China's leaders urged to revive emperor worship

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's Communist Party leaders will soon be bowing in live-to-air emperor worship if a group of political advisers from the country's northwest get their way.

Four members of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference -- a body not taken too seriously by most citizens or even some of its members -- have proposed that leaders revive ancient "sacrificial rites" at the presumed tomb of the legendary Yellow Emperor, the mythical founder of the Han Chinese people.

Li Xiaodong and his supporters want President Hu Jintao and the nation's other usually black-suited, poker-faced politicians to perform the ritual at the Emperor's supposed tomb in their home province of Shaanxi, the Sanqin Metropolitan Daily reported on Friday.

"The state's main leaders would officiate over the rites, which would be broadcast worldwide, elevating the memorial ceremony for the Yellow Emperor to a national grand ceremony," said the report, republished on the Sina news Web site (http://www.sina.com.cn).

"This will help to propagate our Chinese culture and to unite and consolidate forces from all sides."

The proposal is most unlikely to win widespread support -- like the many other fanciful ones put to the Conference's annual sessions, the latest of which ended on Friday.

Ancient historians claimed the Yellow Emperor lived for a century from about 2697 BC to 2598 BC and credited him with uniting divided groups and producing dozens of children whose offspring became today's Chinese nation.

His supposed mausoleum in Shaanxi's Huangling has been restored into a tourist attraction where patriotic devotees have resumed ritual commemorations on Qingming Day in April, a festival when Chinese people traditionally honour their ancestors.

(Reporting by Chris Buckley; Editing by Ken Wills)