Gossip about ancestral halls in Lingnan ancient towns and villages
Grandma has something to say
The ancient towns and villages in Guangdong carry a rich cultural and historical heritage of Lingnan, and the regional culture enriches things. The silent style blends with the leisurely rural charm to create a unique scene.
They have a strong Lingnan style, blended with the heritage of the Central Plains, and also have European and American styles from Southeast Asia. The ancestral hall is undoubtedly the center of Lingnan ancient towns and villages, a feature that cannot be ignored.
Ancestral hall is a term born from the function of offering sacrifices. According to historical records, ancestral halls with local folk cultural characteristics began to sprout thousands of years ago during the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties. It was not until the Song Dynasty that a relatively complete system was formed, and it reached its peak in the Ming and Qing Dynasties.
For the Lingnan area, ancestral halls were truly established on a large scale after the Ming Dynasty. The first peak period of Lingnan ancestral hall construction was triggered by the promotion of grace orders during the Jiajing Period, with the prosperous commercial economy as the abundant foundation, and the continuous promotion of the construction of the clan system as the internal motivation.
The second peak period of Lingnan ancestral hall construction was after the political situation stabilized in the middle of Kangxi period.
The Qing government implemented the Guangzhou one-port trade policy, which hindered the social development process nationwide. However, Guangdong benefited from this, and its economy prospered rapidly, accumulating a large amount of clan property and ushering in the opportunity to build ancestral halls in Lingnan.
In ancient Chinese feudal society, the concept of family was very deep. Often a village was home to one family or several families with one surname, and many of them built their own family temples to worship their ancestors. Ancestor worship is not only an important channel for establishing connections between the living and the dead, but also an important way to unite descendants of the same surname. Of course, the "ancestral hall" is far more than just a "place" in the hearts of Lingnan people. It is a place where clan members place their feelings for their ancestors and their hometown.
"Ming filial piety and upholding education" are the perseverance of the Chinese nation's traditions. Nowadays, ancestral halls have gradually shed their main activities of worshiping ancestors. They have become centers of clan activities, folk festivals, weddings and funerals. Marriages, village affairs, etc., any activities that are meaningful to the clan will be held in the ancestral hall.
During many visits, I found that although they are all ancestral halls in ancient towns and villages in Lingnan, they still have some differences in size, architectural style and decoration. This may be related to the Lingnan ethnic culture.
As we all know, there are three major ethnic cultures in the Lingnan region: Guangfu, Hakka and Chaoshan. They all came with the immigrants from the north, and finally blended in with the Guyue people. The migration of northerners to the south brought not only advanced production technology to the Lingnan region, but also Confucianism that had been "exclusively respected" as early as the Han Dynasty. The "clear filial piety and strict education" behind the establishment of Lingnan ancestral halls is exactly the product of Confucian culture.
In terms of the main functions and meanings of ancestral halls, the three major ethnic groups in Lingnan coincide with each other. They all take worshiping ancestors as the main function of the temple, and in terms of aesthetics of architectural craftsmanship, they are engraved with elements that imply beauty, happiness and auspiciousness. Also in choosing the site for the ancestral hall, the generals tended to follow the excellent Feng Shui requirements of "facing the mountains and facing the water", "siting north and facing the south", and "being symmetrical".
However, in the evolution of history, the ancestral halls of the three major ethnic groups have presented different styles due to different regional cultures.
Hakka ancestral hall: Most of the decorations are simple and solemn. Most of the plaques in the hall are named after ancestors' ancestral places.
Guangfu Ancestral Hall: The appearance is more lively and relaxed, with strong colors and colorful decorations. Some carvings are deeply influenced by Foshan ceramic craftsmanship.
Chaoshan Ancestral Hall: In addition to having the uniqueness of other ancestral halls, the most outstanding feature is its wide distribution and the influence of offshore development culture.
For thousands of years, due to various reasons, the Hakka people have been far away from their homeland in the Central Plains, wandering and trudging all the way to the south. In order to defend themselves, Hakka people usually build enclosed houses according to their surnames and live in groups. As an important carrier of Hakka traditional culture, Hakka ancestral halls serve as cultural spaces. Hakka ancestral culture, including family genealogies and ancestor worship rituals, expresses the basic values ??of the Hakkas and typically embodies these spiritual qualities of Hakka culture. .
