「國之大事，在祀與戎」1對中國歷代統治者而言最重要的兩件事，一是戰爭，一是祭祀，其中祭祀的重要性在於透過宗廟祭祀以及國家祭祀的舉行，顯示統治者政權來源的正當性，也就是使正統來源被確立，他人不能也不可有窺覦皇位的機會。明世宗以外藩入統，隨即引發一連串更定祀典儀禮的舉動，當中最受爭議的除了「大禮議」外，就是更定孔子祀典。孔子作為儒學精神的最高象徵，卻在嘉靖朝更定祀典的過程中被撤去「大成至聖文宣王」的封號，引起官員強烈的反對，使得整個更定祀典的爭議過程中，不但大幅更新國家祀典制度，同時隨制度變易而來的人事糾紛與權力更動，對明代內閣制也造成相當程度的影響。

For Chinese emperors, have two things must be emphasized : To prepare war and sacrifice. Sacrificing to royal ancestral shrine and various deities by empire permitted, were in order to show the legitimacy of emperor, and therefore the other one had no opportunity vied for his position. The sacred worship had obviously changed during the era of Jiajing in the Ming dynasty. In addition to‘the Great Ritual Controversy‘ , another important disputed was the changed of Confucius Ceremony. When Jiajing emperor canceled the title 「Da Cheng Zhi Sheng Wen Xuan Wan」, caused the officials opposed acutely, and the process of dispute, established many new worship's institution, also brought about the dispute of personal and po1itical.