The New Year Tangse Ceremony and the Making of Qing Rule

Abstract: This paper traces the development of the New Year Tange ceremony and demonstrates its pivotal role in establishing the early Qing rule and Qing emperorship. Contrary to the prevalent idea that the ceremony was a long-standing tradition, I argue that it was meticulously designed by Nurhaci to ensure a smooth succession after his passing. Thus, the ceremony was entangled with consolidating the polity and its rulership from its inception. The ceremony underwent several alterations as the Jurchen khanate evovled into the Qing empire and moved south. In the 1670s, the Kangxi emperor transformed Tangse into an exclusive imperial shrine for the banner elites, as the court sought to end threats from Han Chinese warlords, further signified the emergence of a new ruling discourse: the prerequisite to claim Manchuness rested on the privileged banner status. This policy institutionalized the conflation of Manchu identity with banner affiliation. The transformation of the New Year Tangse ceremony from a court ritual, to an imperial rite, then to a state rite, and to a Manchu rite underscores the instrumental religious symbolism that Qing rulers relied on in times of struggles.