The Emperor's superstitious practises
Emperor Wu devoted much time to the cultivation of relations with
supernatural beings. He extended and enlarged the imperial sacrifices,
introducing a new god, the Supreme One (T'ai-yi), who was ranked above
the Five Lords on High (Shang-ti [q.v. in Glossary] or Wu-ti). He
established two important new imperial sacrifices, the feng sacrifice to
Heaven and the shan sacrifice to Earth, and recreated the Ming-t'ang
as a place of sacrifice and audience. He also made various attempts to
get immortals to come to him. These attempts invariably ended in
failure, for the Emperor was too keen to be easily fooled. Yet he could
not down the feeling that some of the magicians' practises might not
have been entire frauds.
