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Religions of Ancient China by Herbert Allen Giles
page 19 of 51 (37%)

Ancestral Worship.--For the purpose of ancestral worship, which had been
practised from the earliest ages, the Emperor had seven shrines, each
with its altar representing various forefathers; and at all of these a
sacrifice was offered every month. Feudal nobles could have only five
sets of these, and the various officials three or fewer, on a descending
scale in proportion to their rank. Petty officers and the people
generally had no ancestral shrine, but worshipped the shades of their
forefathers as best they could in their houses and cottages.

For three days before sacrificing to ancestors, a strict vigil and
purification was maintained, and by the end of that time, from sheer
concentration of thought, the mourner was able to see the spirits of
the departed; and at the sacrifice next day seemed to hear their very
movements, and even the murmur of their sighs.

The object of the ceremony was to bring down the spirits from above,
together with the shades of ancestors, and thus to secure the blessing
of God; at the same time to please the souls of the departed, and to
create a link between the living and the dead.

"The object in sacrifices is not to pray; the time should not be
hastened on; a great apparatus is not required; ornamental details are
not to be approved; the victims need not be fat and large (cf. Horace,
Od. III, 23; _Immunis aram_, etc.); a profusion of the other offerings
is not to be admired." There must, however, be no parsimony. A high
official, well able to afford better things, was justly blamed for
having sacrificed to the manes of his father a sucking-pig which did not
fill the dish.

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