Ancestral and Imperial Cults of Confucius

Abstract Chapter 4 argues that, not unlike Heaven-God, the status of Confucius in the dynastic code was subject to dispute in the first century of the Tang dynasty. The Duke of Zhou often held higher status as Sage in the temple located in the Directorate of Education in the capital, while Confucius occupied a secondary status as correlate or Teacher there. The court finally removed the Duke of Zhou from the temple in 657 and honored Confucius as Sage. From then on, Confucius’s status in the imperial pantheon was secured through codification of the canonical authority for his veneration based on School Libation rites (shi dian 釋奠) described in the Record of Rites, while his rank rose with awards of ever-higher titles. The figure of the correlate in the Culture Temple (Wen miao 文廟) operated according to different principles than at Suburban Sacrifice, although in both cases the correlate established a bond between the living ritual agent (or consecration officer) and principal deity. In Culture Temple, the correlate was the Master’s most exalted disciple, Yan Hui. Eventually, as early as the Song, the correlates comprised additional and later disciples who received the Master’s transmission of the Dao (Dao tong 道統). The cosmic domain of Culture (Wen 文) was materially reproduced in the imperial temple according to a spatial design modelled on the ancestral shrine, which facilitated through ritual acts the transmission of the Dao from Confucius to those present at the rite.