Ancestral Halls of Confucian China
"The ancestral hall is a sort of memorial temple in which the ancestral spirits of the clan are honoured, and the days of their birth and death commemorated. It is…
From: 1921 C.E. To: 1915 C.E.
Note: This article has been excerpted from a larger work in the public domain and shared here due to its historical value. It may contain outdated ideas and language that do not reflect TOTA’s opinions and beliefs.
“The Ancestral Hall,” from Village and Town Life in China by Y.K. Liang and Li Kung Tao, 1915.
The ancestral hall is a sort of memorial temple in which the ancestral spirits of the clan are honoured, and the days of their birth and death commemorated. It is also the family house of the whole clan. The clan is merely a gathering of families. Throughout the length and breadth of China villages are called after the name of the clan inhabiting them: for instance, Wangchatsuan, the village of Wang; Lichatsai, the camp of Li. In South China and Middle China especially great clans often live for centuries together, each having an illustrious and eventful history of its own.
It should not, however, be inferred that the families of a clan always cluster in a village; for very often the village consists of a number of families bearing different surnames. The members of the whole clan generally number hundreds and sometimes thousands. They usually have a common ancestral temple; otherwise they have a common ancestral temple where only very remote ancestors are worshipped, while each family has its own temple of ancestors pertaining to its own branch. Within a clan, the different families may be rich or poor, but as a rule the families that are better off work collectively to relieve the poor families of the same clan. The clan may jointly possess property, the income from which covers the expenses of ancestral worship and the repair of graveyards.
In the ancestral hall, as a memorial temple, there are elaborate rituals and ceremonies observed in the various festivals of the year, on which occasions all the members of the clan present themselves before the ancestral tablets to pay their respects to their ancestors. The temple has several divisions. In the central division is the memorial tablet of the remotest ancestor of the clan and his wife. To the right and left of this are the divisions for the memorial tablets of the sons of the remotest ancestor and their wives respectively.
Thus supposing A is the remotest ancestor, or rather the ancestor who established the present clan, he having through some cause migrated from his own clan, and B and C are the two sons: the memorial tablet of A and his wife will occupy the central division; B being the elder son, the memorial tablet of him and his wife will occupy the division on the left; that of C and his wife will occupy the division on the right.
As a memorial temple the ancestral hall owns property to enable the rituals and ceremonies of the various festivals to be carried out from generation to generation. Twice a year, spring and autumn, the tombs of the ancestors are visited by the whole clan, while each family visits the tombs of its immediate ancestors. On such occasions there is public holiday for the whole clan. Sumptuous feasts are provided before the ancestral tombs, and pocket money distributed to all present. Portions of the feast are also sent to the various families, so that the wives and daughters of the clan may take part in the festival in their homes.
As a family house the ancestral hall is the central stock from which all the families of the clan spring, like the branches from a tree. It is the archetypal home, the home of the remotest ancestor from whom the clan can trace its descent. Thus the whole clan is but a family with the ancestral hall as its home. Every male member of the clan traces his descent from the common ancestor. In the Chia-li-pu (mentioned above), kept in each family, is recorded the genealogy of the family ancestors, with a short account of each up to the common ancestor of the clan.
The whole clan then being but a huge family, it follows that all the members of the clan have equal rights and duties towards the ancestral hall. The duties are the due observance of the clan customs and morals, to be present at the various festivals, to aid other members of the clan whose rights are infringed upon by outsiders, to pay due respects to the elders of the clan, to render pecuniary and such-like assistance to clansmen who are in real necessity through no moral faults of their own, and a host of others which the welfare of the clan community demands.
Moral rules for the proper regulation of the conduct of the members of the clan are publicly posted up in the ancestral hall with the various sanctions attached for the breach thereof. All these rules of conduct and the various duties are strictly enforced by the tribunal of elders. With regard to the rights of the members of the clan their duties, of course, involve corresponding rights.
But as the numbers increase, and the clan grows in size, everyone cannot expect to claim the same amount of beneficial rights from the ancestral hall as he may from his immediate family. Hence a method is necessary for the equitable distribution of the income derived from the ancestral property. The method devised is that all male members of the clan are entitled to an equal share irrespective of age, and also all widows. All those who are 59 years of age and over are entitled to a double share, a sort of old age pension being thus provided for.
The reason for not including female members who are not widows is that they are either wives whose husbands are still living, or they are daughters. The former need not have a share apart from their husbands and sons, whereas the latter will eventually be married outside the clan, thus belonging to other clans.
Exogamy is strictly observed. The benefits distributed generally take the form of money, feasts, fowls, and meat. These are distributed annually on the eve of various festivals, the only condition being that the members must be present at the ancestral hall, or at least send proxies. Everyone is proud of the share he is entitled to, not so much for the thing itself, though as a rule it is very substantial, especially when the clan is rich, but for the fact that it links oneself with a family greater than one's own, namely, the clan. He feels he is not alone.
