Ci Si — The Secondary Sacrifice Rite in Zhou Religion 次祀

Ci Si (次祀, Cì Sì, lit. "Secondary Sacrifice") is the middle grade in the Zhou dynasty three-tier sacrificial hierarchy. The term is recorded in the Zhouli (周礼, "Rites of Zhou") with authoritative commentary by Zheng Xuan (郑玄). Ranked between the great sacrifice (大祀) and the minor sacrifice (小祀), the Ci Si was offered to the sun, moon, and stars — celestial bodies of intermediate rank whose worship was essential to the Zhou state religion but less solemn than the supreme sacrifice to Heaven and Earth.

The Zhouli (周礼) records:

Zheng Xuan (郑玄) provides the authoritative classification of the three-tier system, explaining the principle by which each grade of sacrifice was assigned to its appropriate divine recipients. The Ci Si passage is part of the Zhouli's systematic account of the Da Zong Bo (大宗伯, "Grand Master of Ceremonies") official's duties, who oversaw the full hierarchy of state sacrifices.

In the Zhengyi tradition, the three-tier sacrificial hierarchy maps directly onto the Taoist classification of ritual offerings: the grand offering (大醮) for supreme celestial deities, the standard liturgy for departmental gods including the sun and moon lords, and simple rites (小醮) for local spirits and ancestors. This graduated structure ensures that each level of the divine hierarchy receives appropriate ritual attention — the same principle that underlies the Zhou state's three-tier system.

The history of Taoist fasting and offering rites traces how the Zhou three-tier hierarchy was absorbed into the Taoist liturgical framework. The Zhengyi school's systematic classification of ritual grades — from the grand jiao to the individual petition — reflects the same principle of correspondence between the rank of the deity and the elaborateness of the offering that the Ci Si system first articulated.