5 Rituals
5.1 Confucius Ceremony
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5.1 Confucius Ceremony
In this section, I first describe the structure of the autumn ceremony, the participants, and their roles and interpretations of the ritual. Following is the topic of ritual and nationalism where I explore role this ritual plays in the political and cultural legitimization of the republican regime, together with an issue of secularization and transformation of a sacrifice ceremony into a republican ceremony of commemoration. I discuss the aims of the officials and these official intentions are contrasted with interpretations and actions by other participants. The last part of this section deals with the topic of ritual change presenting differing viewpoints on changes introduced to the autumn ceremony.
Structure and Participants
As discussed in the history overview, the ceremony celebrating the birthday of Confucius has been set to take place on September 28th. Conventional descriptions of the ritual might start with the drum sounds at six o’clock and end with the ritual master chanting,
“The rite has finished” at 7:30. The official brochure one gets upon entrance lists in addition activities such as the speeches and gifts given by presiding government officials, thus ending the event at 9 o’clock. Still, there is a lot to observe which precedes and follows the birthday ritual narrower sense.
On the same day, at five of clock, the ceremony is preceded by an ancestor sacrifice performed by the descendants of Confucius, Mencius, and Zengzi at the back of the temple in front of the Chongsheng Shrine. One day before the ceremony, on Saturday 27th in the afternoon, there is a “rehearsal ceremony” (shidian xiyi 釋奠習儀), which is structurally the same as the ceremony held on 28th. The only difference is an absence of political elites who arrive only on the following day. Two weeks before the ceremony, the temple starts to hand out entrance tickets, which are free of charge and serve to limit the number of people arriving at the temple. The audience has assigned place where to stand during the ceremony and cannot walk freely or leave the designated area. Each year, there are 400 individual tickets (2 per person), and 300 group tickets. Moreover, on the day of the ceremony, before the gates open, people can queue for another 100 tickets given out on the spot. The representatives of local governmental and educational institutions receive VIP entrance passes, which are sent by post directly to the address of a recipient. One month before the ceremony, preparations and rehearsals in the temple start on the first Saturday in September, and take place on each following Saturday. The ritual offerings on 28th end at 7:30, but are followed by half an hour of speeches by politicians, which last until 8 o’clock when the officials start to distribute wisdom cake and other gifts to the audience. The ceremony de facto ends with everyone taking photographs and wandering around, or leaving the temple. Some people ascend the platform to look inside the main hall, and or pray in front the spirits tablets. The photos after ritual (politicians with ritualists, ritualist with their family members) are also form of ritualizing and can be included as a part of the ritual event.
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The ritual brings together different groups of participants, including the temple staff and volunteers who are responsible for the administrative affairs, temple space and ritual utensils. The Kai Ping Culinary School (Kaiping canyin xuexiao 開平餐飲學校) prepares the sacrificial offerings and "wisdom cakes" that are given to the public at the end of the ceremony.
There are dancers and musicians from local schools, officiates who perform the sacrifices, and masters of rituals. In total, there is over two hundred direct participants, plus several hundred people in the audience.
Structure
Both the autumn and now-abolished spring sacrifice to Confucius follow the same basic structure of sacrificial rituals commonly performed in Taiwan, which are generally called
“three-offerings” (sanxian li 三獻禮) and can be classified as Confucian rituals. The name refers to the three stages (chu xianli 初獻禮, ya xianli 亞獻禮, zhong xianli 終獻禮) when the offerings are presented to deities (in a temple), or to ancestors (in an ancestral hall). The three-offerings in the Taipei Confucius temple have been modified to suit the political needs, such as inclusion of president offering of incense and sacrificial text. Consideration of politics and tourism lead to shortening and simplification of the ritual, and invitation of public to attend the ritual as audience.
