Study On Huizhou Ancestral Temple Worship In Ming And Qing Dynasty

"The ritual" is the core of Chinese traditional culture, and "JiLi" as the most important kinds of "the ritual", its main content is about all sorts of ancestral hall fete ceremony. Temple offerings, just as its name implies, is the fete ceremony that is carried out in the ancestral hall. Temple offerings cultural made great development after the Mid-Ming dynasty, which is based on the relax of the policy on ancestor worship and the business boom of Huizhou clan.The paper studies the Huizhou ancestral temple worship problem in the Ming and Qing dynasties based on the family tree, chorography, clerical and existing research results etc.The paper consists of two parts, the introduction and the body. We describes reason we made the research and academic history of this topic in the introduction part, and the remains of the paper consists of four chapters, which is specified as follows:The first chapter briefly introduce the evolution of the Chinese ancient sacrificial culture. The worship place roughly experienced several stages of development based on the word record, such as Chow Tai temple, Han dynasty MuCi ancestral temple, family temple in the Tang dynasty, the family temple in the Song dynasty, and ancestral hall in the Ming and Qing dynasties etc. The ancestor worship before Tang dynasty mainly followed the tradition of the Zhou dynasty patriarchal sacrifice. People made sacrifice at home due to the lack of sacrifice place, which was caused by the social unrest in the late tang and five dynasties. Ancestral hall developed by Zhu xi become the main place of ancestor worship in Song Yuan Ming and Qing dynasty which comes from the original shadows system set by Si Maguang. The Ancestral hall also promote the development of the shrine sacrifice culture.The second chapter studies the origin, type, objects and ancestral temple construction of the Huizhou temple offering in the Ming and Qing dynasties. Firstly, we introduce the evolution of the clan temple offerings activities based on Chinese ritual culture and local characteristics of Huizhou, which roughly experienced MuCi sacrifice, temples and the special ancestral temple worship. Secondly, the objects and kinds of Huizhou temple offerings in the Ming and Qing dynasties are classified and summarized. Finally, this paper discusses the problems of the location of the clan temple offerings and ancestral temple construction etc.The third chapter discusses the material foundation of Huizhou clans offering in the Ming and Qing dynasties, which mainly includes the source, use, management and loss of the property of the temple offering. The property source of the temple offering includes host fee and public donations etc. In order to make good use of the temple offering sacrifices, maintain normal memorial activities, the Huizhou clan set up the related management system. Also, the erosion problems inevitably exist.The fourth chapter studies etiquette and its significance of the temple offering of Huizhou clans during the Ming and Qing dynasties. Firstly, we elaborated temple offerings etiquette of Huizhou clan in the Ming and Qing dynasties. There is strict specification on participator, ministers as well as the ritual items, etc. The sacrifice process is complicated and orderly, which includes eulogy reading, sacrifices setting, worship festival and zuo offering, etc. Then the significance of temple offerings of Huizhou clan is summarized, which includes harmony and education enforcement on Huizhou clan. It can promote long-term prosperity of Huizhou clan also Huizhou patriarchal clan system and rule, and thus play an important role in maintaining social order, etc.