Pinyin: zōngcí ancestral hall (zōng cí), also known as ancestral hall, ancestral hall and ancestral hall. It is a place where Confucianism provides ancestral tablets, holds ancestor worship activities and engages in housework for Han people. The history of Han people building family ancestral temple can be traced back to the Tang and Five Dynasties. Putian Erythrina Jinzifang ancestral hall was built in the late Tang Dynasty. The Huangshi Ancestral Hall in Hanjiang Village was founded in the first year of Renzong in the Northern Song Dynasty (1032). By the Southern Song Dynasty, the Lin family in Putian "built ancestral halls" and "offered sacrifices". (Complete Works of Song Lian, Volume 12) Jianyang Chenjia Temple was founded in the Yuan Dynasty. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, ancestral temples were built on a large scale in various places. At this time, after a long period of development and reproduction, the number of families in Fujian increased day by day, and families built buildings on a large scale to unite people's hearts, and temples prevailed for a time.
According to "Guangze County Records" in the early Qing Dynasty, there are few ancestral halls of all ethnic groups in the local area. In recent decades, those who live together have built temples in cities and rural areas. Sacrifice to the Spring and Autumn Period, show Mu in order, respect merit, respect the old and the virtuous, and have the intention of pursuing distant relatives. "("Qinggan Longguang County Records "Volume 4" Geography and Customs ") Ordinary families not only have ancestral halls and ancestral halls (or" general ancestral halls "), but also houses and branches within the clan, and often have their own branches and temples to worship their immediate ancestors. In the old days, Zhao' an County, Zhangzhou Prefecture, "the house can have knees, but there must be ancestral halls, ancestral halls and branch shrines." (Chen Shengshao's Record of Asking Customs (Volume 4 Zhao 'an County) Most ancestral temples in this period have been preserved to this day. According to a survey by a professor at Xiamen University, there are 24 branches of the Zhang family in Liancheng Xinquan besides the General Ancestral Hall. There are tens of thousands of Zhuang people halfway up the mountain in Hui 'an, and there are more than 100 ancestral halls, the exact number of which even ordinary people can't tell. There are nearly 10,000 people in the Lin family in the suburbs of Fuzhou, and there are no fewer than 50 ancestral halls. In order to show national prestige, a large number of ancestral temples have also been built in the provincial capital. Some share the same family name, and some jointly build cross-regional ancestral temples. During the Republic of China, Yongding "built ancestral halls in villages, regardless of surnames, and it is appropriate to build ancestral halls in cities." (Records of Yongding County in the Republic of China, Volume 15, Etiquette and Customs) The Huang family in Xianyou County sent their descendants to more than 30 villages, and the Huang family gathered in various places to jointly build the Huang Grand Ancestral Hall in the county. The Lin family is one of the largest families in Fujian. At the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, together with the Lin family in Bamin, the Lin family ancestral hall was established in Fuzhou. In addition, the descendants of overseas and Taiwan Province branches keep close contact with local ancestral halls. During the Republic of China, the Xu Shi family in Zhangzhou, who lived in Singapore and Malaysia, once returned to China to advocate the construction of the new Xu Shi Grand Ancestral Hall in Singapore.
Most ancestral temple buildings pay attention to "feng shui", usually in the place where ancestors first lived, transforming old houses into ancestral temples; When some families build houses, they often build ancestral halls first. Some small villages with single surname in northern Fujian were unable to build a big ancestral temple, so they set up memorial tablets in front of the village to worship their ancestors. The ancestral hall is generally located on the east side of the master bedroom (front hall), with three or two outer doors. The main entrance is usually closed, but it is only opened during the Spring and Autumn Festival or when people discuss important events. Outside the main hall, there are small houses for storing sacrificial vessels and suicide notes, which form an independent building complex. An ordinary ancestral temple has only one main hall, and the main hall has four niches (there are also 8- 10 niches). In the niches, there is a cabinet with ancestral tablets (called "God's main cards"). The four niches are the official positions and names of Gao Zukao, Gao Zucong, Kao and Yan. There is a low long table in front of each niche for placing sacrifices. In some ancestral temples, every newly joined male member of the clan has to put red paper on the column and write "XX ×××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××× In Chongwu area of Hui 'an, symbols, "gold foil" and town house mirrors, rulers, scissors, double happiness and other pictures cut out of tin foil paper are pasted on the dragon walls of almost all ancestral temples. Fu Zhuan wrote many books, such as Shenda Town House in Xuanwu in the north, Shenda Town House in Baihu in the west, Shenda Town House in Qinglong in the east and Shenda Town House in Suzaku in the south. On weekdays, there are people who lend their houses to live in the empty ancestral hall, and there are some coffins in the ancestral hall. When people die, they send incense ashes to temples. Those who go out to worship their ancestors and seek their roots must first go to the ancestral temple to worship, and then pack up the incense ashes from the ancestral temple to show that they don't forget their roots. In order to maintain the sacredness and solemnity of the ancestral temple, keep it clean and fragrant for a long time, all Han folk families in Fujian have a set of management rules for the ancestral temple. The Qiang people have set up the ancestral hall manager and the ancestral hall dean, who are responsible for the daily management of the ancestral hall. Some ancestral temples in Fuzhou also stipulate that every year, according to the family address, each family 1 person, four people are elected to manage the ancestral temple in turn every eight years. These people are commonly known as "the head of the family". People are not allowed to destroy ancestral temples. Changle Zeng's family stipulated: "Animals are not allowed to be released privately inside and outside the ancestral hall, and food is not allowed to be dried in summer and autumn. As for sleeping in the cool, and so on. Offenders will be fined 1000 items, which will be confiscated by the government; If you resist punishment again, the imperial clan will gather and accept the investigation and handling of officials. Inside and outside the ancestral hall, whenever there is furniture and firewood, it must be burned in front of the ancestral hall. " (Ancestral Hall Regulations in Changle Genealogy of Zeng Family in Thanksgiving Village) Some families also stipulate that ancestral hall items must be compensated for public punishment. Women and children are not allowed to enter the ancestral temple at will, and clan building is not allowed to interfere with the ancestral temple geomantic omen. In particular, some behaviors that are harmful to family morality, such as theft, gambling and drug abuse, are strictly prohibited by ancestral temples.
