The Confucian Temple, silhouetted against a dark purple sky, wafted burning incense. In its center, encircled by a U-shaped corridor, a patio and altar shared covers of red carpeting. Elevated drums and huge bells waited quietly there beneath its flying eaves, at a corner of the columned veranda. It was the moment of daybreak.
A subdued thundering of drums broke the dusk, beginning the ceremonies for Confucius' 2533rd birthday—an important event for those who esteem the Great Sage of China. The ritual, itself honoring a philosopher who celebrated ritual, embraced traditional ceremonies of almost astonishing antiquity.
The rite for Confucius' birthday, Shih-dien, is "a ceremony for teachers and sages staged every spring and autumn," according to The Book of Rites. Dating back to the Chou Dynasty (1122 B.C.-249 B.C.), it was held on the Ting Day (the name of the day, like "Monday") within the first ten days of every February and August by the Chinese lunar calendar. Only with the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644 A.D.) was the ritual timed forever at dawn.
The lunar date for Confucius' birthday was changed to a fixed September 28 on the Western calendar by the late President Chiang Kai-shek in 1968, but the rite was still to follow the Ming practice, beginning at dawn—6 a.m.
The morning light gave faintly visible shape to the area before the Confucian temple as the drum beats sounded. Candies, lit to the beat, flaming in the temple and on the patio, bathed the palace-like buildings in a lustrous gold. Such was the first of the 37 paragraphs of rites specified for the whole ceremony.
Dancers and musicians, as well as attendants, follow a course of ritual prescribed by ancient dynasties.
The drum beats paced the ritual attendants in their traditional purple gowns and hats as they led the consecration officials to their positions. Dancers in yellow robes and ritual musicians in pink gowns, rhythmically stepping to the penta-beat-one-pause of the drum, approached the altar, the attendants, meanwhile, chanting in prolonged tones the names of the officials, including eight secondary consecration officials for the minor sages (Confucius' disciples) and a principal consecration officer. The attendants led them to a ritual washing of their hands, a necessary preparatory gesture before officially paying ritual tribute to the Grand Master.
The ceremony relies on three elements: sacrifice and imitation paper money, music and dance, and strict ritual, according to The Book of Rites. Though Confucius was not of the nobility, the ceremony was patterned directly after the ritual for the Son of Heaven, the Emperor himself—the most sophisticated and refined rites of an ancient and hierarchical society.
Confucius was only one of ten outstanding "theoreticians" in one of China's most turbulent periods—the Spring and Autumn Period and the Era of the Warring States (770-256 B.C.)—but his precepts have been strongly advocated since the Han Dynasty, and he has been recognized as Great Sage and Great Master from then on. This revered teacher was anointed with the posthumous title of King during the Tang Dynasty.
The sacrifice for Confucius, tai-lao, includes a cow, lamb, and pig, the same as the offerings for the Son of Heaven, as designated by the first Emperor of the Han Dynasty at the time of his own pilgrimage to Confucius' hometown in Lu State (now Shangtung Province).
Within the ritual, when the sacrifices were well prepared, the attendants heralded the opening of the massive red wooden gates, closed all year except for this one day. Six attendants, holding long war axes, palace fan, and Imperial umbrella, strode in line, in traditional march, to welcome the spirit from the Gate of Rites and the Ling-sing Gate into a shrine overlooking classical ceremonial items, including about 10 to 15 kinds of tsun (wine pitchers) and chueh (wine cups), and plates for meats. Since Confucius was very concerned about food in the Analects, in which he emphasized correct manners and decorum, the ritual now closely observes the proper placement of the proper containers for the appropriate offerings, for instance, a wooden stand called a tsu for pork, a fei for silk, and a tso-pan for Chinese sausages.
