Liu Zong — The Six Honored Deities of Ancient Sacrifice 六宗
Paul PengLiu Zong (六宗, Liù Zōng, lit. "Six Honored Ones") refers to six categories of revered deities collectively worshipped in the Zhou state sacrificial system. When the sage-king Shun ascended to power, he first sacrificed to the Supreme Emperor (上帝) and then burned offerings to the Six Zong — placing them immediately below the highest deity in the cosmic hierarchy. Encompassing celestial, terrestrial, and seasonal powers, the Six Zong served as the great intermediaries between Heaven and the human realm. In the Zhengyi tradition, this tiered divine structure lives on in the celestial bureaucracy's departmental organization.
Liu Zong (六宗, Liù Zōng, lit. "Six Honored Ones") refers to six categories of revered deities collectively worshipped in the Zhou state sacrificial system. The term is recorded in the Shangshu (尚书, "Book of Documents"), "Shun Dian" (舜典), where the sage-king Shun performs the yin (禋) burnt offering to the Six Zong after his sacrifice to the Supreme Emperor (上帝). The Six Zong served as the great intermediaries between the supreme deity and the more localized spirits of the realm, encompassing celestial, terrestrial, and seasonal powers.
The Shangshu (尚书), "Shun Dian" (舜典) records:
"Then [Shun] sacrificed to the Supreme Emperor and burned offerings to the Six Zong."
Zheng Xuan (郑玄) provides the authoritative identification of the Six Zong as the deities of: 天宗 (Heaven), 地宗 (Earth), 四时 (Four Seasons), 寒暑 (Cold and Heat), 日 (Sun), and 月 (Moon). The passage is part of the Shangshu's account of Shun's accession to power, in which he systematically performed the full cycle of state sacrifices to establish his legitimacy as ruler — beginning with the Supreme Emperor and descending through the cosmic hierarchy to the mountains and rivers.
In the Zhengyi tradition, the Six Zong collective finds its counterpart in the Taoist celestial bureaucracy's departmental structure. The Zhengyi liturgical canon preserves the principle of tiered divine authority — a supreme deity, mediating departmental gods, and localized spirits — that the classical Six Zong system first articulated. The burnt offering (禋, yīn) used for the Six Zong, in which smoke ascends to carry the offering to the divine realm, evolved into the incense communication method central to Taoist liturgical practice.
The history of Taoist fasting and offering rites traces how the Six Zong's cosmic hierarchy was absorbed into the Taoist framework, with the celestial, terrestrial, and seasonal powers of the classical system finding their counterparts in the Taoist pantheon's departmental organization. At Longhu Mountain, the Zhengyi liturgical calendar continues to honor the cosmic powers that the Six Zong first systematized.
