Our Ancestral Hall: An Appreciation of Zhou Wei's Essays

Over the years, I've always believed that the ancestral hall is a living relic on the earth, an authentic Chinese "national treasure", and the most unique "Chinese seal" of a party.

There, we yellow-skinned Chinese, can find our roots, can see their own "birthmarks". Undoubtedly, the ancestral hall is to store our nostalgia of the exhibition hall, is to put our soul habitat.

A shrine, like a mother, although the vicissitudes of life, but always the world's sons and daughters yearning for a place.

There, there is a previous ethos, there are our old rules; there, enshrined ancestral tablets, enshrined in the heaven and earth, the great principle of man; there, the bloodline stretches on, the inheritance continues, endless.

"Who am I? Where do I come from? Where am I going?" This is the question that vexed the Western philosopher Socrates all his life, are very simple to find the answer in our shrine. A tree that reaches the sky must have its roots; water that surrounds a mountain must have its source; a person's ancestor is the same.

Ancestral halls, the ancestral halls of our generations, the ancestral halls of a hundred generations, the ancestral halls of a thousand generations, the ancestral halls of a thousand years, the ancestral halls of a thousand years, the ancestral halls of a thousand years, the ancestral halls of a thousand years.

For thousands of years, we have been talking about ancient customs, and we have been talking about the Ancestral Hall for thousands of years.

In the countryside, the most beautiful and magnificent buildings are ancestral halls, and the most sacred and solemn places are also ancestral halls.

Ancestral halls, often built on the feng shui treasure land, behind the need to have a "mountain", to the hill as a barrier, often surrounded by a few, a dozen of ancient trees in the sky surrounded by ancestral halls around the same family name people living in the bloodline of the village.

Walking into the ancestral hall, as if feeling the ancestors said the family words and their familiar footsteps, as well as their joy, anger, sadness and even the sound of their heartbeat breathing, are scattered in every corner of the ancestral hall, which is full of the flavor of home. Raising my head, a fresh scent of grass and trees enters the window with the wind, and immediately haunts me, wraps around me, and saturates me. The courtyard doors of the ancestral halls are often engraved with the following words: Zong Gong and Ancestral Virtue Flow Far and Far, Sons and Grandsons are Virtuous, and the World is Long. Here, quality and virtue are the most important, more important than anything else. I think, this needs a kind of inheritance, more looking forward to a kind of hope. All along, the cultivation and study of the family, clean and bright world, are we must abide by the family motto and deep understanding of the essence.

Walking in the ancestral hall, I am often fascinated by the atmosphere of a life, the first hazy memories of childhood in the ancestral hall: in the ancestral hall if the big jumping field, play, hide-and-seek, in the lapis lazuli, cobblestones paved paths jumping happily, in the burning of incense and candles in the curling smoke, but pretend to be and the adults are generally sitting upright, look at the ancestral tablets, as if to see the rows of look past! The ancestors are seated on the shrine in order of seniority ......

Of course, the most flavorful time is when we climbed up to the high stage of the ancestral hall, half-open, half-closed, ear drums and gongs, in front of the eyes of the raw Dan clean and end of the ugly take turns on stage, singing, singing, and playing each show of skill. The story is that the black-faced Bao Gong guillotined the extra horse harnessed by the side of a team, "Zhang Fei killed Yue Fei killed all over the sky", very addictive.

Walking in the ancestral hall, I am also enamored of a wood scent, which is the ancestral hall on the age of the wood issued by the fragrance. In the old ancestral hall on the thick wooden door, black and brown wooden walls, in the eaves on the beams, in the building railings on the porch columns, in the lattice leakage between the windows, always entangled in a wood, such as water overflowing, slowly flowing, long in the ancestral hall over the hovering does not dissipate, lingering. This wooden fragrance, is a fragrance, long stretch and subtle convergence, as if born, such as mother's cotton, soothing, warm, soft and friendly, is the breath of relatives and neighbors, is the taste of ordinary life.

Into the ancestral hall, there is the gate gate house, enjoy the hall, worship hall, theater, bedchamber, some bedchambers often have a library behind. I remember that when I first searched for a few moth-eaten and yellowed wire-bound books there, I found a treasure, and the faint fragrance of the books benefited me for the rest of my life.

