Royal Canon of Tsinh

The Royal Canon of Tsinh is a list of Tsinh rulers to whom supplication was paid regularly. While the canon first appears in historical works dating to the late 4th century and contains 43 members, a version revised based on the contents of the Springs and Autumns of Six States has put the figure at 70; their lifetimes are estimated to range from the 8th or 9th centuries BCE down to the point the canon was set to writing.

Analysis

It is generally agreed that the reason why the Canon survives as such and in this way is the cyclic worship of royal ancestors, to whom offerings were made in order of the most remote to the most recently deceased. This was an continual affair at the royal court of Tsinh from at least the 2nd century BCE.