Historical Studies (Chinese Edition)

No.5, 2013

 

An Examination of the Imperial Ancestral Temple of the Yuan Dynasty: A Study Centered on the Order of the Ancestors' Memorial Tablets in the Temple

(Abstract)

 

Ma Xiaolin

 

The Imperial Ancestral Temple of the Yuan dynasty offers a striking reflection of the spirit of its times and is rich in political and cultural connotations. This is epitomized in changes to the arrangement of the temple’s ancestral memorial tablets, which was influenced by clashes and accommodation between Mongol and Han cultures and by the politics of the time. From its inception in Qubilai Khan's reign, the order of the ancestral memorial tablets in the Yuan imperial temple underwent numerous changes. At first, the tablets were ranged east to west in a time sequence, then they were placed in an order in which Ghinggis Khan was in the center with others placed successively to his right or left according to the date of their accession, and then rearranged yet again under the zhao-mù system (that is, starting the count from a single ancestor, second generation tablets were placed to the left, zhao, the third to the right, mù, the fourth to the left, and so on). The system became fixed under Emperor Tàidìng (泰定, Borjigin Yesün-Temür’s reign). The most complicated changes occurred under Qubilai Khan, when Jochi, Chagatai and later Yesugai were all worshiped in the temple; but later their tablets were all moved out together with those of Ogedei, Guyuk and Mongke. This stemmed from political considerations of upholding orthodoxy. Based on the Mongol concept of the place of honor, the Yuan moved Ghinggis Khan’s memorial tablet to the center without holding a ceremony of imperial sacrifice, thus unintentionally stimulating the evolution of ancient Chinese ritual. Thereafter, the east-west placing of the ancestral memorial tablets in the imperial temples disappeared. The adjustments Emperor Tàidìng made to the tablets in the imperial ancestral temple had a direct influence on such tablets’ placement in the Ming and Qing dynasties. Seen from this perspective, the system of the Yuan imperial ancestral temple is an integral part of the history of ancient Chinese ritual.