After 1949, most of the ancestral halls in the province were preserved except for some ancestral halls damaged in the Cultural Revolution and the Breaking of the Four Old Houses. Nowadays, clan activities in some places are booming and many ancestral temples have been built. 1987, the Zheng family in Zhangpu renovated the ancestral hall and held a "foot-piercing ceremony" as the Zheng family (on the fourteenth day of the first lunar month, various lanterns were hung in the ancestral hall in southern Fujian. Let the newly-married bride, accompanied by her mother-in-law and new mother-in-law, walk around the lower hall of the ancestral hall with her newborn child. Because it passes through the lantern array hanging from the head, it is called "the place where the lamp feet are worn"). The construction of the ancestral hall is still funded by donations from people with the same surname. Many overseas Chinese in southern Fujian also donated ancestral temples when they returned to China. Most of the newly built ancestral temples are magnificent, costly and wasteful. The newly built ancestral temple is open to the villagers every day, just like a symbol of the clan. Many ancestral temples in southern Fujian have played a beneficial role as the activity places of the village elderly association. In China's traditional Confucian culture, ancestral hall culture is a surname clan culture that can't be underestimated. Due to the deep-rooted concept of carrying on the family line left over from feudal society, the Chinese nation has produced surname culture. The surname culture of any country in the world has not lasted for thousands of years like that of China. Although it was hindered to some extent or even severely criticized during the Cultural Revolution, as a clan culture, it is still a tradition rooted in folk bone marrow. Ancestral temples, customarily called family temples and ancestral temples, are places where ancestors (commonly known as memorial tablets) and clans are sacrificed, and have always been regarded as symbols of clans.
The phenomenon of offering sacrifices to ancestors and temples existed in the late primitive society. Emperor Shizong of the Ming Dynasty adopted Xia Yan's suggestion and officially allowed all Han people to build temples together. Since then, ancestral temples have been established everywhere, and ancestral temple buildings can be seen everywhere. The ancestral hall was originally built for the purpose of "chasing distant books", so it should be respectful and strict in building regulations. From the Southern Song Dynasty to the early Ming Dynasty, ancestral temples were generally family temples. Especially since the Ming and Qing Dynasties, ancestral temples have become an important place for clans to offer sacrifices to their ancestors, hold clan affairs, revise genealogy and decide major affairs.
The ancestral hall is not only a place for offering sacrifices, but also a place for implementing family rules and laws. The coronation ceremony, wedding and funeral of the clansmen are basically held in the ancestral hall. Some clans stipulate that disputes between clans or clans' families must be decided in ancestral halls. Therefore, in the feudal era, the ancestral temple became a yamen in a sense, with the nature of the "imperial court" family.
China people are the nation with the most ancestral worship tradition in the world. In every family, there is often a place to worship the memorial tablet of the deceased ancestors. Therefore, in the past, every family had its own ancestral temple and named it "Tang Hao". The purpose of this is to let future generations know the origin of this family every time they mention their own Tang Hao and to commemorate the achievements of their ancestors.
As the saying goes, a tree attracts the wind. With the transmission and reproduction of life, the family will continue to expand. As a result of expansion, some families will move from their ancestral homes to other places, start new inheritance, and form new branches and new clans. Naturally, many families will go overseas and settle overseas. These newly formed clans and branches often set up new ancestral halls to worship their closest ancestors. As a result, a new ancestral temple was derived from a ancestral temple.
Although ancestral temple is a product left over from feudal society, it has new significance and social function today. With the reform and opening up and the rise of the global Chinese root-seeking craze, many ancestral halls have been built and restored, and their genealogy has been updated, while overseas Chinese are constantly turning over the old and new ancestral halls and contacting the new and old. It can be said that today's ancestral temple no longer has the negative effect of "clan doctrine", but only has the positive significance of helping people find their roots, remembering their ancestors, inspiring future generations and helping each other in the same boat, which has a great role in strengthening the cohesion and unity of the Chinese nation.