Ritual Fasting and Inner Cultivation in Early China

“Fasting” 齋 was central to early Chinese ritual practice, whether in preparation for sacrificing to the spirits or other occasions of ritual significance. In this paper, I propose to examine the practices that gather about this imperative to “fast” (often written with the allograph 齊). Ritual fasting involved not only the proscription of various activities (social engagement and other sources of pleasure and distraction) but also contemplative elements that have not drawn as much scholarly attention. Drawing primarily on the Liji 禮記, I will discuss the details and practical logic of ritual fasting as well as its relationship to contemporaneous practices of inner cultivation.