The strong smell of incense in the shrine is perennial and long-lasting. In all seasons of the year, spring ancestral halls and summer boils are held, autumn tastes and winter masses are held, and sacrifices are made continuously in all seasons and festivals. Red candles and incense burners are used to make offerings of "three sacrifices". Lighting candles and burning incense, burning paper money, five incense smoke, smoke and fire. "Sacrifice, such as in", people always think that the ancestors are in the underworld, blessing the prosperity of the family, the reproduction of children and grandchildren. Ancestral shrine ancestor worship, has become a bloodline convergence, enhance feelings, spiritual identity of the family homework and do not forget the root system, thanksgiving, filial piety, and end line to repair the moral life of homework.

Ancestor worship, must be set up "three animals" offerings. Grand, to the bull's head, pig's head and sheep's head as the main offering, sometimes even with the whole cow, the whole pig and the whole sheep. The common ones are chicken, duck and fish. In addition, there are fruits, desserts and other offerings placed, ancestor worship program has to pay attention to, and never sloppy: one is the beginning of the gun salute, please ancestors in place; two is the worshippers in front of the table lined up in front of the stand: three is to read the reading of the ritual text; four is the incense on the hands of the net, the line of Shi worship; five is into the incense toasting, worship and praying for blessings. Although customs vary from place to place, but the ancestral knowledge of filial piety and gratitude in return, are our *** knowledge.

and I grew up a little after the ancestral hall, a bucket of words more fascinating to me, attracting people to explore the mystery. For example: Dun, Dudu, Yong, Chong, service, filial piety, Lun, Chun, Mutual, Si, Germany, Zhong, Ben, good, righteousness, etc., at first, a small word to ask the adults, turn over the dictionary, seem to understand. Such as "dun" is "thick, the meaning of the effort to do", "duk" means "deep, sincere, loyal ". Later on, I finally realized that benevolence, righteousness, morality, loyalty, filial piety, integrity and honesty are all teaching our children and grandchildren not to forget the fundamentals of being a human being, and that we should standardize our words and deeds with "virtue" in everything we do.

The Ancestral Hall is a place where the family rituals say: "The heart of the ancestral hall is to report the original, to honor the ancestors, to respect the ancestors, and to keep the name of the family, so that it can be used as a base for the inheritance of the ancestors.

Ancestral halls were once simply designated as symbols of reactionary "clan power", and many of them were torn down. But then repaired and dismantled, dismantled and repaired, and was re-erected, some repairs and renovations, and re-released the color, and then show the glory. I have seen that behind every shrine there is a group of old people who are devoutly and persistently keeping watch, and on every road leading to the shrine there are countless pairs of watching eyes. In many ancestral halls, "clan rules" and "family motto" have been put up on the wall again, with a lot of exhortations for future generations to follow. Ancestral hall and restore the previous many functions: gathering, deliberation, advocating learning, education, etc., especially now, the development of the light, but also has a cultural room, calligraphy and painting exhibitions, arts and cultural performances, history, townspeople and excellence in display and other new functions.

During the Taiping period, the construction of ancestral shrines and repair genealogy, for people to admire, of course, is a very grand thing, white family, since the vision of the generations of clansmen. Ancestors want their descendants to learn and live well, and harmony and prosperity, a family of clean, has always been, illegal people, is not allowed to enter the ancestral hall, is not on the genealogy. Of course, this is a big deal, a person into the "spectrum", the heart will be down to earth.

The Analects of Confucius says: "A gentleman is a man of the world, and the world is a man of the world". The first thing that I want to say is that I'm a good person, and I'm not a good person, but I'm a good person. Zeng Zi also said: prudent, the people's moral return to the thick, and so, the desire of ordinary people - life has three good: father strict, mother charity, people do not grow old; a life of three love: love of country, love of home, love of oneself. In this way, the party is good. This is good, is really good.

Now, the hometown is being publicized to promote the culture of the ancestral temple, I think very much. In the towering Millennium Xuefeng Mountain, in the southwest of Hunan mountains and green water, a shrine flying eaves and corners, imposing, green brick, gray tile, carved beams and painted buildings, ancient colors, beautiful, just like a bright pearl, fascinating.

The ancestral hall, our ancestral hall, our old ancestral hall.

There are shrines before there are halls, and it is only by picking up virtues that one can pick up lines. If the ancestral hall is there, the festival is there, and if the festival is there, you will miss your relatives. The first thing you need to do is to make sure that you have a good understanding of what you are doing and what you are not doing.