La Ji — Ancient Chinese Year-End Winter Sacrifice 腊祭
Paul PengLa Ji (腊祭, Là Jì, lit. "Winter Game Sacrifice") is the ancient Chinese year-end sacrificial festival in which game animals from the winter hunt were offered to ancestors and the hundred spirits. The character la (腊) originally meant cured or dried meat from hunting; the Zhou Dynasty formalized it as Da La (大腊, "Great Winter Sacrifice"). From this ancient rite descended the Laba Festival (腊八) of traditional Chinese custom, still observed on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month.
La Ji (腊祭, Là Jì, lit. "Winter Game Sacrifice") is the ancient Chinese year-end sacrificial festival in which the harvest was celebrated and game animals from the winter hunt were offered to ancestors and the hundred spirits. The term la (腊) originally referred to cured or dried meat from hunting. The Zhou Dynasty formalized it as Da La (大腊, "Great Winter Sacrifice"), later evolving into the Laba Festival (腊八) of traditional Chinese custom. The La Ji represents the most comprehensive year-end ritual in the classical Chinese sacrificial system — addressing ancestors, household spirits, agricultural deities, and nature spirits in a single ceremony.
The Shuowen Jiezi (说文解字) defines the character: "腊, 冬至后三戌祭百神也。" ("La is the sacrifice to the hundred spirits on the third xu day after the winter solstice.") The Liji (礼记), "Yue Ling" (月令) records: "腊先祖五祀, 劳农以休息之。" ("Perform the La sacrifice to the ancestors and the Five Offerings, and give the farmers rest from their labors.") Zheng Xuan (郑玄) comments: "腊, 谓以田猎所得禽祭也。" Kong Yingda (孔颤达) elaborates: "腊, 猎也, 谓猎取禽兽以祭先祖五祀也。"
The Liji, "Jiao Te Sheng" (郊特牲) records the Eight Spirits of the Great La: "天子大蜡八。" Zheng Xuan identifies the eight: 1) Xian Se (先啬, Shen Nong), 2) Si Se (司啬, Hou Ji), 3) Nong (农, the Farmer), 4) You Biao Chuo (邮表啜, the Field Inspector), 5) Cat and Tiger (猫虎, protectors of crops), 6) Fang (坊, the Dike), 7) Shui Yong (水庸, the Water Channel), and 8) Kun Chong (昆虫, Insects). During the Han Dynasty, the La day was fixed as the third xu day after the winter solstice. From the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the La was fixed on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month.
In the Zhengyi tradition, the La Ji's year-end timing and its emphasis on thanksgiving and closure are preserved in the annual year-end jiao (年醮) ceremony. At Longhu Mountain, the year-end ceremony marks the conclusion of the ritual calendar, offering thanks to the celestial deities for the year's blessings and praying for the coming year. The history of Taoist fasting and offering rites traces how the La Ji's comprehensive year-end logic was absorbed into the Taoist liturgical system.
The La Ji's comprehensive scope — offering to ancestors, household spirits, and agricultural deities simultaneously — resonates with the Zhengyi school's inclusive approach to the spirit world. The Taoist ritual process of the year-end jiao similarly addresses multiple categories of spiritual beings in a single comprehensive ceremony. The ancestral veneration component of the La Ji connects directly to the Zhengyi tradition's reverence for its founding lineage — Zhang Daoling, the First Heavenly Master, established the ancestral transmission that defines the Zhengyi school to this day.
