The Back-to-the-Lamp Sacrifice (Beideng Ji)

A ritual conducted in darkness

The *beideng ji*, literally a “back-to-the-lamp” sacrifice, was a ritual within certain Manchu Shamanic traditions conducted at night in a darkened setting. The name should not be misconstrued as a rite in which participants walked about carrying a lamp on their backs. A Palace Museum explanation places the rite after the appearance of stars, and notes that the beings addressed and the procedures could vary among families of different clan designations. Shared features therefore do not imply a single fixed rite observed uniformly by all Manchu households.

In the ceremony described by the museum, doors and windows were closed and participants remained quiet. The officiant employed ritual objects including a spirit knife, waist bells and an instrument identified as *kala*, using movement and sound as part of the performance. At the conclusion, offerings were removed, lamps were lit again, and family participants shared food. The passage from darkness and solemnity to restored light and communal eating was integral to the sequence.

Court and household contexts

The Kunning Palace in the Forbidden City was one important setting for the imperial performance of the rite. The Palace Museum's discussion of the building refers to a *beideng* offering of fresh food among court sacrificial observances. Yet the codification and documentation of a palace ritual do not establish that every household in every region followed the Kunning Palace procedure. Royal prescriptions, locally transmitted Shamanic rites and modern ethnographic observations must be analysed as related but distinct sources of evidence.

For related historical context and vocabulary, consult Evening Sacrificial Rites in Manchu Traditions.

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