**1. Introduction**

*Cheng* 䃐 (sincerity) is one of the primary concepts in the Confucian tradition as well as Chinese intellectual history. Its rich implications involve dimensions of religion, ritual, folk belief, ethics, psychology, cosmology, metaphysics, aesthetics, and literature. In the Confucian classics, *cheng* is described as the "Dao of heaven"; humans through cultivation can reach the mysterious state of "the utmost sincerity functioning as spirits" 㠣䃐ྲ⾎ and thus can "assist the transforming and generating power of heaven and earth" 䌺ཙൠѻॆ㛢 (Mencius, 4A12; Zheng and Kong 2000, 53.1689b, 1691a–b, 1693a).<sup>1</sup> Because of *cheng*'s rich, sacred, and mysterious implications, it has been regarded as the most difficult and perplexing of Chinese concepts (Zhang 1983, p. 133; Munro 1988, p. 177), being translated variously as "sincerity," "realness," "reality," "truth," "integrity," "creativity," "force," "perfection," or simply transliterated as "cheng."2

Scholars have long studied *cheng* mainly from the perspective of philosophy to analyze its ideological conceptions in the Confucian classics, resulting in fruitful and inspiring interpretations. However, because they have not traced the origin of *cheng* to its rich religious, ritual, and literary sources, their interpretations have been unable to answer the question: why is *cheng* covered with such a mysterious, sacred veil?

In recent decades, however, some scholars have started exploring *cheng*'s relationship with ancient religious beliefs and rituals. Li Zehou indicated that *cheng* was originally an important emotional factor and mental state in ancient *wu* ᐛ (shaman) activities (1999, p. 61). This view was further developed by other scholars (Zhong 2013, pp. 12–20; M. Chen 2009, pp. 103–28). Ji Zhichang proposed that the concept of *cheng* developed from the rites of fast in ancient sacrificial rituals (Ji 2000, pp. 1084–92). Mark Csikszentmihalyi also described *cheng* as a kind of spiritual attitude in religious rituals (Csikszentmihalyi 2009, pp. 519–42). Sato Masayuki analyzed the appearances of *cheng* in the *Liji* 䁈 (Records of Ritual) and identified some of them as referring to a sincere attitude toward spirits and sacrificial rituals (Sato 2005, pp. 215–44). Although these scholars have presented some initial, insightful views for studying *cheng* from a new perspective that could help lift its mysterious veil, so far a comprehensive examination of the religious-ritual origin of this significant concept remains lacking.

The actual performance of *wu*-shamanistic activities in the pre-historical era is difficult to describe specifically because of insufficient evidence. Many early sources, however, indicate that in the official dimension, the ancient *wu*-shamanistic culture became ritualized during the Zhou dynasty and developed into a set of sacrificial rituals to the ancestral and natural spirits (Li 1999, pp. 34–40; L. Chen 2009, pp. 29–37). At the same time, in the folk dimension *wu*-shamanistic activities continued to flourish in various forms of ceremonies and techniques (Harper 1999, pp. 813–84; Li 2006a, 2006b). In both dimensions, the most important ceremonial procedure was to invoke the spirits with emotions, words, writings, music, dances, and offerings, in order to seduce them to descend and enjoy the sacrificial feasts and bestow blessings. This kind of ceremonial procedure is seen in numerous transmitted and excavated texts, especially in literary works because the ritual was accompanied by dancing, singing, and invoking. For example, Xu Shen defined *wu-*shaman as being "able to serve the formless and invoke spirits to descend with their dance" 㜭һ❑ ᖒ, ԕ㡎䱽⾎㘵 (Xu 1963, p. 100a),<sup>3</sup> the "formless" referring to spirits. The Chu songs (*Chuci* ᾊ䗝) of the Warring States period, especially the entire series of the "Nine Songs" ("Jiuge" ҍⅼ), vividly describe the ritual performance of the interaction between the *wu*-shaman and various gods/spirits (Hawkes 1985, pp. 42–51; Zhou 1986; Sukhu 2012, pp. 75–85). The concept of *cheng* was originally connected to this kind of ritual performance, which is the main reason for its sacred-mysterious luster.

In early China, there was no demarcation between philosophy, religion, literature, and so forth. All these dimensions were inter-related and cross-fertilized. To discover *cheng*'s mysterious origins, therefore, we must apply a synthetic approach of etymological, religious, philosophical, and literary studies. Drawing upon both transmitted and excavated texts, in this essay I first analyze the graphic-phonetic structure and semantic implications of the character *cheng* ᡀ (completion; hereafter marked as *cheng*1), which was the early form of the character *cheng* 䃐 (sincerity; hereafter marked as *cheng*2). Then, I examine the rich meanings implied in *cheng*1 and *cheng*2 related to sacrificial rituals, including invoking the spirits with sincere writings, emotions, and oblations, in order to seduce them into descending and enjoying the offerings, as well as perfectively completing the human-spirit communication. Finally, I discuss how these religious beliefs and ritual ceremonies evolved into Confucian ethical values and aesthetic concepts.
