Communicating Civilization Through Rituals
Mount Tai Pilgrimages in Song China, 960-1279
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 19570442 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Lifeng Han (0000-0002-9464-2850, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2015 |
| Volume | 1 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 335-362 |
| Publication date | 2015-05-27 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Chinese Humanities (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2352-1333 • E-ISSN: 2352-1341 |
| Publisher | Walter de Gruyter GmbH (PUBLISHER • DE) |
| DOI | 10.1163/23521341-01010018 |
| OpenAlex | W806354849 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 25 |
This paper examines the imperial feng 封 and shan 禪 ritual at Mount Tai in 1008 and its connection with popular pilgrimages among the Mount Tai cult. It aims to demonstrate how ritual can be used as a tool of the imperial state in communicating its political and cultural agenda. Placing the imperial pilgrimage within its historical context at the turn of the eleventh century, it can be understood as an effort to secure mass identification with the state and its authority. More importantly, it could be used to establish ownership of Chinese civilization by the Song dynasty (960-1279) in its competition with the Khitan, who had long adopted Chinese institutions and ideology. Various strategies were deployed by the throne to communicate the imperial symbolism of the mountain. The mountain, therefore, had become valuable symbolic capital. Through the composition of temple inscriptions, the literati were able to redefine the popular ritual practices of the Mount Tai cult and brought them into a hegemonic discourse on the mountain. This facilitated the construction of an imperial cultural identity accessible to all social groups and allowed an abstract concept of Chinese culture to be communicated through the fabric of society
Aesthetics · Ancient history · Archaeology · Art · Civilization · Cult · Ideology · Mount · Pilgrimage · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Throne · Chinese history and philosophy · Eurasian Exchange Networks · History · Japanese History and Culture · Law
State and court ritual in China
China Among Equals
Symbols
Rituals of royalty
Ritual, politics, and power
Founding and Consolidation of the Sung Dynasty under T’ai-tsu (960–976), T’ai-tsung (976–997), and Chen-tsung (997–1022)
Essays in Social Theory
Civic Ritual in Renaissance Venice
TEN. Standardizing the Gods
The Cambridge History of China
Limits to Autocracy
The Heavens are High and the Emperor is Near
Le T'ai Chan
Offerings of Jade and Silk
The City-God Cults of T'ang and Sung China
A symbolic mirror of ourselves
Taoism at the Sung Court
Mountain Deities in China
Superscribing Symbols
The Meaning of the Coronation
Symbol and Conquest
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |