Ancestral temples appeared in the Xia Dynasty thousands of years ago. During the Zhou Dynasty, ancestral halls were owned only by emperors, and even literati could not build ancestral halls. In the Song Dynasty, the ancestral temple system was perfect, and the great scholar Zhu advocated the establishment of family ancestral temple, that is, each family established four ancestral temples to worship the gods of the great-grandfather, great-grandfather and four ancestors, and the ancestral temple culture was popularized, reaching its peak in the Ming and Qing Dynasties.
Ancestral temples are divided into official temples, public temples and folk ancestral temples under the ancient hierarchical system; According to the reproduction of family population, it is divided into general temple, branch temple, branch temple and enjoyment temple.
Ancestral temple is the product of feudal family system. Sacrificing ancestors and family ancestors is the initial and most important function. What are the rules for the ancestral gods of the family?
The order of ancestor gods is left according to right wood.
Zhao Mu system is a patriarchal clan system in China, which refers to the arrangement of ancestral halls, cemeteries and shrines, with Zhao on the left and Mu on the right. The indoor ranking of ancient people is East, followed by South, North and West. The reason why it is named after "Zhao Mu" may be because the pillars facing south are sunny, so it is called "Zhao", and Zhao has a clear meaning; The backlight of the northbound column is obscure, so it is called "eye", which means obscure.
The ancestral temple is the place where ancestors gathered, so the ancestral temple was used to set up the tablet of the gods. There is a niche in the center of the hall, with niches on the left and right. The tablet of the Lord of God is like a small hall pasted on the wall, and the Lord of God is put in the cupboard. Later, some families used rectangular wooden tables to decorate the gods on the tables.
Generally speaking, the main niche of the ancestral temple is often used by the present elders to test the gods of (father), ancestors, great-grandfathers and great-grandfathers IV. When the gods crouch, they will move to the niche. On the tablet of the gods, the ancestors will never move and will always be placed on the main niche.
The father is Zhao and the son is Mu; In lineage, from the second generation, the even generation is Zhao, and the odd generation is Mu. The first generation is Zhao, and the later generation is Mu; Long for Zhao, young for Mu; The official position is Zhao, and the ordinary position is Mu.
The ancients believed that the soul of ancestors could be attached to the tablet of God after the sacrificial ceremony. The tablet of God is a rectangular Xiao Mu card embedded in a wooden base, with black characters on a white background, or yellow characters on a red background, and some have gold-plated characters. Write down the ancestors' names, dates of birth and death, surnames, names of sons, grandchildren and great-grandchildren on the tablets, and arrange each pair of ancestors in the order of left photo and right photo.
In the arrangement of ancestral temples, ancestors are in the middle, and men below ancestors alternate into two rows of Zhao Mu every other generation, that is, the second, fourth and sixth couples from ancestors are Zhao Dynasty; Three, five, seven odd generations (generations) are Mudai. Zhao is on the left of Zuzong and Mu is on the right of Zuzong.