In the shrine, there was no statue of Confucius; instead, a rectangular wooden plaque inscribed, "The All-Encompassing, Supremely Sagacious Master Tablet", standing in the niche, embodied the presence of the Great Sage. Use of such a tablet was first initiated and formalized during the Ming Dynasty, after a long ritual history with only the title acknowledged. During the Tang Dynasty (618-907 A.D.), Confucius received the posthumous title of Wen-Hsuan-Wang (King of Letters). The title was prefixed with Chih-Sheng (The Supremely Sagacious) during the Sung Dynasty (960-1279 A.D.), and prefixed again with Ta-Cheng (All Encompassing) during the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368 A.D.). When the Ming Dynasty adopted the tablet, its inscription read Chih-Sheng-Hsien-Shih-Kung-Tzu-Shen-Wei (The Supremely Sagacious Master Confucius' Tablet). During the Ching Dynasty (1644-1911 A.D.) was established the present Ta-Cheng-Chih-Sheng-Hsien-Shih-Kung-Tzu-Shen-Wei (The All Encompassing, Supremely Sagacious Master Tablet).
The enshrined tablet was flanked by tablets representing the Four Minor Sages (Yen Hui, Tseng Sheng, Tzu Ssu, and Mencius), and the Twelve Wise Men, all Confucius' disciples, erected in the main building—Ta Cheng Hall. The halls of the Taipei Confucian Temple host, all together, about 186 tablets of sages and saints, a number more or less reproduced at six other major Confucian temples on the island.
During the offering of the sacrifices, the blood and hair of the sacrificial animals were burned. Then, attendants held above their heads small brass plates and carried the burned offerings outside the door to bury them—carrying out the symbolic welcome of the spirit of Confucius, whose body is interred in the earth, to enjoy the sacrifices.
As the principal consecration official offered sacrifices and led the ritual for the sage, eight secondary consecration officials made their offerings to the spirits of Confucius' disciples. The principal official should normally be the highest official of the municipality in which the Confucian Temple is located; on this occasion, the Mayor of Taipei. The Mayor and other officials were dressed in the traditional dark blue gowns and black jackets.
When the sacrifices were offered, the musicians started the Melody of Hsien-ho, a slow, quiet tune evoking grace, majesty, and peace, basing on the traditional pentatonic-scale as rendered by the Chinese classical music instruments—drums, bells, flutes, and strings.
This tablet embodies the presence of the Great Sage
Ho Ming-chung, who served as director of music for the ceremony for eight years, points out that the ritual Confucian music is classified among the Auspice Music played in the palace before the Emperor when there was a national event or festival. This category is the most distinguished among five classifications of traditional Chinese music—the other four categories are Omen Music, Military Music, Protocol Music, and Carnival Music.
Unlike most Chinese melodies, which are played on a single instrument, the Confucian ceremony music is performed by an orchestra of about 20 types of instruments. These may be categorized by materials into eight groups: metal, stone, ceramic, leather, strings, wood, bamboo, and gourd. The music for the Confucian ceremony, called Shao Music, has been played in all its magnificence since the Chou Dynasty.
Each composition has the same prelude, which begins with a low noise made by knocking a wooden hammer on a square bowl called a chu, this followed by a peal of brisk thunder from a little drum with a prop beneath, which is struck by two stringed balls which knock against the little drum when it is sharply shaken—the drums are called tao drums. The thunder is followed by a peal from a yung bell, and then by the rattle of a leather maraca, called a buo-fu.
Now we have the melody of Ning-ho, which accompanies the first consecration for Confucius and the minor sages; accompanying the second consecration is the melody of An-ho; and third, is the melody of Ching-ho.
These melodies do not differ in portent, all revealing tones of peace and glory. As each melody ends, its passing is marked by a brush across the back of a bronze, tiger-shaped yu.
Ho, noting that critics of Chinese traditional music find it monotonous, pointed out that they have missed the fact that the music is usually intended to go with specific songs and dances. The trinity of music, song, and dance compensates for monotony in the melody alone. Ho added a bell peal every octave, and a ding from the chin (musical slabs of stone) every four beats, during this year's ceremony, helping to break the monotony.
Some of the instruments used are old, but others were made in modern Taiwan, Ho said. Newly made instruments are designed according to old documents; some are patterned after instruments in early collections.
