There are mainly the following places for offering sacrifices: offering sacrifices to the gods in the cemetery is a relatively primitive and simple method, which is mostly used for offering sacrifices to ancestors. The ancients thought that the closest way to ancestors was to go to the grave to sacrifice, and ancestors heard it most clearly. "Book of Rites. "Under Tan Gong" records: Confucius went out to lobby, went to the countryside, cried at the grave, and then left. When he returned to his country, he didn't cry, but he opened the grave and entered. "
We know the object, place and place of sacrifice, but to fully understand the sacrifice culture, we must also understand the ritual and ritual system of sacrifice, and understand the ancient ritual and folk customs.
Ancestor worship is the custom of ancestor worship by clans with the same surname in Chaoshan. The objects of ancestor worship are generally ancestors (ancestors), second ancestors, third ancestors, fourth ancestors and so on. The seventh and eighth ancestors can carry on the family line. There are many descendants of distant ancestors, covering a wide range, and only representatives of various branches and branches can participate in the sacrifice. The village is large, with a large population and generations, and some people hold ancestor worship in the imperial clan (house) as a unit. There are two kinds of ancestor worship: spring and autumn sacrifice and annual sacrifice, which are decided by each clan. Most places of worship are in ancestral halls, and a few are in ancestral graves.
In the past, ancestor worship was a grand clan activity, and the village was full of performances and entertainment.
Chaoshan attaches importance to ancestor worship, which is closely related to village clan construction. Most hipsters come from the Central Plains. They usually settled in Fujian and then moved to Chaoshan. Among them, some single-family families moved, and some villagers and friends settled in Chaoshan together. After hard work and reproduction, they lived in groups and gradually formed clan villages. In order to commemorate the ancestors, carry forward their virtues, unite the people and pray for the blessing of their ancestors, "the village has established an ancestral temple, commonly known as the ancestral temple." There is a shrine in the ancestral hall, where there is an ancestral "family god". These things, considered as feudal relics, were completely destroyed in the land reform in the early days of liberation and the subsequent disintegration of capitalism. The original shrine is about three or four meters high and one and a half meters wide; Shen Jia is about a foot high and three inches wide. The family god card consists of two pieces of sawdust, painted with black paint or red paint, and written with the name of the dead god in gold powder. At the joint of the two boards, the date of birth and death of the Lord was written, and some even wrote official resumes. Ancestors were placed in the middle of the highest floor of the shrine, and the rest were arranged layer by layer. If the clan is big, the age is long, the population is large, and one shrine is not enough, it will be expanded to three or five. When offering sacrifices to your ancestors, please take out the memorial tablet and put it on the altar. In some places, the memorial to the distant ancestors and the memorial to the near ancestors are combined into one, and the number of ancestors is large, so they open the door to worship without asking for a shrine.
Ancestor worship is the main activity of the clan, led by the squire and elders. The day before ancestor worship, the sacrificial hall should be arranged. For example, put a gorgeous and elegant red embroidered skirt around several big altar tables, and choose suitable ornaments for the horizontal towels, couplets and paintings used to decorate the ancestral temple in the original festival. The slaughter of pigs and sheep should also be carried out in the afternoon or evening of the day before.
On the morning of ancestor worship, the whole pig and sheep were put on the shelves, and five sacrifices, candy boxes, rice soup, tea, wine and other sacrifices were neatly placed on the altar. The descendants of the male surname who came to worship their ancestors were neatly dressed and polite. People, represented by Zhi or Zhi, pay great attention to etiquette and enter the venue in an orderly manner. When offering sacrifices to ancestors, the squire, elders or officials walk in the front. Before the start of the sacrifice, a "three-door shovel" (ground cannon) should be sounded in front of the ancestral hall.
