The Confucian Worship of Zhu Yuanzhang

Hung-lam Chu

Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica

    This paper studies the ritual and social expressions of the founding Ming emperor in the aspect of Confucian worship from the perspectives of institutional and intellectual history, and is intended to throw new lights both on the study of official religion in the Ming and on the life and thought of Zhu Yuanzhang. The study begins with a background re-examination of the prevalent recognition of Zhu Yuanzhang as a suspicious and cruel ruler, and the condition of Confucian worship in the Mongol Yuan dynasty. It then reconstructs the history of Zhu’s ritual institutions for Confucian worship and his receptions of the Yanshenggong, the hereditary ennobled heir to the house of Confucius. The opinions raised by court officials of the Hongwu period on ritual expressions in the Confucian temple are also discussed. It concludes that Zhu Yuanzhang was consistently serious and unmatched of the emperors to his time in the worship of Confucius, in terms of personal reverence, ceremonial loftiness, as well as sincerity and favor to the Yanshenggong. Such reflects his genuine belief in Confucianism as an ideology good to both state and society.

Keywords: Zhu Yuanzhang (Ming Taizu), Confucian worship, the shidian rites (oblations) to honor Confucius, Yanshenggong, Khubilai Khan (Yuan Shizu)