Sounding the main temple bell—A prescribed step in reverent, instrumental accolades
One expert on the Confucian ceremony, Chang Yang-pei, states that the earliest documented time for import of instruments from the mainland into Taiwan was during the late 17 Century, when the Ching Dynasty retrieved Taiwan from Ming loyalists. About 1710 and then late in the 18 Century, Taiwan governors are twice recorded as importing instruments from the mainland.
Instruments used during the Ching Dynasty were often slightly different from those of the Ming Dynasty. The bien chin (slabs of stone hung and then sounded with a small hammer), for example, was a complete pentatonic scale set, toned according to their different sizes during the Ming Dynasty, but according to different thicknesses in the Ching Dynasty. The set used in the Taipei Confucian temple is of Ching design.
The words of the eulogy to the Great Master were composed by Chen Li-fu, a well known scholar. Flutes, vertical flute, pai-shiao (a continuum of vertical flutes), shiuan bien bells (a set of bells), bien chin, and strings chirped and warbled as the famous Pa-yi dance began to unfold.
The prescribed dance, performed by 64 students in a square—eight students to a side—was once danced before the Emperors, adding the vantage of Imperial magnificence to the whole ceremony. Pa means eight in Chinese; yi means lines of performers. For a lord, the second of the five grades of nobility in the Chinese hierarchy, only the dance of Liou-yi (six lines) could be performed. The dance of Pa-yi was designated for performance at Confucian temples. However, the altar area of the Taipei Confucian Temple is large enough only for six students to a line. The altar area of the Tainan temple is big enough to host the Pa-yi Dance.
The 36 dancers, pheasant tails in their left hands and red bamboo rods in the right, acted out 96 movements and gestures to the songs of Ning-ho, An-ho, and Ching-ho. They bowed, strode, turned, kneeled, and brandished the feathers and rods, pictures of grandeur reincarnating in great solemnity the majesty of the old dances before the Emperors. Each movement was punctuated by a momentary freeze of the gesture, so the whole dance was presented as a series of tableau, rather than a connected flow of movement.
Hsia Huan-hsin, secretary of the Chinese Music and Ritual Society, notes that the dances still witnessed today are civil dances, and that a military dance should also be presented at the ceremony.
The civil dance was initiated during the Tang Dynasty, the military dance a few years later. The civil dance is performed to welcome the spirit of Confucius; the military dance, to bid farewell. The difference was recognizable, Hsia said, with the civil dancers holding pheasant tails and rods, the military dancers holding shields and spears. The military dance, which accompanied the featured parading of thousands of soldiers and chariots, was abolished during the Sung Dynasty and never revived.
During the Ching Dynasty, a Ching governor of Taiwan introduced the Ching dance system from the continent to Taiwan in a deliberate move to replace the ritual inherited from the overthrown Ming Dynasty. Melodies, dance, and ritual procedures were switched back to the Ming style as a result of the late President Chiang Kai-shek's advocacy.
The Ching dance is very well recorded. The 96 gestures were all illustrated and captioned, the movements divided into standing gestures, head gestures, body movements, hand movements, feet motions, and steps, etc. The positions of feathers and rods were also named.
Costume colors were not recorded, however, and the present yellow robes are yellow for the color of the Emperor, or in recognition of the use of yellow in other Asian countries where the ceremony was held, some scholars state.
Boys were selected for this year's dances from among local Ta-lung Elementary School students and drilled over the summer months for the occasion. The dancers used to be professionals, employed by each Confucian temple, Ho said. Tradition ruled that all dancers, musicians, and attendants at the ceremony should be hsiu-tsai, holders of the basic degree conferred upon successful candidates in the civil service examinations. "It was a great traditional honor for a person to participate in the ceremony for the Great Master," Ho noted.
Following the triple consecrations, a eulogy from President Chiang Ching-kuo was read and then followed by the burning of incense by the attendants as a request to the spirit to enjoy the offerings. Then the principal consecration official entered the hall to receive wine and meat for the blessings. The withdrawal of the offerings marked the conclusion of the consecration.
The last phase of the ceremony involved the burning of the written eulogy and of the silk used in the consecration.
The gates were then closed, ending a ceremony which has survived the changes of dynasties and taken root in the infinite time and space of Chinese society.