車駕臨奠，即君主親臨哭奠臣下之喪，在五禮中屬喪禮。本文以臨奠禮為個案，將其納入唐宋轉型的解釋框架中，將具體的禮儀制度與實踐同禮所規範和存在的更廣闊的社會環境結合起來，以探討臨奠禮的因革與實踐同現實社會君臣權力關係、宗教習俗、思想世界之間的互動關係。通過文獻梳理筆者發現，先秦至唐、北宋中前期的臨奠禮基本屬於同一系統，而北宋末制定的政和臨奠禮則在臨奠時間、儀式空間安排、儀式過程、具體實踐等方面都發生了重大轉變，儀式的重心從實施對象 (臣下) 向實施者 (君主) 一方傾斜，民間喪禮中的佛教因素滲透進來，而北宋中期開始出現的新的經典解釋思路也推動了傳統臨奠禮中巫祝桃茢的隱退。

The rite of emperor condolence is a part of the funeral rites of the five rituals. This paper discusses the rite of emperor condolence in the interpretative frame of the Tang-Song transformation and studies the interactive relationship between the ritual changes and practices, the rites and the reality liege, the religious convention, the intellectual world, etc. From the pre-Qin era to the Tang dynasty and into the mid-Northern Song, the rites of emperor condolence belonged to one system. Some important changes occurred in the later Northern Song, such as the time of condolence, the arrangement of ritual space, the process of the rites, etc. All these changes reveal that the stress of the rites had been shifted from the ritual object (the pasha and the imperial clansmen) to the ritual subject (the emperor), Buddhist elements of popular funerals had pervaded the emperor's condolence, and witchcraft and peach-broom existing in the traditional rite of emperor condolence began to disappear, boosted by the new approach to classical interpretation which emerged in the mid-Northern Song.