Severing the Path Between Heaven and Earth

The Ordering of Sacrifice

Zhuanxu ordered Chong and Li to end indiscriminate communion with spirits, centralizing ritual authority.

In the age before order, every family made its own sacrifices and every person communed with spirits, until heaven and earth were crowded with claims of divine speech. The ruler Zhuanxu commanded Chong to lift heaven and Li to press earth down, cutting the easy path between the two worlds. From then on only appointed priests could speak for heaven — religion became an office, and the gods grew distant.