The master of ceremonies sang the ceremony, announced the beginning of the ceremony, and the priest "Zongzi" and his attendants were in place. The master of ceremonies beat drums, set off firecrackers and played music, and the Chaozhou opera in front of the ancestral hall cooperated with Cheng Xiang Geely's "Five Blessingg Company" performance. At this time, drums were blaring, suona was played high, firecrackers rumbled and shook the earth, showing an exciting scene of enthusiasm. Then the master of ceremonies sang "Wash your face and wash your hands", and the worshippers guided the priest to reset after washing his face. According to the master of ceremonies, he sang "incense", then guided the master of ceremonies to burn incense, drink alcohol to lower the spirits (please God), offer tea, offer betel nuts (with olives), offer blood, and offer precious silks (gold ingots and paper). During the whole sacrificial ceremony, the master of ceremonies sang the ceremony first, then was guided by worshippers, and the priest completed the relevant sacrificial ceremony according to the contents of the singing ceremony. Priests should kneel down and kowtow, kowtow again and kowtow three times when they practice all kinds of worship. All the people attending the sacrifice should kneel down when they listen to the eulogy and the ceremony of "drinking blessings to meet their virginity" (the meat offered at the time of sacrifice), and finally bow down like the main sacrifice.
Sacrificial ceremonies include burning incense, chanting greetings, offering rice soup, offering tea, offering silks, offering wine, offering boxes, offering meat, offering prayers, burning greetings, sending off gods and so on. In some places, when burning silk and paper, the priest will offer a glass of wine before God, and then the priest will send it to the place where silk is burned, soak the wine on it, and drop the wine into the word "heart" to show the piety of the worshippers. In the important part of the sacrificial ceremony, gongs, drums or strings are accompanied several times, adding a warm atmosphere to the sacrificial ceremony.
After the ceremony, sacrifices such as pork and mutton were distributed to the participants. Others entertain the participants with sacrifices, and only give some sacrifices to a small number of worshippers, squires and elders.
The custom of ancestor worship disappeared after liberation, but it still exists in Southeast Asian countries. For example, in the first three days of winter every year, the Lin family in Thailand will hold ancestor worship activities for all the Lin hipsters in Bangkok. Every time, more than 3,000 people participated, performing Chaozhou opera and dancing, which was very lively. In the morning, they held ancestor worship, and in the afternoon, they held assistance and scholarship activities. Overseas Chinese headed by Lin sent scholarships to Lin's descendants who were studying in universities.
Chaoshan is densely populated, inhabited by many ethnic groups, and there are many ancestral temples in urban and rural areas. According to old books, before building a palace, you must first build a ancestral hall, clarify the patriarchal clan system, and then worship the fields. Most of the major clans have built a large number of ancestral temples to worship their ancestors. Most of the rich built ancestral temples for Gao, Zeng, Zu and Father IV, and a few built ancestral temples for themselves.
The ancestral temple is a legal place to practice clan ethics. Worship ancestors' birthdays and anniversaries is a powerful routine way to unite clans. There are two kinds of ancestor worship: family sacrifice and family sacrifice. Clan sacrifice is to sacrifice ancestors, and it is very grand to sacrifice or sweep graves twice a year in spring and autumn. Many clans in Chaoshan have established public steaming industry, which is mainly used for sacrifice and study, and most of them are used for sacrifice. Most of the family sacrifices held in ancestral temples are held at the vernal equinox or the winter festival, and most of them are in Tomb-Sweeping Day. Ethnic festivals are usually performed by theatrical troupes or shadow puppetry classes. On the day of the sacrifice, the eldest brother of the whole clan or the adult descendants of the whole clan, or representatives of all ethnic groups, dressed neatly, gathered in the ancestral temple to worship. Family sacrifices are rich in gifts, including whole pigs and whole sheep, five sacrifices and three cakes, and a variety of sweets and cakes. In addition to the public sacrifices to the distant ancestors, the ancestors of the descendants of each family who share a niche also have sacrifices on both sides, both for the distant ancestors and for the near ancestors. Formal ceremonies are mostly held in the early hours of the morning. In fact, the sacrificial activities last from midnight to evening. First, a sacrificial ceremony is held after dark, that is, a pig and a sheep are slaughtered, a few drops of blood from the pig's ear are put in a glass, and then a few pieces of wool are mixed and buried in the courtyard wall of the ancestral temple, which is called blood sacrifice, so as to tell ancestors that this kind of sacrifice is a "clean sacrifice" to show piety.
