gods and between gods and their living patrons. While Confucians differed in many minor, and some major, ways during the Tang (618–907), Song (960–1279), and Ming (1368–1644) dynasties—the periods discussed in this book—the rules governing their debates on gods, particularly at the court, remained relatively consistent. Confucian officers and classically educated literati outside of government based their positions on the official canon: the Five Classics plus the Classic of Filial Piety and the Analects. Thus, the matter of the gods tended not to be the subject of abstract theological speculation or mythological narrativization. Rather, Confucians addressed the matter of the gods at the intersection of canonical exegesis, which held ultimate authority, and the rites to feast them at imperial altars and temples.</jats:p>