Here what Mr. Tao calls "the instinctive craving" for the past, for one's origin, can express itself, even if not completely satisfied. For he can trace his ancestry further back than any English noble family can. Moreover, he knows that his individual rights and privileges are more jealously guarded and protected by his fellow clan folks than they would be under any system of official government.
Another form of benefit given by the ancestral hall is free education to all the children of the clan. This is done, however, only in the case of prosperous elans. But all clans, whether prosperous or not, will invariably help any of their members who have the bent for public competitive examinations formerly given by the Government, but who have not the means to do so. To our way of thinking, honour to any person is honour to his clan and his ancestors. To glorify one's parents and ancestors is one of the most sacred duties for every Chinese. Hence it is that all those who are unable to glorify their ancestors by gaining public honours themselves, take great interest in assisting those who have the prospect of so doing.
It is this love for ancestors and respect for the past that is chiefly responsible for the stability of our institutions, so inexplicable to outside observers.Besides these benefits most clans also provide for maternity benefits, old age and widow pensions, free doctoring and medicine, and free burial, thus anticipating much of the social legislation of Europe. As far as the villages are concerned, social legislation is not needed, and organized relief unnecessary.
But with the introduction of machinery and the opening up of the natural resources of the country, it is most essential for the central Government to exercise extreme care and diligence lest we fall into the same pitfalls as England and so many other European countries did at the time of the Industrial Revolution, resulting from the introduction of machinery. Already the introduction of machinery and factories into the villages near Canton for the manufacture of silk is coupled with the degradation of morals, sweating, and oppression by the so-called captains of industry. Such evils must sooner or later be arrested, otherwise the opening up of our national wealth will inevitably be accompanied by the opening up of incurable wounds and sores in our national life.
The government of the ancestral hall, the management of its property and income, and of the distribution of benefits are regulated by a combination of hereditary and democratic principles. Twelve executive members are annually elected. They are distributed according to the hereditary principle thus: Supposing the founder of the clan had two sons B and C, half the number of members are distributed amongst the descendants of B and the other half amongst those of C irrespective of the number of descendants of B and C respectively.
At the annual election new members are proposed by the retiring ones and approved publicly by the whole clan. Although there is no remuneration attached to membership beyond a double share of the benefits annually distributed, yet sometimes things are very exciting and clan politics causes great commotion in the village. There is no balloting. The election is determined by all present at the moment. A member is proposed by a retiring member, and it is then left to the public to approve or reject him. The villagers soon speak out their minds. The candidate will soon see whether there is much opposition or not. If there is it would be very unwise if he does not voluntarily retire.
If the public disapproves of one candidate another is put in his place by the same retiring member, and so on till one is approved. On the other hand, if a person is unanimously elected there is no alternative but for him to accept the office. It is for him a sacred duty, a duty to his ancestors and his fellow-clansmen. The office is for one year. It is the duty of the executive members to manage the property of the ancestral hall. This consists in collecting rents, paying the necessary taxes, and letting out land which is as a rule agricultural.
They have no power to dispose of any ancestral land. Such a step is rarely taken. Should it be considered necessary then at least three-fourths of the fathers of families of the clan must approve of the proceeding. The proceeds from it must at once be reinvested in other lands or be distributed equally amongst all the male members of the clan, irrespective of age, and widows, those who are 59 being entitled to a double share. Whatever step be taken, it is a question for the whole clan and not the executive members.
It is also the duty of the executive members to spend the money in the proper channels—such as the due performance of ceremonials to the ancestors at the different festivals, the proper distribution of benefits, and to keep the ancestral hall and tombs in proper repair. Before retiring they have to render their accounts publicly. Corruption is unknown. The land is let to the highest bidder every three years. The exact amount of income is publicly known, and every step of the expenditure thereof is publicly discussed.
Under the ancestral hall are numerous minor ancestral halls. A minor ancestral hall is one constituted by several families grouping together under one common ancestor. It is constituted on the same principle as the ancestral hall of the clan, only on a much smaller scale and including considerably fewer families within it. In fact, each home is a potential ancestral hall, for in it are the memorial tablets of its immediate ancestors. In time to come all the families springing from the present one will join together to honour their common ancestors under one ancestral hall.
This tendency to have private minor ancestral halls in some cases leads to devoting the ancestral hall of the clan to the remotest ancestor only, his sons being honoured in minor ancestral halls belonging to their respective descendants. Thus within a clan you have a series of ancestral halls with fewer and fewer families under each as the series descends. In the diagram given below, A, the remotest ancestor, will be the object of the central ancestral hall, embracing the whole clan under its fold; while B, C, D, etc., down to Z, the forbear of a few families, will each have a minor ancestral hall with their immediate descendants under it.
Liang, Y. K., and Li Kung Tao. Village and Town Life in China. MacMillan Co., 1915.
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