The ritual can be divided into phases of preparation, sacrifice, and conclusion. In the preparation phase, the ritual participants assume their designated places and the “sacrificial remains” (animal blood and hair) are buried outside the Lingxing Gate. Ritual masters then walk out of the main hall in two rows and pass through the side doors of the Lingxing and Yi Gate into to courtyard in front of Pan Pond to welcome the spirit of Confucius. Then, they accompany the spirit by walking back through the central doorway of Lingxing and Yi Gate, and back to the main hall. In the sacrificial phase, the offerings of foodstuff are presented on tables, and incense sticks are burned in front of the spirit tablets in main hall, in the western and eastern halls, and in front of the tablet of the local worthy. This is followed by three offerings: first, the main officiant offers silks and wine, and ritual master chants sacrificial texts, and wine is offered for the second and third time. In the Taipei temple, the president or his representative enters the temple at this phase, and offers incense in main hall. The ritual master then chants the presidents’ sacrificial text. Afterwards, Confucius descendant offers a stick of incense, and sacrifice is concluded by drinking wine and removing the foodstuff. In the concluding phase, ritual masters see the spirit of Confucius off, and silks and sacrificial texts are burned outside the Lingxing Gate. Officiants then return to their places in front of main hall, and the ritual master on the platform calls out ceremony finished. After this, everybody claps their hands, which is something I have not seen in rituals in other temples, and it seems to be an indicator of a rather secular/republican nature of this ceremony.
Time
Although the date of the ceremony is September 28th, in recent years, it was changed due to the typhoon warnings. In 2015, the ceremony took place on October 9th, and in 2016
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on October 1th. Ritual master Sun, who is responsible for instructing musicians, once mentioned that in the past, the ceremony would have taken place regardless of the weather, thus being ritually appropriate, but in recent years, it is often postponed because of bad weather. With a smile, he then recalled the time when the temple was being reconstructed in 2007, and the ceremony took part outside the temple on a square between the Confucius temple and Baoan temple. “The strong wind was blowing and spirit tablets kept falling down,”
master Sun laughed.
Rehearsals on Saturdays in September proceed with an increasing degree of ritualizing.
At first, the rehearsal is mainly pretending and practicing. The participants wear casual clothes, and do not actually pour wine, or burn incense. However, on the last Saturday, they are all dressed in ritual garments. The ceremony on 27th is open to public, yet it is called a “rehearsal ceremony”. Can we call it a ritual? When does ritualizing during rehearsals become a full-fledged ritual? Official answer would be that ritual for real when the offerings presented by the officiants together with speeches and gift of wisdom cake. On 27th, the incense was burned but the sacrificial text recited by a ritual master clearly stated the date as 28th, making clear that this ceremony does not stand on its own, and is intended as a preparation for the proper ritual on September 28th.
The last two days of final rehearsal on 27th and “real ritual” on 28th are physically tiring for all the participants, including the temple staff and volunteers, but not the officiants who arrive only for a short period of time to attend the ceremony. The final rehearsal takes place in the afternoon, and after it has finished the ritual masters, dancers, and musicians quickly change clothes, and return to their homes to eat dinner and sleep for a few hours.
Early in the morning, they return to temple. Ritual masters have to arrive early to put on ritual garments, and then perform the ritual at the back of the temple at 5:30. The children arrive later, and prepare for the main ceremony, which starts at 6 o’clock. For example, the musicians do not return home at all, but sleep at the school. Since both daughters of KU participated in the ritual as dancers, she described once during the Saturday lesson how they get up from bed at 3 o’clock in the morning, at 4 o’clock arrive in the temple, and have one hour to dress up and prepare. KU then added, “If you have been there, you have noticed that the musicians and dancers are the first to arrive and last to leave the stage.” When I asked the older daughter of KU in the afternoon on September 28th about the morning ritual, she summed up her feelings with one word “tired”.
