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 "title": "Jin Ritual Code",
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 "excerpt": "The Jin Ritual Code (晋礼) is the state ritual code of China's Western Jin dynasty, compiled by Xun Yi and organized under the five ritual categories.",
 "snippet": "The Jin Ritual Code (晋礼) is the state ritual code of China's Western Jin dynasty, compiled by Xun Yi and organized under the five ritual categories.",
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 "markdown": "# Jin Ritual Code\n\nThe **Jin Ritual Code** (晋礼) was the ritual code of the [Western Jin dynasty](https://www.edgepedia.org/western-jin-dynasty), compiled by Xun Yi (荀顗) with a commission of scholars and organized, for the first time in Chinese history, under the five categories of ritual (吉、凶、军、宾、嘉) drawn from the *Zhouguan* (《周官》).<sup>[1](https://www.rujiazg.com/index.php/article/29488)</sup>\n\n| Key facts | |\n|---|---|\n| Subject | Jin Ritual Code (晋礼), the state ritual code of the Western Jin dynasty |\n| Principal compiler | Xun Yi, with Zheng Chong (郑冲) and a commission of scholars<sup>[2](https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/宋書/卷14)</sup> |\n| Collaborators named in the record | Yang Hu (羊祜), Ren Kai (任恺), Yu Jun (庾峻), Ying Zhen (应贞), and Kong Hao (孔颢), who revised the old texts with him<sup>[1](https://www.rujiazg.com/index.php/article/29488)</sup> |\n\n## Origin: compiler and date\n\nThe *Book of Song* (《宋书》) places the work in a sequence of ritual compilations: after the disorder at the end of the Han, Wang Can (王粲) and Wei Ji (衞觊) fixed the various ceremonies at the start of Wei, Meng Guang (孟光) and Xu Ci (许慈) created institutions in Shu, and \"at the beginning of Jin, Xun Yi and Zheng Chong (郑冲) fixed the Jin ritual in detail\" (晉始則荀顗、郑冲詳定晋礼).<sup>[2](https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/宋書/卷14)</sup> The *Book of Jin* biography of Xun Yi records that he petitioned for [Yang Hu](https://www.edgepedia.org/yang-hu), Ren Kai, Geng Jun, Ying Zhen, and Kong Hao to join him in deleting and revising the old texts and compiling the Jin ritual (顗上請羊祜、任愷、庾峻、應貞、孔顥共刪改舊文，撰定晋礼).<sup>[3](https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/晉書/卷039)</sup>\n\n## Contents\n\nChen Bisheng (陈壁生), a scholar of ritual studies, argues that the code was the first time since the Three Dynasties that a state compiled a full dynastic ritual code, and the first time the *Zhouguan* five-rite scheme was used as the classificatory standard for one.<sup>[1](https://www.rujiazg.com/index.php/article/29488)</sup>\n\nWhen Zhi Yu (挚虞) reviewed the draft, he reported that the auspicious rites covering capping (coming-of-age ceremony placing a cap on a young man), marriage, sacrifices, and assemblies could stand with minor changes, but that the mourning attire section was \"of the greatest practical use in the world and especially prone to losing its meaning,\" and needed supplementation.<sup>[4](https://www.shidianguji.com/book/NA02282/chapter/1m7ml6nd9kgzt)</sup> He judged the mourning-attire section to contain the most doubtful and missing points of the whole work, and the chapter-and-scroll arrangement to be cumbersome, recommending consolidation by category.<sup>[5](https://www.shidianguji.com/zh/book/HY2499/chapter/1kpb3kc6riib6)</sup>\n\n## Political influence\n\nThe code was part of a deliberate program of legitimation. Li Junqiang (李俊强) describes the Sima rulers and their ministers as seeking to prove the new dynasty's rightful standing by fixing rites and music and revising statutes and codes, in the classic formula of changing the calendar, changing the colors of dress, establishing laws, and raising rites and music.