Eclipse Rescue Rituals, Imperial Mobilization, and Administrative Coordination of the Qing Empire of China

People in imperial China had long regarded solar and lunar eclipses as signs of the displeasure of the heaven that could be followed by more disasters and severer punishments upon the nation and the people. In accordance with this myth, the ruling courts in Chinese history developed and practiced a series of rituals during eclipses to show their reverence to the heaven and improve their statecraft. Known as “rescuing the sun and the moon,” these rituals since the Tang dynasty had evolved into a nationwide political code for the emperors and all officials in the administration system to engage in the coordinated rescue and reflect on their own behaviors. Following the Ming dynasty’s precedents, the Qing dynasty significantly expanded the participants of rescue rituals from the emperor and court officials and officers in Beijing to provincial officials and officers and county magistrates. Although the rescue rituals were confined to inner China area and compromised the Eurasian nature of the Manchu-ruled empire, the Manchu rulers found the rescue rituals an efficient way to align and control the state administration and its human agents. This essay argues that eclipse rescue rituals provided the ruling court with decent opportunities on a regular basis to demonstrate the emperor’s reverence to the heaven, to control astronomical knowledge production and circulation, to present the supreme territorial and temporal sovereignty of the empire, to mobilize and discipline officials inside and outside Beijing, and to reinforce administrative coordination from the court to local counties.