Ma Ji — Four-Season Horse Sacrifice in Ancient China 马祭

Ma Ji (马祭, Mǎ Jì, lit. “Horse Sacrifice”) designates the comprehensive system of horse-related sacrifices practiced in ancient China, particularly during the Zhou Dynasty (c. 1046–256 BCE). The term encompasses all four seasonal ceremonies administered by the state for the welfare of the royal horses. As the Erya (尔雅, “Approaching Elegance”), China’s oldest dictionary and encyclopedia (c. 3rd century BCE), succinctly defines it in the “Shitian” (释天) chapter:

Guo Pu (郭璞, 276–324 CE) of the Jin Dynasty elaborates in his commentary: “伯祭马祖也，将用马力，必先祭其先。” (“To sacrifice to the Horse Ancestor: before using a horse’s strength, one must first sacrifice to its ancestor.”) The ritual protocol stipulated that before using horses for any significant purpose, a sacrifice must first be offered to their ancestral spirits.

The principal source is the Zhouli (周礼, “Rites of Zhou”), compiled during the Warring States period (c. 4th–3rd centuries BCE). The “Xia Guan: Xiaoren” (夏官·校人) chapter prescribes:

Zheng Xuan (郑玄, 127–200 CE) identifies each deity in his Eastern Han commentary: the Horse Ancestor (马祖) is the Tian Si constellation (天驷); the First Herdsman (先牧) is the first person to raise horses; the Horse Society (马社) is the first person to ride a horse; the Horse-Harming Spirit (马步) is the deity causing equine affliction. The Liji (礼记, “Book of Rites”) provides additional context on the ritual framework of animal-related state ceremonies within the Zhou ritual order.

In the Zhengyi tradition, the Ma Ji system represents an important precedent for the comprehensive seasonal ritual frameworks that characterize Daoist liturgical practice. The four-season structure of the horse sacrifices parallels the seasonal rhythm of Daoist communal offerings, which are timed according to the twenty-four solar terms and the agricultural calendar. The Ma Ji’s integration of practical animal husbandry with cosmic ritual reflects a worldview fundamental to Zhengyi practice: that proper ritual observance maintains the harmony between heaven, earth, and humanity. While contemporary Zhengyi liturgy at Longhu Mountain does not preserve direct equine sacrifice traditions, the underlying categories of seasonal alignment, ancestral invocation, and apotropaic ritual continue to structure Zhengyi ceremony as documented in liturgical compendia such as the Daomen Dingzhi (道门定制). For the broader history of how Daoist offering ceremonies developed from these ancient foundations, see The History of Taoist Ritual of Fasting and Offering Sacrifices.

The Ma Ji’s four-season structure — each ceremony addressing a distinct aspect of equine welfare within a unified annual cycle — exemplifies the classical Chinese principle that ritual must be comprehensive and seasonally calibrated. This principle continues in Zhengyi practice, where the annual liturgical calendar prescribes specific ceremonies for each season and each major node of the agricultural year. For a practical overview of how such seasonal ritual protocols are structured and performed today, see What Is a Taoist Ritual and Their Process.

The Ma Ji system encapsulates a foundational principle of classical Chinese ritual thought: that the human use of natural resources — in this case, the labor and strength of horses — requires ritual acknowledgment of the spiritual powers that govern those resources. By prescribing four distinct seasonal ceremonies for four distinct aspects of equine welfare, the Zhou ritual system created a comprehensive framework in which the practical management of the royal herd was inseparable from its ritual sanctification. The horse was not merely an economic asset but a participant in the cosmic order, governed by celestial deities (Ma Zu as Tian Si), cultural heroes (Xian Mu and Ma She), and apotropaic spirits (Ma Bu). To use a horse without first honoring these powers was to act outside the ritual order — a transgression that the Ma Ji system was designed to prevent.