What does the ancient ancestral temple mean?

What does the ancient ancestral temple mean?

What does the ancient ancestral temple mean? The ancestral temple is a place where every family worships their ancestors in order to obtain their protection. When there is a big event at home, the whole family will go to the ancestral temple, but now many young people don't understand the tradition of the ancestral temple. What does it mean to come to the ancient ancestral temple below?

What does the ancient ancestral temple mean? 1 The ancestral hall is a place where Han people worship their ancestors or sages. Ancestral temples have many uses. In addition to the purpose of "ancestor worship", grandsons of various families generally use these wide ancestral halls as venues for activities when organizing weddings, funerals, and birthdays.

Family members sometimes use the ancestral hall as a meeting place to discuss important matters within the family. Ancestor sacrifice represents the excellent cultural form of Han ancestors' belief, which has great influence and historical value.

In the ancient feudal society of China, the concept of family was quite profound. Usually, a village is inhabited by one or several families with the same surname, and many of them build their own temples to worship their ancestors. This kind of temple is usually called "ancestral temple", including ancestral temple, branch temple and family temple.

The name "ancestral hall" first appeared in the Han Dynasty, when ancestral halls were built in tombs, which were called tombs. In the Southern Song Dynasty, Zhu's Family Rites established the ancestral hall system, and from then on, he called his family temple the ancestral hall.

At that time, there was a hierarchical restriction on the construction of ancestral temples, and Han people were not allowed to set up ancestral temples. During Jiajing in the Ming Dynasty, "many people entered the ancestral temple", but later when they became emperors or marquis, they were called "home temples", and the rest were called ancestral temples.

First, the cultural connotation of the ancient ancestral temple

In addition to offering sacrifices to ancestors, ancestral temples have many uses:

1. Every grandchild in the family has a wedding, funeral and birthday present, so clan relatives use this spacious ancestral hall as an activity place;

2. The ancestral hall is also the place where the patriarch exercises clan rights. Anyone who violates the religious rules will be educated, punished and even expelled from the ancestral hall. In a sense, ancestral temple is a court of feudal morality;

3. Ancestral temples can also be used as social places for families, where ethnic minorities hold cultural, entertainment and social activities such as banquets for guests;

There is also a school in the ancestral hall of the extended family for the children of the clansmen to study here. It is precisely because of the great function of the ancestral hall that its architecture is quite exquisite.

Ancestral temples are generally larger and of better quality than private houses. The more powerful and rich the family, the more exquisite their ancestral halls are-tall halls, exquisite carvings and excellent materials are the prerequisites for the establishment of ancestral halls.

Most ancestral halls will have hall numbers, which are selected by the patriarch. Please write Dan by clan relatives or foreign famous masters, and make a gold plaque to hang in the main hall. On both sides, there are plaques such as the origin of surnames, clan glory, women's chastity and exquisite couplets. The content, specifications and quantity of ancestral tablets are the glory of the whole family.

In the hall, the jade capacity and memorial tablets of ancestors of past dynasties are enshrined, and flagpole stones are placed in front of some ancestral halls, indicating that the people have fame and fortune, showing their capital and encouraging the younger generation to inherit and develop.

The ancestral temple is a very serious place with strict clan rules, not to mention a physical surname. Even women and children in the clan are not allowed to enter without authorization, otherwise they will be punished. The grand and solemn ancestral temple is a symbol of the family's glory and prosperity.

Second, the ancestral temple building layout

Although the layout of ancestral halls often changes due to the limitation of topography and land use, the architectural styles of ancestral halls are varied, ranging from 10 to 20, and there are dozens of large ancestral halls, all of which are composed of more serious halls.

Most ancestral halls have tall walls, gatehouses, zhaobi, main hall, bathroom, pleasure hall and other buildings, and there are wing rooms and other buildings on both sides of the main hall. There are trees and flowers in the courtyard, which is solemn and elegant.

But on the whole, it is nothing more than the traditional way of axial symmetry and depth layout. The vertical depth and the number of horizontal roads vary with the specifications of the ancestral temple, the financial resources of the builders and the scale and form of land use, mainly as follows:

1. Single entry and single exit ancestral hall

That is, the ancestral halls composed of single buildings (enjoyment halls), such as Liu Mengjiang Temple, Wang Bi and Lu Yu, are relatively few in number and are simple ancestral halls.

2. Go to the ancestral temple twice

That is, the ancestral hall is composed of ancestral hall doors and halls, and the two sides are connected by hatchbacks or corridors, similar to residential courtyards. Sometimes the wing of the ancestral hall is also equipped with an annex building, which is connected with other courtyards where Ci Ding lives, such as Tao Zhongcheng Temple and Zhou Dunyi Temple, which is one of the main modes of the ancestral hall in Huishan Town.