In addition, there should be incense tables in the patio to offer sacrifices to heaven and earth. After nightfall, the ancestral hall was brightly lit, and all the offerings for the altar were displayed neatly. The troupe and paper shadow in front of the ancestral temple have been performed, and a program (commonly known as "Early forties", now called "Five Blessingg Company") has been paying homage to the ancestors of the victims. At the beginning of the ceremony, firecrackers exploded, ground guns (commonly known as big spears) rang three times, suona was played high, gongs and drums were loud, and deacons such as Tong, Yin, Zong Zi were in place. Children are masters of ceremonies; Leadership is leadership sacrifice; Zongzi is the main sacrifice; Ritual students are those who read eulogies. The master of ceremonies sings the ceremony, and the participants are arranged in place according to the order of generation. The host of the ceremony first led the priest to "wash the first towel" (wash his face and hands, burn incense and put the incense away. First make a recommendation, the priest offers a drink, holds a cup in both hands, presses the word "heart", first at three o'clock, and then at the second half of the arc, first offering sacrifices to heaven, earth and ancestors to show sincerity. After that, the priest bowed three times, and then the participants knelt down together to listen to the eulogy and obituary of the ceremony students. Eulogy is a text describing the name, time, object, reason, content and piety of the priest who sacrificed; An obituary is a text that represents an ancestor and instructs his descendants.
After the ceremony, after dawn, there will be meat and lunch (commonly known as eating ancestral tables). Meat is graded according to reputation, education, status, seniority and age. During the period of the Republic of China, the number of celebrities such as Jinshi, Juren and Scholar decreased gradually, and they were often distributed according to university, high school, junior high school, primary school graduation and military and political ranks. The rest of the fame figures are also distributed according to age and generation, and some households share them equally, commonly known as "food lamp (Ding)". Some big clans have built large or joint ancestral temples in cities. For example, in the 1920s and 1930s, many ancestral halls and surnames were built in Shantou. This kind of large-scale words, such as ancestor worship, are even larger. Large troupes perform on stage, and many dignitaries come to "worship ancestors", and the military and police cheer on them, which became a strange social phenomenon in that year. Family sacrifices are generally small in scale. Because they are close relatives and ancestors, there are not many descendants. Those who have ancestral temples do not hold big sacrifices, but worship on birthdays and anniversaries. This is called offering sacrifices to heaven. When the family sacrifices, men and women can come to worship without wearing uniforms. People from poor families and single-family houses still bow down with dim lights and dark candles. This is what the old chronicles said: "Sacrifice to the full, measure its strength, and do not lift it without waste."
Ancestor worship is a temporary sacrifice. Although there are also differences in size, all pigs and whole sheep are indispensable. Because this kind of temporary ancestor worship is mostly a great event to repay the ancestors and feel their kindness. Most of the ancestors who got married and married were small; Most of the ancestors who were promoted to the department were big. During the Republic of China after the abolition of the imperial examination, some places compared the graduates of higher primary schools to "scholars". For the sake of fame and practical interests, many people were willing to get the name of an example. When overseas Chinese return home rich, they often pay homage to their ancestors, entertain their clansmen and take actions to celebrate, which is called acting with the wind. Some clans have disputes with foreigners with foreign surnames, or win the lawsuit, or win the battle, or swear to break up with them, or there are "black sheep" in the clans, which are regarded as major events that require temporary ancestor worship. At this time, the ancestral hall is the headquarters of the clan, the decision-making room, and the clan concept radiates the descendants of the whole family, and the banner of the surname covers the small sky of the whole family.