Dà Táng Kāiyuán Lǐ 大唐開元禮
Ritual Code of the Great Táng of the Kāiyuán Era by 蕭嵩 (奉敕撰)
About the work
The Táng dynasty’s definitive imperial ritual code, completed in the twentieth year of Kāiyuán (732) under the directorship of Xiāo Sōng 蕭嵩, the prominent grand secretary of Xuánzōng’s mid-reign. In 150 juǎn, organized in the wǔlǐ (five rites) framework: xùlì (preliminary regulations, juǎn 1–3); jílǐ (auspicious / sacrificial rites, 4–78); bīnlǐ (guest rites, 79–80); jūnlǐ (military rites, 81–90); jiālǐ (felicitous / state rites, 91–130); xiōnglǐ (mourning rites, 131–150). The xiōnglǐ is conventionally placed second in classical theory but here demoted to fifth, following ZhènguānXiǎnqìng practice. The Kāiyuán Lǐ became required curriculum at the imperial Tàichángsì (Court of Imperial Sacrifices) under Dézōng’s Zhēnyuán era and is the documentary base for the ritual treatises of both Tángshū. Wilkinson identifies it as the standard reference for Táng ritual.
Tiyao
By Xiāo Sōng, Tàizǐ tàishī, Tóng Zhōngshū Ménxià sānpǐn and Zhōngshū lìng, by imperial command. Dù Yòu’s Tōngdiǎn and the ritual treatises of both Tángshū record that early-Táng ritual had no fixed code: when a great matter arose, a regulation was drafted on the spot. In the Kāiyuán era Tōngshì shèrén Wáng Yán submitted a memorial requesting that the old text of the Lǐjì be revised and supplemented with present-day usage. Jíxián xuéshì Zhāng Yuè objected that the Lǐjì is a definitive classic and could not be altered, and proposed instead that the Zhènguān (628–649) and Xiǎnqìng (656–660) ritual codes be reconciled into a Táng ritual. By edict, Yòu Sànqí Chángshì Xú Jiān, Zuǒ Shíyí Lǐ Ruì, and Tàicháng Bóshì Shī Jìngběn were ordered to draft, but the work was not completed in years. When Xiāo Sōng became xuéshì, he memorialized again, ordering Qǐjū shèrén Wáng Zhòngqiū and others to compile and finalize. So the Táng wǔlǐ was finally complete: this is that book.
The arrangement: juǎn 1–3 are xùlì; 4–78 jílǐ; 79–80 bīnlǐ; 81–90 jūnlǐ; 91–130 jiālǐ; 131–150 xiōnglǐ. Xiōnglǐ, anciently placed second, is here demoted to fifth, following the Zhènguān and Xiǎnqìng practice.
In the Zhēnyuán era an edict made this work the basis of an examination subject; those mastering it were appointed first to Tàicháng offices for further discussion of ritual—the work was thus already taught in the schools as official curriculum. The ritual treatises of both Tángshū draw on this work, but only retain three or four parts in ten. Dù Yòu’s Tōngdiǎn contains a Kāiyuán lǐ zuǎnlèi in 35 juǎn, slightly more detailed than the Tángshū versions but still incomplete. For a full discussion of past and present, with deletions and additions weighed and the whole made manifest as one dynasty’s institution, no later compilation matches the original. Hence Zhōu Bìdà’s preface: “When the court has a grave doubt, consulting this book settles it; when the state has a great undertaking, this book guides it”—truly a touchstone for ritual study.
The Xīn Tángshū Yìwénzhì lists Zhāng Xuàn, Lù Shànjīng, Hóng Xiàocháng, and others as also working on the Kāiyuán lǐ. The Tōngdiǎn zuǎnlèi’s entries on the names of the Five Marchmounts and Four Great Rivers, and on certain dress regulations, occasionally diverge from this text—doubtless transmission variants—and since we cannot determine which is correct, we have left the original readings as they stand, holding to the principle of “leaving the doubtful intact” (quē yí 闕疑).
Abstract
The Kāiyuán Lǐ was completed and presented in Kāiyuán 20 (732). The 732 date is firm—Xiāo Sōng’s biography in both Tángshū gives it explicitly. Compilation began c. 723 under Xú Jiān, Lǐ Ruì, and Shī Jìngběn but stalled; the work was revived under Xiāo Sōng’s xuéshì directorate and completed by Wáng Zhòngqiū and his colleagues. The dating notBefore=notAfter=732 follows this.
The work is the documentary core of Táng ritual practice and (after the Sòng Zhènghé wǔlǐ and the Míng Dà Míng jí lǐ) the model for all subsequent imperial ritual codes; the imperial Qīng Dà Qīng tōng lǐ (KR2m0035) explicitly refers to it as a precedent. Wilkinson (Chinese History: A New Manual, §51.2.1) notes that fully forty juǎn of Dù Yòu’s 200-juǎn Tōngdiǎn are devoted to the Kāiyuán lǐ—a measure of its centrality.
The work survived in transmitted form only in the imperial library tradition; its text was reprinted in Sìkù and is the basis of all modern editions. Its existence as a single 150-juǎn code makes it the most coherent surviving Táng administrative document—the Táng huìyào and Liùdiǎn are by comparison either compilations or treatises.
Translations and research
Standard editions: Wényuāngé Sìkù and the Cóngshū jíchéng reprint. Howard J. Wechsler, Offerings of Jade and Silk: Ritual and Symbol in the Legitimation of the T’ang Dynasty (Yale, 1985), is the principal Western monograph on early-Táng ritual and uses the Kāiyuán lǐ extensively. David McMullen, State and Scholars in T’ang China (Cambridge, 1988), surveys the ritual-officials’ role in the work’s compilation. The standard Chinese reference is Rényì 任以, Dà Táng Kāiyuán lǐ jiào shì 大唐開元禮校釋 (Zhōnghuá shūjú, 2014). Specialist articles by Wú Lì-chuān 吳麗娟 (e.g. Dà Táng Kāiyuán lǐ chūtàn, Wénxiàn 文獻 2007.1) treat individual ritual programs.
Other points of interest
The placement of xiōnglǐ (mourning rites) as fifth rather than second in the wǔlǐ sequence is a TángSòng practice acknowledged in the Sìkù tíyào as a deliberate departure from classical Lǐjì / Zhōulǐ doctrine. The reasoning—that mourning rites should be the rite of last consideration in a state-ceremonial code—is taken up in Sòng-period commentary and informs all later imperial ritual codes.