3. Sanjin Ancestral Hall

That is, the ancestral hall consists of ancestral gate, viewing hall, sleeping hall (or back building) or ancestral gate, gate two (also called instrument gate, sometimes there is a stage behind the viewing hall) and viewing hall, and there may be an annex building of another courtyard, which stands in the wing. The former, such as Gu Kejiu Temple, Xue Zhongcheng Temple and Zhougong Temple, the latter, such as Zhang Zhongcheng Temple and Qianlu Temple, is also Huimin Town.

4. Jin Si Ancestral Temple

That is, the ancestral hall consists of the ancestral gate or gatehouse, the second gate (also known as the instrument gate, with a stage facing the hall behind it), the appreciation hall and the back hall. There may be sidewalks on both sides, such as Yuan Hua Xiaozi Temple, Chunshenjun Temple, Yangsibao Temple and Zhao Zhong Temple. These shrines are official shrines, with high specifications, and are regularly offered sacrifices by the government.

5. Three-way quaternary or side-by-side ternary

The spindle keeps three or four feeds, with two or one feeds, one feed or two feeds.

Third, the classification of ancestral halls.

There are many kinds of ancestral temples. With the development of history, ancestral halls have derived many categories and functions. In terms of shape and scale, they are all different and varied, but they are all called ancestral halls. Therefore, the division of ancestral halls is very complicated, and there are different ways to divide them from different angles, but they can be summarized as follows:

(1) attributes are divided into three categories: temples, specialized temples and ancestral halls.

1. Temple Temple

Temple appeared earlier than temple, which is closely related to the development of China civilization. The earliest ancestral houses were called "ancestral halls". The establishment of ancestral temple can not be separated from patriarchal clan system;

The ancients also called places where gods were worshipped "temples", such as "City God Temple"; The front hall of a palace is also called "Dian", such as "Dian" and "Lang Dian" which refer to the court. Ambitious and talented people are called "halls", which means they can shoulder the heavy responsibility of the imperial court.

According to different grades, the size of ancestral halls is also different. According to the provisions of the sacrificial system in the Western Zhou Dynasty, "there are seven temples for emperors, five temples for kings, three temples for doctors, one temple for scholars, and no temple in Shu Ren". The ancestral hall of the emperor is called "ancestral hall", and the place where people with official titles worship their ancestors is called "home temple", also called "ancestral hall".

Conceptually, both ancestral temples and ancestral temples can be called "shrines", which are places to commemorate the ancestors of the previous generation and Taisha, such as the Jinci Temple in Taiyuan, Shanxi, the Wuhou Temple in Chengdu, the Wumu Temple in Hangzhou and the Five Hundred Immortals Temple in Suzhou.

2. Special shrine

Refers to a shrine built for a specific person or god to commemorate his achievements. People who have made great contributions to the people will be awarded the title of God to build a temple. Officials who died in the line of duty or were close to the people set up special shrines in their places of meritorious service or original posts.

These shrines dedicated to commemorating someone's merits have been preserved for a long time because of their worship by the people, and their spread far exceeds the ancestral temple of family nature. For example, the "Wuhou Temple" in memory of Zhuge Liang has been found in Chengdu, Sichuan, Nanyang, Henan, Beijing and other places, and has been preserved to this day.

3. Ancestral Temple

1 ancestral hall

Ancestral shrines sacrificed by clans in several counties are the larger clan organizations in ancestral shrines. Although it is still a clan organization form maintained by blood, the scope of sacrifice has gone beyond the blood relationship of the same family name, including different tribes with the same family name and even families with different surnames in a larger geographical scope.

2 ancestral hall

This ancestral hall, commonly known as ancestral hall, was upgraded from a branch hall or several ancestral halls (family ancestral temple). There are many ancestral temples in Huishan Ancient Town, Wuxi, which were built by a clan with the same surname and a branch of the same clan.

3 jiaci

Hehu Temple, also known as Family Temple, is the smallest ancestral temple. The scope of sacrifice is limited to the fifth generation ancestors in Gaozu, and it is also an early folk ancestral temple.

Four branch temples

A branch or branch of a ancestral hall, also known as a small ancestral hall, is a blood combination composed of families and tribes with the same surname. The geographical scope is smaller, the blood relationship is closer, and the generations of young and old are very clear.

(two) according to their nature is divided into eight categories.

