Advertisement

China’s ancient rituals brought to life by video project hoping to educate next generation and foreigners

  • History professor Peng Lin is on a mission to celebrate ancient Chinese values and rituals from the Zhou dynasty’s Book of Etiquette and Ceremonial
  • In his latest video project, he plans to film all 17 classic rites from the historic book with the help of more than 100 actors

Reading Time:5 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
0
Chinese history professor Peng Lin plans to film the 17 classic rites from the historic Zhou dynasty’s Book of Etiquette and Ceremonial. Here is an archery contest being filmed.
Elaine Yauin Beijing

Wearing traditional clothing, more than 100 actors have re-enacted four ancient Chinese rituals – the rite of passage, the nuptial rite, the social meeting rite and the archery contest rite – for a multimillion yuan video project.

The scenes shot look like they are straight out of Chinese director Zhang Yimou’s historical films, but they are first and foremost works of high academic value.

Since 2014, history professor Peng Lin has been resurrecting rituals portrayed in the I-Li, or Book of Etiquette and Ceremonial, a Chinese classic text about the Zhou dynasty’s (1046-256 BC) ceremonial rites and social behaviour.

The book is one of three – along with the Rites of Zhou and the Book of Rites – that together are referred to as the “Three Rites”, and which guided Confucian teachings of propriety and behaviour.

Peng Lin is a history professor and director of the Institute for Chinese Classics Studies at Beijing’s Tsinghua University. Photo: Simon Song
Peng Lin is a history professor and director of the Institute for Chinese Classics Studies at Beijing’s Tsinghua University. Photo: Simon Song

“We read a lot of books and did lots of research. Some students of mine were in charge of preparing the clothes. Some prepared the buildings and others various artefacts,” says the history professor and director of the Institute for Chinese Classics Studies at Beijing’s Tsinghua University.

“We spent over 20 days filming the archery contest rite in Beijing. The scaffolding stage was over 30 metres in height, with over 1,000 lights. We had much regret disassembling it [after filming].”

Advertisement