YUNLU (ed.).

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

Qinding Manzhou jishen jitian dianli ("Imperially Commissioned Manchu Rites for Sacrifices to the Spirits and to Heaven"). An attractive late-Qing manuscript copy of this important text of Manchu shamanism, including songs, chants, and illustrations of ritual spaces and vessels. For the emperor Qianlong, the longest-serving of the Qing Manchu emperors, this codification project was intertwined with his broader efforts to consolidate political power and "shape the cultural orientation of court and country" (McDermott, p. 355),.Imperially Commissioned Manchu Rites, which aimed to enshrine traditional Manchu folklore and religious practices, including the key role played by women in rituals, was compiled in the Manchu language in 1747 under the supervision of senior court figures including Prince Yunlu (1695-1767), Agui (1717-1797), and Yu Minzhong (1714-1779). Qianlong (1711-1799) took a keen interest throughout, personally supervising the editing and polishing of the final text. To integrate Manchu customs with China's overarching official bureaucracy, a Chinese translation was first printed three decades later and entered into the Siku Quanshu, the monumental and authoritative encyclopaedic catalogue of Chinese texts completed in the early 1780s. For the Manchus, shamanism was one of the few traditional practices which outlasted their cultural Sinicization. After the fall of the Qing dynasty in 1911, the rituals endured, still enjoying perhaps as many as one million practitio

Found via Rare Books Intel, a search across rare-book dealers, auction houses and marketplaces worldwide.