<sup>[6](https://www.nopss.gov.cn/n1/2026/0909/c461625-40795429.html)</sup> The same program joined ritual to law: many of the forty chapters of the *Jin Code* (《晋令》), such as the Statutes on Attire (《服制令》), on Sacrifices (《祠令》), and on Burial and Mourning (《丧葬令》), were closely tied to ritual, an early instance of drawing ritual into law.<sup>[6](https://www.nopss.gov.cn/n1/2026/0909/c461625-40795429.html)</sup>\n\nInstitutions outlasted the code itself. The *Book of Song* records that after the court moved to the Yangzi (江左), Xun Song (荀崧) and Diao Xie (刁协) repaired the tangled ceremonies, continuing the work that Xun Yi and Zheng Chong had begun.<sup>[2](https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/宋書/卷14)</sup>\n\n## Assessment and legacy\n\nThe Tang ritual treatise itself treats the Jin work as the founding compilation of its line, narrating the sequence from Xun Yi's new ritual through Zhi Yu's review to He Xun (贺循)'s [Eastern Jin](https://www.edgepedia.org/eastern-jin) suburban sacrifice provisions.<sup>[7](https://www.quanxue.cn/ls_zhengshi/jinshu/jinshu19.html)</sup> [Du You](https://www.edgepedia.org/du-you) (杜佑), in the preface to the ritual section of the *Tongdian* (《通典·礼序》), recalled that at the start of Jin, Xun Yi and Zheng Chong managed the state rites, comparing present and ancient practice; Yang Hu, Ren Kai, Yu Jun, and Ying Zhen deleted and collected, producing one hundred sixty-five chapters; and that Zhi Yu and Fu Xian (傅咸) carried the work on without finishing it before the collapse of the Central Plains.<sup>[1](https://www.rujiazg.com/index.php/article/29488)</sup>\n\nOne disagreement remains open: whether the Wei and Shu compilations of court ceremony were of the same nature as the Jin code. Chen Bisheng holds that the Wei and Shu work was court ritual of the kind Shu Suntong (叔孙通) made for Han, not true dynastic ritual-making, while the *Book of Jin* ritual treatise narrates the Wei compilers and the Jin compilers as one continuous line without distinguishing their character.<sup>[1](https://www.rujiazg.com/index.php/article/29488)</sup> One record note in the *Book of Song* shows the code in use: in the intercalary ninth month of autumn in the second year of Xianning (咸宁二年), envoys were sent to cap Runanwangjian (汝南王柬), showing that Jin ritual did not require such ceremonies at the year's beginning.<sup>[2](https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/宋書/卷14)</sup>\n\n## References\n\n1. 陈壁生《中国文明「礼乐」性质的形成：后郑玄时代的制礼运动》, 儒家网. https://www.rujiazg.com/index.php/article/29488\n2. 《宋书》卷十四 (sentences naming 晋礼), Wikisource transcription. https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/宋書/卷14\n3. 《晋书》卷三十九 (sentences naming 晋礼), Wikisource transcription. https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/晉書/卷039\n4. 晋书卷五（史纬全文，识典古籍）, 识典古籍. https://www.shidianguji.com/book/NA02282/chapter/1m7ml6nd9kgzt\n5. 《晋书》卷十九（礼志上）全文原文及译文, 识典古籍. https://www.shidianguji.com/zh/book/HY2499/chapter/1kpb3kc6riib6\n6. 李俊强《〈晋令〉：古代令典的典范之作》, 全国哲学社会科学工作办公室. https://www.nopss.gov.cn/n1/2026/0909/c461625-40795429.html\n7. 《晋书》志第09 礼上, 正史. https://www.quanxue.cn/ls_zhengshi/jinshu/jinshu19.html\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Society and history › History and archaeology › Asian history › China › Western Jin (266 to 316)*\n\n*Initially written Sep 23, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 30, 2026 · Edited: Sep 30, 2026 · Last review: Sep 30, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n",
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 "speakable": "The Jin Ritual Code is the state ritual code of China's Western Jin dynasty, compiled by Xun Yi and organized under the five ritual categories."
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