Audience
While the public is encouraged to attend the ceremony, there are distinctions among the members of the audience. The VIPs, who are members of the governing board and local government institutions, receive the entrance tickets by post irrespective of whether they actually intend to attend the ceremony. The two also stand in different sections inside the temple. VIPs enter through the Hong gate, pass the Li gate, and continue to the eastern side of the main courtyard. Ordinary spectators enter though a secondary gateway next to the
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Hong gate, and walk past the Minglun Hall into the western part of the main courtyard. The VIP zone is less crowded that the other one.
Given the crowded space forbidding movement, the audience can see only certain elements of the ritual. For example, one cannot see what is going on in the main hall, and unless standing next to the side winds, one cannot see inside the halls with former Confucians and Worthies. The ritual burying and burning is completely out of the sight. To compensate for this, there are two flat-screen TVs on the western and eastern side of the main courtyard, which broadcast the parts of ritual audience could not otherwise see.
Officiants (xianguan 獻官)
The officiants are not dressed in the new Ming-style garments, but wear the long qipao 旗 袍 from the Qing and Japanese era. While the mandarin jacket is black, the qipao underneath is of blue republican colour. There are four kinds of officiants:
(1) Main officiant (zheng xianguan 正獻官) (one person). This post is held by the mayor of Taipei who presents three offerings to Confucius and accompanying sages inside the main temple hall. Previously, the Kuomintang mayors had attended the ceremony, but the new mayor, Ko Wen-je, sent instead his vice-mayor, Deng Jiaji 鄧家基. The accompanying officiants (peijiguan 陪 祭 官 ) are selected by Taipei city government from among teachers, local government, and non-governmental organization etc. Their task is to accompany the main officiant (正獻官), and they are divided in two groups consisting 20-24 and 16-20 people: one group stands in the main hall at the eastern and western side (20-24 people), and another one is at eastern and western sides of the Chongsheng Shrine (16-20 people).
(2) Corollary officiants (fen xianguan 分獻官) (8 people) present incense, wine and silks in the western and eastern wing to sacrifice to Past Confucians and Former Worthies, and to the local Worthy, just like main officiant makes offerings at the main hall. They are usually heads of various local government bureaus, members of the temple governing board, and foreign envoys in Taiwan. Moreover, one is from Cheng and Koo families each because they are donators of the temple.
(3) Correcting officiant (jiuyiguan 糾儀官) (one person) is responsible for correcting any mistakes should they happen during the ritual, and this post is held by the Commissioner of Department of Civil Affairs (民政局長), under the jurisdiction of which the temple government board falls.
(4) Sacrificial officiant (fengxianguan 奉祀官) (3 people). Their role is to perform sacrifices to Confucius, Mencius, and Zengzi at the Chongsheng Shrine. The three officiants are the 79th-generation descendant of Confucius, Kung Tsui-chang 孔垂長 (1975), appointed in 2009, the 76th generation descendant of Mencius, Meng Lingji 孟 令 繼 , and the 75th generation descendant of Zengzi. Zeng Qinghong 曾慶泓. It is worth noting that this is not a family ritual but a part of the larger set of nationalist ritualism, and co-opting the descendants of the Sages is important symbol in claims on cultural legitimacy. For example, in 2016, Meng Lingji participated in a commemoration ritual in the Mencius temple in Zoucheng in the Mainland
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China, at the birthplace of Mencius. I learned from one of the descendants in the Kong Decheng line of descent that their ancestor rituals at home are very simple because there was not time to take the spirit tables when they were fleeing from the Mainland China. On the other hand, the Kongs who immigrated to Taiwan during the Qing dynasty do have an ancestral hall. In this way, the main lineage might be more dependent on the state. This can be contrasted with what I learned from the master Chen concerning their ancestor being enshrined in the temple as the Local Worthy. Master Chen said that it is an honour for them, but concerning the spirit tablet in the temple, “It is their thing (meaning Confucius temple), if they want to enshrine him.” The Chen family does not make sacrifices to their ancestor in the temple, they have spirit tablet in their own ancestral hall and that is where the sacrifices take place.
