The Tiger’s Teeth

Local Gazetteers as Sources for Images Related to the Performance of Ritual

Abstract

Local gazetteers often include images of ritual implements. This essay studies those images, asking when, where and why such images began to appear in local gazetteers and how these images relate to textual and visual representations of ritual implements in state-level illustrated ritual manuals. The argument this contribution seeks to make is that local gazetteers should be considered among the valuable sources for the study of Confucian ritual. When we look closely at the visual material about ritual in local gazetteers, we see that the process of the appearance of images of ritual implements in local gazetteers should not be understood simply as a top-down diffusion of state-level ritual instruction. The creators of these local illustrations were working within their own circumstances: their skills at creating the illustrations, the models they had to hand, and their understanding of their function were all distinct. While the ambitions of the Qianlong emperor are key to understanding the emphasis on ritual during his reign, as demonstrated by well-known ritual publications such as Huangchao liqi tushi, it is also clear that images related to rituals appeared in the local gazetteers at different times and in different cultural spaces from large-scale imperial projects. If we want to understand what local individuals thought about the importance of ritual in Qing society, we have to take the images of ritual implements included in local gazetteers seriously.

虎的牙齒：圖經方志作為禮儀意象的來源

地方志中經常能看到禮儀器物的意象。本文旨在研究這些意象並探詢這些意象何時、何處以及為何開始出現在地方志中，以及它們與官方對相關禮儀圖文並茂的記載有何關聯。文章擬論證地方志應被視為研究儒家禮儀的寶貴資料之一。察看地方志中有關禮儀的視覺材料會發現，地方志中禮儀意象出現的過程並非是由朝廷禮部發出指令後自上而下傳播的。圖像的繪製人是獨立工作者：他們創作的技能、手頭的模型以及對圖像功能的理解都各不相同。雖然乾隆皇帝的雄心壯志是理解他統治時期對禮儀重視程度的關鍵，但同樣明顯的是，與禮儀相關的意象在地方志中出現的時間和文化空間與朝廷敕撰的項目並不相同。由此，如慾瞭解在清朝個體對禮儀重要性的看法，則須重視地方志中收錄的有關禮儀器物的意象。