Beyond the Suburban Temple: Children's Ditties and Imperial Edicts of Self-Accusation – A New Discussion on Han Dynasty Sacrificial Poetry Forms

Abstract The turbulent social situation and the collapse of ritual and political order during the pre-Qin period led to prose becoming the dominant literary form during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods. This constrained the two main poetic creation groups—the common people and the nobility—resulting in a situation where the generation and dissemination of poetic texts could hardly be sustained. In the Han Dynasty, poetic creation, based on the Chu music(楚声) tradition, continued the characteristic of the Book of Songs(《诗》) being set to music and performed, possessing the potential to enter state sacrificial ceremonies and effectively carry the expressive needs of the state sacrificial process. Han Dynasty sacrificial poetry includes not only the traditional suburban temple songs, the Suburban Sacrificial Songs(《郊祀歌》) and the Songs for the Temple of Anshi(《安世房中歌》), but also sacrificial-related descriptions found in other song lyrics of the Han Music Bureau repertoire. Beyond the Han Music Bureau poems, children's ditties and parts of imperial edicts of self-accusation not only exhibit significant poetic form but also possess profound sacrificial attributes, thus also belonging to the category of sacrificial poetry.