嘉靖一朝對宗廟禮制做了突破性的變革，觸及的議題甚多，包括議尊號、立廟、祧遷、位次、祭法與建築等等，幾乎是對傳統宗廟禮制進行總體檢。在長達二十餘年的變革過程中，從諸臣對於禮經的詮釋與辯論，已顯露出傳統宗廟禮制中蓄積了長時期的爭論與困惑，並且隱藏著許多思想意識上的不確定性。
本文循著嘉靖初年議尊號的過程，通過對關鍵參與者思維論辯的考察，探究蘊含在新舊制度因革中的思想衝突或糾葛，包括帝王的傳位法、天子父在宗廟中的身份、宗廟始祖的認定、宗廟規制的變化及宗廟位次等方面，從種種思想意識上的矛盾與衝突，爬梳出潛藏於制度本身難解的問題，進而做系統性的歸納與討論。嘉靖朝挑起宗廟禮制的辯論與爭議，恰恰是對千餘年以來宗廟禮制的一大反思，在百餘年之後再度被清代儒者提出來討論，並對清代學者在禮學方面的省思與考證奠下重要的基礎。

The ancestral temple's rite institution had its own deep transformation during the era of Jiajing in the Ming dynasty. The topics concerned, including the appellation, the foundation, the precedence, the rite regulations and the architecture of the temple made a general examination and expectation to the traditional ancestral rite in Chinese history. During the process of over twenty years' transformation, by means of the explanations and the debates about the rite classics, the perplexities and controversies toward the temple rite among the subjects in the court had greatly appeared, and behind the phenomenon naturally hidden many uncertainties of the thought.
This paper follows the process of the discussion on the appellation of the temple, and through the examinations on the debates among the subjects, searches the contradiction between the new and ancient institutions. Main topics of the paper, including the succession of the emperor; the position and state of the emperor's father (tienzifu) in the ancestral temple; the identification of the earliest ancestor; the transition of the regulations and the precedence of the ancestral temple, try to clarify the concerned questions of the rite institution, and undertake furthermore a systematic discussion and arrangement.
The controversies and debates in the era of Jiajing was just an important reflection to the ancestral temple's rite institution which had existed for more than thousand years in China, and was also roled as a main impulse for the scholars of the Qing dynasty in the field of rites studies in hundred years later.