In the Taipei Confucius temple, there is an element differentiating it from ceremonies in other Confucius temples, and that is the presence of president, or his representative, who offers a stick of incense in the main hall after the three offerings part of the ritual concluded.
In 2015, President Ma attended the ceremony as he did previously in years 2008, 2009, 2013.
New president, Cai Yingwen 蔡英文, did not attend the ceremony in 2016.
Ritual Dancers (yisheng 佾生)
As mentioned, the ritual dancers in the Taipei Confucius temple has been selected from the students from Dalong Elementary school since 1931. This is one of the sources of prestige for the school, and some mothers decide to sign up their children here because of the bayi dance. The dancers are students from the third to sixth grade (eight to eleven years old). In contrast to the musicians, the dance classes are not mandatory, and students sign up (or are signed up by their mothers) based on interest. The teacher of yi dance told me that every year he asks children, “Have your parents or grandparents danced [in the temple]? And great number of children rises their hands every time.” Some of the parents thus sign up their children to this school because they themselves had danced in the past and still feel a connection.
The dance teacher is a young man in his thirties, who arrived to teach at the school in 2002, and as he said, he did not know very much about the dance back then. He saw the ritual at the temple for the first time in 2006 when the teacher Zhuang Wenzhen selected him together with three other teachers to be her successor. Teacher Zhuang, to whom the yi dance teacher referred respectfully by using an appellation “master” (shifu 師父), had been teaching yi dance for two decades. Her disciples had been learning how to perform and teach the yi dance at her side for 5 to 6 years, and after she retired in 2014, the responsibility is now at the hands of the next generation of teachers. “I learned about the dance properly only after I had arrived here”, said yi dance teacher, and added that although he as a child had read Confucian texts at school, it was after seeing the dance at the temple that he was enchanted by the discovery that, “We have such beautiful traditional culture”. Through years of teaching yi dance, he got more interested in Confucian culture, which has had “great influence on the Chinese. Confucius’s thought has relevance even today.” When I asked the yi dance teacher
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whether he plans to teach the dance until his retirement, he nodded saying, “Bayi dance is an important aspect of Confucian culture. Since I had an opportunity to encounter it, I have to do it dutifully and do it properly.”
The two dance teachers teach other classes because the yi dance is not part of the school curriculum. Each year, there are from 50-60 to 70-80 students who learn the yi dance.
The teachers decide who will eventually dance based on the students’ progress. Students learn and practice dance in the morning before the start of the school day, three days every week, about one hour each time. The classes begin in January and last until June. During the summer holiday, there is a two-week summer course. In September, the preparations intensify, and students often practice in the morning and afternoon. Students dance with pheasant plumes in right hand and a bamboo flute in the left hand. The handle of the plumes is in the shape of dragon, while the plumes themselves symbolize phoenix. Following the structure of ritual with offerings on three occasions (sanxian li), the dance has three accompanying sets of movements for the first, the second, and the third offering. Each set consist of 32 movements (96 movements in total), which might look similar but are in fact quite distinct and the movements do not repeat very much across the three sets. The dance teacher pointed out that for this reason, the dance “puts a lot of requirements on the children’s memory.” In his experience, the dance has influence on children’s personality and learning abilities. In addition to memory, it cultivates their ability to focus, their self-confidence, and patience.
Dance movements are based on the Ming-era dance manuals, but as the yi dance teacher explained, the manuals depict only static postures and the movements of changing from one posture to another are different among different dance teachers. As he added, different temples have their teachers as well, and there are differences in their performances.
However, the movements not change, and they themselves did not introduce any changes after teacher Zhuang’s retirement. The stage in temple was originally build for a six-row yi dance, but since Ma Ying-jeou elevated the status of Confucius temple to eight rows of dancers, the platform in the main courtyard has to be temporarily enlarged each autumn in order to accommodate the larger number of dancers.
Apart from performance at the autumn ceremony, the students were in the past
Apart from performance at the autumn ceremony, the students were in the past