The Transformation of the Ancestor Worship Rituals of Di and Xia in the Mausoleums of the Tang and Song Dynasties

There were two Confucian rituals of ancestor worship conducted in tai miao （mausoleum）. The Confucian rituals of Di and Xia are said to have been established in ancient China, and both were annual rituals of imperial ancestor worship. It has been asserted that in Di, a person who was a descendant of the sanhuan-wudi （three sovereigns and five emperors）, the so-called root of roots, would have been worshiped as a founder. This means that there were differences in the intent and manner of Di and Xia. In the imperial courts in ancient China, there were arguments over ancestor worship in tai miao. From the Tang dynasty to the Southern Song dynasty, an argument was made that the rank of the spirit tablet （shen zu） of Taizu （the founder of a dynasty） should be higher than the ranks of his ancestors in tai miao. Because of the emphasis placed on this contention, the above-mentioned differences were not ruminated over by the parties concerned. Shenzong, the sixth emperor of the Song dynasty, unwillingly determined to stop holding Di because his ancestry could not be traced back to the sanhuan-wudi. Consequently, Di was assimilated into Xia. Thereafter, whether the rank of a dynasty founder’s spirit tablet was higher than that of his great-great-grandfather in tai miao was the basis for holding Xia