The conference addresses ancient and early medieval Chinese social practices of commemoration and aesthetic display in their religious framework. Beyond disciplinary boundaries, scholars of Chinese religion, literature, art history, archeology, and history discuss a wide range of texts, artifacts, and social settings that jointly created the performative experience of early Chinese religion, aesthetics, and cultural memory. In response to the papers on China, specialists in Near Eastern and Biblical Studies, Classics, and Music present an additional set of comments and studies, integrating the early Chinese case into a broader comparative framework.