The ancestral hall is an important place for Hakka people to worship their ancestors and is the most prominent building in the Hakka residence.
Generally speaking, the larger the ancestral hall is, it shows that the family has a large and prosperous population, so the ancestral hall is also one of the symbols of the Hakka surname's prestige. Every Hakka ancestral hall has a hall number (also called a hall name).
It is a symbol that promotes ancestral virtues, upholds the clan and harmonizes the clan.
For example, Sujiawei in Heyuan, Guangdong, and Weilongwu in Meizhou, Guangdong, not only retain the legacy of Central Plains architecture, but also have unique Hakka regional characteristics.
Looking at the overall layout and spatial organization of the Guangfu Ancestral Hall, it is closed to the outside and open to the inside. It adopts a strict axial symmetry layout to contain the ethics and etiquette advocated in the Pearl River Delta region since the Ming Dynasty. System order, combined with the patio to organize the courtyard and the building, ups and downs, orderly, forming an organic whole, luxurious decoration design. For example, the Chen Clan Ancestral Hall in Guangzhou, built in 1894, is a masterpiece of Guangzhou’s architectural and decorative art. The “three carvings, two sculptures and one painting” on it, namely stone carvings, wood carvings, brick carvings, gray sculptures, pottery sculptures, and murals, are vivid and With exquisite craftsmanship, it is recognized as a masterpiece of Guangfu's traditional architectural and decorative arts. Its gorgeous and beautiful eaves decoration design is what attracts the most attention of tourists.
Langtou Ancient Village is located in Tanbu Town, Huadu District, Guangzhou City. The most shocking thing in the village is the 18 ancient ancestral buildings lined up in a row. The magnificent momentum is indeed a single The ancestral hall cannot compare with it.
Many ethnic groups live in Chaoshan. The economy is relatively developed in the coastal plain area along the river. Many Wang ethnic groups live here, and many ethnic groups also live in the old county. Therefore, both urban and rural residents have a strong clan concept, and the settlement architecture is also an enclosure pattern centered on the ancestral hall of the surname.
The architecture, stone carvings, Chaozhou wood carvings, porcelain inlays and other crafts of Chaoshan ancestral halls are exquisite and exquisite. The genealogy and family history carried in the ancestral halls are closely related to the Chaoshan ethnic groups. Chaoshan ancestral halls are a symbol of tens of millions of Chaoshan people at home and abroad. A spiritual sanctuary that remembers nostalgia.
Chaoshan people have always attached great importance to the architecture of ancestral halls. This is a kind of filial piety expression of "embracing the virtues of ancestors" and "carefully pursuing the future". It is also a manifestation of filial piety for future generations to "drink water and remember the source" and "repay one's origins and return to the beginning". At the same time, the ancestral hall is also a place where Chaoshan people discuss important affairs within the clan, and it is also a manifestation of filial piety.
Chaoshan ancestral halls are scattered all over the towns and villages in the Chaoshan area, with a total number of tens of thousands. Most of them are well-built and have a long history. Ancestral halls, which have historically maintained family ties, are still important missionary sites in rural areas of Chaoshan. The traditional virtues of the Chinese nation, such as loyalty, filial piety, benevolence and righteousness, are important life topics that elders educate their children in ancestral halls. Jilue Huanggong Temple is one of them.
The name of this ancestral hall is a bit difficult to pronounce. Many first-time tourists are confused about the origin of its name. After looking up many allusions, they found out: this ancestral hall was built in the 13th year of Guangxu in the Qing Dynasty, by Zeng It was built by Huang Pengfei, a clan member who served as the prefect of Si'en in Guangxi. Since Huang Pengfei was named Jiji ("畧" refers to "Lue"), this ancestral hall was called Jilue Huanggong Temple, and it was the Huang clan ancestral hall.
The ancestral hall was just a building when it was first built, but over the long years, traditional history and culture have seeped into the entire building bit by bit. Time has taken away the fresh paint and dazzling gilding, but it cannot take away the origin of its clan culture.
It is a pleasure to visit the ancient towns and villages of Lingnan and taste the ancient charm of ancestral halls!