Tomb shrine, temple shrine, academy shrine, garden shrine, hall shrine, filial piety shrine, noble shrine, sacrifice shrine, etc. Among them, loyalty and filial piety temples can be divided into many memorial ancestral temples, such as loyalty and filial piety temples, filial piety temples, virtuous women temples, Yi Shi temples, ancestral temples and so on. Different ancestral temples have different meanings, which entrust and express different feelings to people.

(3) According to its architectural purpose, ancestral shrines are divided into public shrines and private shrines:

1. Gongci

In memory of a local official who has made achievements, it is called a public shrine or a filial piety shrine.

There are two ways to build a public temple: one is to build it with public funds. For a celebrity like Zhuge Liang, ancestral temples are often built for him in many places, such as Xiangfan, Hubei, Nanyang, Henan and Hanzhong, Shaanxi.

2. Private temples

It is the private ancestral temple of this family, which was built by people with the same surname at their own expense to worship their ancestors. Generally known as ancestral halls, almost all surnames in the south have ancestral halls, such as Xiao's Ancestral Hall, Wang's Ancestral Hall, Li's Ancestral Hall and Zhao's Ancestral Hall.

The ancestral temple in China is a comprehensive embodiment of sacrificial culture, and its connotation and form are extremely complicated. It is of great significance to eulogize heroes and sages, carry forward righteousness, strengthen family consciousness, continue family bloodline and maintain family unity.

What does the ancient ancestral temple mean? 2. precautions for entering the ancestral hall.

1, when entering the door, women take their right feet first and men take their left feet first. They must not step on the threshold, and the bigger the step, the better.

2. If you burn incense, three wicks pray for yourself, six wicks pray for two generations and nine wicks pray for three generations. Thirteen is an extreme, and thirteen wick incense is a high fragrance of complete merit.

3, burn incense and kowtow. If you burn incense, you should hold the incense in your left hand and the candle in your right hand, because most people kill chickens and cut fish with their right hands, but the left hand is the opposite.

4, when burning incense, first point the incense, the more the better, people often say that the incense is strong. Left hand on the top, right hand holding incense on the bottom, bow your head.

5. After bowing, put the incense in incense ashes and you can kowtow in the door. If you kowtow, you should find Buddha, Bodhisattva or Lohan. For example, you can't kowtow to Tibetan Bodhisattva.

6. the posture of bowing your head is like this. Kneel on the futon and put your hands together. Note that the palm of your hand is hollow, hold it high above your head, pause to your mouth, make a wish, then go down to your heart, meditate, then spread out your hands, palm up, upper body prone. There is also a blessing ceremony called opening the light. Of course, it is best to be presided over by a Taoist priest. Things that are usually opened at home must be burned with clean hands on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, otherwise it is disrespectful. But if it is special light, it is different, and the object that opens the light can be carried with you. Lighting items can only be ivory, gold or jade.

7. Wrap the items to be lit with red paper or red kit and paper with the name of the blessed person and the Chinese character of Geng (not necessarily sketching the Chinese character of Geng), hand in a happy character (preferably related to the number 369) and ask the master to help light the lamp. Speak respectfully, or you will offend your master and not give you a light.

8. The process of opening the light is to put all the opened objects on a tray and put them in front of the Buddha. The master recited several sutras as the Buddha's light shining. Your object is endowed with aura and mana, and you can take it with you to bless you.

What does the ancient ancestral temple mean? The ancestral hall has five functions.

1, respect the ancestors and the elderly, commemorate the ancestors, and carry forward the spirit of patriotism and hard work of the ancestors;

2. Seek roots and ask ancestors, receive visitors, contact places of kinship, strengthen national unity and carry forward the role of national cohesion;

3. Moral education base, through the cultural connotations of ancestral temples, plaques, couplets, inscriptions and family rules and family precepts, such as patriotism, filial piety, dedication, honesty, friendliness, thrift and other moral fashions, forms a new fashion of equality between men and women, respecting the elderly and loving the young, helping the poor and helping the poor, courtesy and tolerance;

4. Showing calligraphy and painting, reading books and newspapers, enhancing knowledge, connecting feelings, enhancing family ties and neighborhood friendship, relaxing with tea and carrying out rural cultural activities;

5. Folk culture and folk collection exhibition hall, which collects and displays old genealogy, old inscriptions, paleolithic tools, old furniture and old farm tools, is an important place for old and new history education. Therefore, it is urgent to repair the ancestral temple.

The historical position of ancestral temple;

In China's traditional national culture, ancestral temple 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 the feudal society, the Chinese nation produced surname culture, but the surname culture of any country in the world did not last for thousands of years like China, although it was blocked to some extent or even severely criticized during the period of Govin.

However, as a clan culture and a tradition rooted in people's bone marrow, it still spreads rapidly in China, and the most concrete aspect is ancestral temple culture.

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.