This article uses the changing status of Confucius and his worship during the Xinzheng reforms (1902—1911) to investigate the transformation of imperial ritual into a political apparatus for the imagining of the nation. It first surveys the practices of Confucius worship in late imperial China and discusses its multivalent meanings. It then analyzes the Xinzheng reformers' reconstruction of Confucius into a symbol of Chineseness and situates it in the late Qing debate on citizen formation and nation building. Finally, it looks into the planning of a new ritual scheme for worshiping Confucius and highlights its departure from imperial precedents. Previous research has suggested that the Xinzheng reforms followed the Meiji example. This article shows that, by weaving the emperor and the people into one collective ritual act, the ritual scheme relativized the emperor's status and significantly diverged from its Japanese model.
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