Literacy and Ritual Learning: Ritual Knowledge and Transmitting Rites to the Ordinary People through Miscellaneous Characters of the Ming and Qing

Abstract

Examining local readings of miscellaneous characters in the Ming and Qing dynasties reveals a distinct knowledge landscape regarding “transmitting rites to the ordinary people,” one that differs from perspectives focused solely on dynastic ritual institutions or commentaries on the Confucian classics. When rural Confucian scholars compiled these works of miscellaneous characters, they mingled dynastic and Confucian rituals with rituals related to gods and ghosts, Buddhism and Daoism, and fengshui (Chinese geomancy), thereby blending rites with customs. To make the ritual texts straightforward and easily accessible to the ordinary people, the miscellaneous characters were compiled by category, ritual templates from daily-use encyclopedias were simplified, and the original ritual passages and chapters were converted into characters, words, and phrases for everyday literacy texts. From a longterm knowledge history perspective, ritual institutions since the Song and Yuan dynasties provided the institutional foundation for “transmitting rituals to the countryside”; various ritual texts compiled by scholar-officials promoted the popularization of rituals, while MingQing social changes facilitated the penetration of rituals into daily literacy practices. Ritualfocused miscellaneous characters thus represented both a new product of literacy development in the Ming-Qing period and a new genre fostering ritual order in rural communities. The spread of writing to the countryside and the downward penetration of rituals mutually reinforced each other, collectively shaping the Chinese society and ritual culture during the Ming and Qing dynasties.

Keywords

the Ming and Qing dynasties / miscellaneous characters / popular literacy / ritual / social history of knowledge / book history

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Higher Education Press