Míng Jí Lǐ 明集禮
Collected Rituals of the Míng by 徐一夔 (撰)
About the work
The founding-Míng imperial ritual code, compiled under Hóngwǔ on imperial commission. The original 50-juǎn version was completed in Hóngwǔ 3 (September 1370) by an editorial board of ten ritual scholars headed by Xú Yīkuí 徐一夔, with Liáng Yín 梁寅, Liú Yúzhōu 劉于周, Yú Liàng 於諒, Hú Xíngjiǎn 胡行簡, Liú Zōngbì 劉宗弼, Dǒng Yí 董彝, Cài Chēn 蔡琛, Téng Gōngyīng 滕公瑛, and Zēng Lǔ 曾魯. The transmitted text is the 53-juǎn Jiājìng-period (1530) reprint, with three juǎn of supplementary annotations and corrections inserted by Cabinet ritual officers under Lǐ Shí 李時. The work covers the wǔlǐ (auspicious, felicitous, guest, military, mourning) plus capping, dress, carriages, ceremonial-banner yízhàng-and-lǔbù, calligraphy, and music.
Tiyao
By Xú Yīkuí, Liáng Yín, Liú Yúzhōu, Yú Liàng, Hú Xíngjiǎn, Liú Zōngbì, Dǒng Yí, Cài Chēn, Téng Gōngyīng, Zēng Lǔ, jointly by imperial commission. The Míng diǎnhuì records that in Hóngwǔ 2, eighth month, an edict commissioned the Confucian scholars to compile a ritual book; in Hóngwǔ 3, ninth month, the work was completed and named Dà Míng jí lǐ.
The work is organized under headings: jí (auspicious) ritual—14 sub-headings: heaven-sacrifice, earth-sacrifice, ancestral temple, shèjì, cháorì, xīyuè, Xiānnóng, Tàisuì wind-cloud-thunder-rain master, yuèzhènhǎidúshānchuānchénghuáng (mountains, sea, rivers, city walls), qídào, horse-ancestor and xiānmù, sacrifices to the unloved-dead (lì), sìdiǎn shén, the Three Sovereigns and Confucius. Jiā (felicitous) ritual—5: court audiences, investitures, capping, marriage, district drinking. Bīn (guest) ritual—2: tribute audiences, dispatched envoys. Jūn (military) ritual—3: imperial campaigns, dispatched generals, the great archery. Xiōng (mourning) ritual—2: condolence-and-funerary-gift, mourning protocol. Plus capping-and-dress, carriages, yízhàng-and-lǔbù, calligraphy—each one. Music—3: bell-pitch, refined music, popular music.
The Míng shǐ Yìwénzhì and Zhāodài diǎn zé both give 50 juǎn; the present text is 53. The Míng diǎnhuì records that in Jiājìng 8 (1529), Lǐbù shàngshū Lǐ Shí petitioned for a printing; in Jiājìng 9 (1530), sixth month, the printing was complete. The Lǐbù noted: “Originally there was no good record; many lacunae. We have supplied them in sequence, adding glosses; we beg that the historiographer-officials enter these into the original work to complete it.” So the 50-juǎn version is the Hóngwǔ original; the 53-juǎn surviving text is the Jiājìng printing, with three juǎn of glosses and supplements added.
For example, the Míng Lǐzhì records that in Hóngwǔ 3 the Yuánqiū sub-sacrifices were augmented with Wind-Cloud-Thunder-Rain; but the present juǎn 1 general-preface says “Our state’s Yuánqiū sub-sacrifices include only the Bright Sun, Dark Moon, Stars, and Tàisuì,” and the Yuánqiū sub-sacrificial altar diagrams and offerings list also include only these, not Wind-Cloud-Thunder-Rain. So the augmentation took place in the eleventh month, after the work’s ninth-month completion, and was not entered. Yet juǎn 1’s god-tablet preface lists “Spirit of the Wind-Earl, Spirit of the Cloud-Master, Spirit of the Thunder-Master, Spirit of the Rain-Master” with red base and gold characters—self-contradicting within a single juǎn. This must be a Jiājìng-era addition. Likewise, the Míng shǐ Lǐzhì records that the Hóngwǔ 1 winter-solstice Hàotiān shàngdì protocol had no provision for advance announcement to the various deities and ancestral temple; this provision dates only from Hóngwǔ 4. But the present text contains it—evidently another Jiājìng supplement.
The preface is by Shìzōng (Jiājìng), dated the fifteenth of the sixth month of Jiājìng 9 (1530). The Shìzōng shílù records that on the gēngwǔ day (twelfth) of the sixth month of Jiājìng 9, the printing of the Dà Míng jí lǐ was completed and the emperor personally composed the preface; that month jǐwèi was the first day, so gēngwǔ was the twelfth. The shílù-and-preface dates differ slightly—probably the work was presented on the twelfth and the preface composed on the fifteenth, with both written together by the recorder.
Abstract
The dating bracket reflects the Hóngwǔ 3 (1370) original compilation through the Jiājìng 9 (1530) augmented printing. The catalog meta gives Hóngwǔ as the dynasty of compilation, but the text we have is significantly augmented. Xú Yīkuí 徐一夔’s life-dates 1318–1400 (CBDB) bracket the original compilation. The 1530 augmentation date is set as notAfter for accuracy; original compilation 1369 (commissioning) / 1370 (completion).
The work was the founding-dynasty ritual reference until superseded by the Míng Huìdiǎn and is the principal source for the formative Hóngwǔ ritual creation of which Edward Farmer’s Zhu Yuanzhang and Early Ming Legislation (1995) gives the standard treatment. Although the persons-frontmatter conventionally lists only Xú Yīkuí (per catalog meta), the prose body names the full editorial team of ten.
Translations and research
Standard editions: Wényuāngé Sìkù. Edward L. Farmer, Zhu Yuanzhang and Early Ming Legislation (1995), uses the work extensively. Romeyn Taylor, “Official Religion in the Ming,” in The Cambridge History of China, vol. 8 (1998), pp. 840–92, provides the key analytical synthesis. The principal modern Chinese reference is Yáng Zhì-gāng, Zhōng-guó lǐ-xué shǐ 中國禮學史 (Wǔhàn dàxué, 2014), pp. 426–58.
Other points of interest
The Sìkù editors’ detailed reconstruction of the Hóngwǔ original from the Jiājìng augmentation—based on the internal contradiction in juǎn 1 between general-preface (4 sub-sacrifices) and god-tablet preface (8 sub-sacrifices)—is a model of Qīng kǎojù applied to ritual texts.