278 Part IV: East Asian Civilization
Ancestor Worship
Ancestor worship was not left to custom by the shenshi. Detailed manuals pre-
scribed each movement, garment, offering, and placement of ritual objects. Most
authoritative of all was Zhu Xi’s Family Rituals written in the twelfth century.
According to French missionary Jean-Francois Foucquet (1665–1741), it was to
be found in every home in China, second only to the Analects in popularity
(Ebrey 1991). The purpose of family rituals, according to Zhu Xi, is to “preserve
status responsibilities” and to “give concrete form to love and respect through
cappings [at age 20, an adulthood ceremony], weddings, funerals, and ancestral
rites.” He hoped, he wrote in the preface, that this book might “make a small con-
tribution to the state’s effort to transform and lead the people” (Ebrey 1991:4).
The book begins with detailed instructions on construction of the ancestral
hall in the home.
When a man of virtue builds a house his first task is always to set up an
offering hall to the east of the main room of his house. For this hall four
altars to hold the spirit tablets of the ancestors are made; collateral relatives
who died without descendants may have associated offerings made to them
there according to their generational seniority. Sacrificial fields should be
established and sacrificial utensils prepared. Once the hall is completed,
early each morning the master enters the outer gate to pay a visit. All com-
ings and goings are reported there. On New Year’s Day, the solstices, andThis preserved ancestral hall was once a mandarin’s home, where the family formally
worshipped their ancestors according to principles laid down by Zhu Xi.