The year-end exorcistic ritual recorded in Lüshi Chunqiu as expelling illness was Big Nuo.
Big Nuo, written 大儺, was a large-scale exorcistic ceremony associated with the final day of the year in the state of Qin. Its purpose was to drive away illness and harmful influences before the new year began. The account is linked to the Warring States period, when Qin was one of several competing states.
The ritual belongs to the wider Nuo tradition, a family of masked and performative exorcisms in Chinese religious culture. Later forms of Nuo developed into ritual performances involving processions, costumed figures, drums, and the expulsion of demons or disease-causing forces.
Big Nuo is easy to confuse with other Chinese ritual terms. Jiao refers broadly to offerings or rites for deities, while Fengshan describes imperial sacrifices at sacred mountains. Daoyin refers to traditional physical exercises and breathing practices, not an end-of-year exorcism. Big Nuo is therefore the single canonical answer for this historical question.