Death Rituals and Politics in Northern Song China

Mihwa Choi

Offers a new explanation of the 11th-century revival of Confucianism
Examines the roles of debates on death rituals within court politics
Moves beyond the consideration of Confucianism as a mainly intellectual movement

Death Rituals and Politics in Northern Song China

Mihwa Choi

Description

This study examines how political and legal disputes regarding the performance of death rituals contributed to an 11th-century revival of Confucianism in Northern Song China. Under Emperor Renzong (r. 1022-1063), court officials came to a consensus that the Confucian tradition was the sole legitimate source for imperial rituals, and thus put an end to the controversial civil program of honoring the royal ancestors with the Daoist liturgy. New legislation on the legal obligation of civil officers to observe the three-year period of mourning gave rise to frequent allegations of ritual violation, which in turn necessitated further studies of the classical ritual texts, the passing of additional laws, and the writing of new ritual manuals. Amid fierce factional divisions, a group of scholar-officials led by Sima Guang envisioned a statecraft that would lend more power to the bureaucracy, and provoked a series of political disputes with their criticism of the emperor's ritual violations. This group advocated the moral reformation of society. They believed in the canonical rituals' capacity to bring hierarchical social order, and waged campaigns against Buddhist and Daoist rituals, challenging their alleged capacity to ensure the well-being of the deceased in the world -beyond. Despite their efforts, funerary and burial practices would continue to be sites of contestation between ritual agents and their differing notions about life after death as well as for ritual preferences linked to their social status, political visions, and religious belief.

Death Rituals and Politics in Northern Song China

Mihwa Choi

INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER I
The Adaptation of Ancestral Ritual to Serve the Royal Imaginary
CHAPTER II
"How Does Heaven Come to Speak": The Contesting Discourse and the Revival of Confucian Death Rituals
CHAPTER III
Ordering Society through Confucian Rituals
CHAPTER IV
Offering for Saving of the Souls
CHAPTER V
Social Imaginaries and Politics in the Narratives on the World-beyond and the Supernatural
CHAPTER VI
Burial: A Contested Site for Social Imaginaries
CONCLUSION
BIBLIOGRPAHY

Death Rituals and Politics in Northern Song China

Mihwa Choi

Author Information

Mihwa Choi, Lecturer, Chapman University

Assistant Professor of Religion, San Diego State University

Death Rituals and Politics in Northern Song China

Mihwa Choi

Reviews and Awards

"In this wonderful study, rich and skillful in its use of source materials, Choi brilliantly demonstrates on many layers that the death ritual issue provided Confucianism an important canvas to gather discursive pace." - Lukas Pokorny, University of Vienna, Religious Studies Review

"Death Rituals and Politics in Northern Song China makes a significant contribution in understanding the debates and context in the eleventh century that contributed to the rise of Neo-Confucianism in the century that followed." - Michael D.K. Ing, Journal of Chinese Religions

"Death Rituals and Politics in Northern Song China demonstrates the utility of drawing theoretical models and insights from the diverse body of literature and subfields that constitute the academic study of religion. It shows us how to think about historical phenomena and the rich intersections of the political and religious, of the social and personal, of the living and the dead. And by invoking the concept of l'imaginaire ('the social imaginary') in order to disclose the social and political stakes involved in officially sanctioned funerary practices, Choi also gives us a model for thinking productively about historical subjectivities." - Geoffrey C. Goble, Reading Religion

"Choi demonstrates an impressive command over a wide range of original sources and draws on a substantial body of secondary studies as well as theoretical literature to produce a book that is a must for students of imperial China. It will also instruct comparative scholars as well as all China specialists, and serve as a model for aspiring students...Essential." - CHOICE