Edicts of Self-Blame were not actually uncommon.
Throughout Great Zhou's history, more than ten emperors on record had issued Edicts of Self-Blame.
Of course, for most of those emperors, the reason they issued such edicts had been natural disasters.
When unending calamities struck, the reigning emperor would issue an Edict of Self-Blame and pray for the disasters to cease. In Great Zhou, this was more of a gesture than anything else.
But Benevolent Sovereign Ji Long was the first emperor to issue an Edict of Self-Blame as a compromise under the pressure of his ministers, due to errors in governance.
Overall, Benevolent Sovereign Ji Long had succeeded.
At the very least, he had preserved most of his authority and gained a chance to turn the tables.
However, since he had agreed to issue an Edict of Self-Blame, he had to do it. Great Zhou's nobles were not so easily fooled.
And an Edict of Self-Blame was not merely a simple decree admitting one's mistakes and declaring one's awakening.
There was a whole series of stringent rituals for an emperor issuing an Edict of Self-Blame.
First came drafting the edict, then formally promulgating it.
Then, the emperor would enter the Imperial Ancestral Temple to confess his sins before his ancestors. Before the forefathers of his line, he would read the Edict of Self-Blame aloud and beg their forgiveness.
After confessing at the Imperial Ancestral Temple, he would then confess before the Great Zhou Ancestral God, likewise begging the Ancestral God's forgiveness.
Next, he would worship Heaven and Earth, confess his sins to them, then burn the Edict of Self-Blame between Heaven and Earth to show that he had truly realized his mistakes.
Only then would he return to Luoyi, hand the Edict of Self-Blame to the relevant authorities, and have it