Soil and grain

Historic term for the state in East Asia

Chinese name

Chinese

社稷

Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyin	shèjì
Wade–Giles	she-chi

Vietnamese name

Vietnamese alphabet

xã tắc

Chữ Hán

社稷

Korean name

Hangul

사직

Transcriptions
Revised Romanization	sajik

Japanese name

Kanji

社稷

Transcriptions
Revised Hepburn	shashoku

Soil and grain was a common Chinese political term in the Sinosphere for the state. Shejitan, the altars of soil and grain, were constructed alongside ancestral altars. Chinese monarchs of the Ming and Qing dynasties performed ceremonies of soil and grain to affirm their sovereignty at the Beijing Shejitan.

During the Chinese Warring States period, ministers defied their rulers by claiming a greater loyalty to the "soil and grain".^[1]

A similar concept to sheji is that of the earth deities Tudi and Houtu.^[2] It is also linked to Sheshen or deities which are sometimes directly called soil (社)

Houtu is the overlord of all the Tudigongs ("Lord of Local Land"), Sheji ("the State"), Shan Shen ("God of Mountains"), City Gods ("God of Local City"), and landlord gods world wide.

In other cultures

Korean monarchs of the Joseon dynasty did so at the Seoul Sajikdan.^[3] It has also been rendered "gods of soil and grain" in English, owing to its associations of prayer and supernatural possibilities.^[4]

Sheji altar

Sheji altars (社稷坛) are altars dedicated to soil and grain. Beijing Shejitan is the most famous example

References

Citations

^ Envisioning eternal empire: Chinese political thought of the Warring States era
^ Yang, C. K. Religion in Chinese Society : A Study of Contemporary Social Functions of Religion and Some of Their Historical Factors (1967 [1961]). Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. page 97
^ A comparative study of thirty city states
^ Hymes: Way and Byway (Google Books)