CONFUCIANISM IN THE MONGOL EMPIRE

‘Confucianism’ can be thought of as a set of ideas and practices emphasizing the importance of proper actions in accordance with social roles. The Chinese term for proper actions is conventionally translated as ‘ritual’ but in the widest possible sense, from everyday social behavior to elaborate sacrifices where food offerings were presented to unseen spirits. Another category of sacrifices in the Confucian tradition concerned offerings to the spirits of Confucius, his disciples and intellectual successors. At the time of the Mongol conquests, Confucian rites were part of the court ceremonies not only of the two contenders for regional primacy, the Jurchen Jin and nativist ‘Chinese’ Song, but had also been adopted in Koryo, Japan, and the Tangut Xia kingdom. Confucian sacred geography was bound to particular locations and geographic features in and around the area referred to as the ‘Central Territories’, comprising the North China Plain and adjacent region.