There is no ancestral temple with the highest specification in Changzhou history. If there is, it is the ancestral hall of Emperor Qi Liang. They are all from Changzhou. Although their capital is now in Nanjing, they are related to Changzhou after all, but this origin has been far away from this era and has only become the talk of some people. In ancient times, not ordinary families could have a temple, but in modern times, the meaning of the so-called temple has changed. In some people's eyes, home temple is synonymous with Buddhist temple. In fact, this view is wrong Family temples existed before Buddhism was introduced into China, and Buddhist temples do not represent family temples. There are many movies, and the temple in the movie is often the Buddhist temple. We can't understand the temple in this way.
In the Southern Song Dynasty, Lu You famously said, "Everything is empty when you die, but you are sad to see Kyushu.". Therefore, when the great Song Jun team recaptures the Central Plains, you will hold a home banquet ceremony. Don't forget to tell me the good news! It has become an image that haunts everyone in China, but do you know about family sacrifice? Every year in Tomb-Sweeping Day, China people hold family sacrifices, which are saturated with China people's memories of their ancestors. Lu Youjia is a big family with a special ancestral temple. Their family's sacrifices are actually ancestral temple sacrifices, and ordinary people can only make road sacrifices. Different from ordinary people, before the appearance of the Jinshi system, the imperial examination system in China was dominated by elites, such as the Ming Classics Division in the Tang Dynasty. For a long period of history, only the nobles and elites had temples. There were not many Buddhist factors in early temples. Different from the temples after the Song Dynasty, especially in the late Qing Dynasty, the Buddha statue replaced the founder and became the protagonist in the temple. From the Eastern Han Dynasty to the Southern Dynasty, and even to the middle of the Tang Dynasty, scholars. There was a struggle in the imperial court, and the political treatment was even worse. Although many supreme rulers wanted to highlight the imperial power and suppress the gentry, it was not until the end of the Tang Dynasty that the gentry in northern China really declined, together with their family culture, and became the dust of history. In its place, the south still retains quite a lot of traditional cultural colors, because many aristocratic families have crossed the Yangtze River in the south, and some have migrated many times. Some even went to the Mid-Levels in Guangdong and took root there. Now ancestral temples in Guangdong and Fujian are more magnificent than those in Jiangsu and Zhejiang. Looking at the existing ancestral temples in Jiangnan, including our ancestral temples in Changzhou, they are relatively simple. Even carved beams and painted buildings are not as luxurious as those in Guangdong, Fujian and Anhui. I think this is because local family forces can control them, or at least greatly influence the rule of local officials. Although the family power is strong, it has not affected the political development of a county or even a region, which is an important reason for the simplicity of the ancestral temple in the south of the Yangtze River. Wujin area in Changzhou is not as luxurious as ancestral halls in some southern areas. As simple and low-key as this city. Although deeply influenced by Huizhou architecture, it is not as complicated as Huizhou architecture.
As far as the shape and scale of temples at home are concerned, the gentry and civilians are different. Although the traditional gentry no longer existed in the late Tang Dynasty, among the people, the new big families created by imperial examinations, military equipment, commerce and other factors gradually formed new local forces. Most ancestral temples in Changzhou were established after Jiajing. Before that, only officials and several generations of big families were qualified to set up ancestral halls. By Jiajing in the Ming Dynasty, many people had contacted them. Emperor Jiajing is trying to win the hearts of the people. After the death of Emperor Zheng De, there was no heir. Jiajing ascended the throne as Zheng De's cousin. Because he was a sideline, he had no real power in the court at first. Later, he struggled with the Queen Mother and Zheng De's old ministers several times to win the title of emperor for his biological father, and demoted a number of officials with the ceremony as a breakthrough. Only by winning the temple number and the emperor number for the biological father can the folk association gain a foothold. At the same time, it can also be regarded as a symbol of the political status of ordinary families after the economic development of the Ming Dynasty. The ancestral temple in the Ming and Qing dynasties continued the previous family temple in function, but it was different from the family temple which was only open to nobles, gentry and officials, and its foundation was broader. In fact, it was one of the local grass-roots organs of political power before the imperial power went to the countryside, and it was the place where grass-roots organs of political power had the closest relationship with ordinary people. Generally speaking, ancestral halls in Ming and Qing Dynasties are dedicated to the memory of ancestors. People often suspect a connection. For example, those surnamed Wu will recognize Wu Zixu as their ancestor, while those surnamed Li will recognize Li Er (Lao Zi) as their ancestor. This identification method is very unreliable. Just like Lu Bing, the leader of the Royal Guards in the Ming Dynasty, recognized the famous minister of the Tang Dynasty as his ancestor and was laughed at at in Hangjianlu Temple. There are many reasons here. First, after the establishment of the Yuan Dynasty, many people didn't even have names, only one to nine. Of course, there are also some family lineages that are orderly and considered reliable. For example, Chen Guoren (Emperor Wulie of Changzhou) in the late Sui Dynasty and Bai Ang, a famous minister in the Ming Dynasty, are listed in the Family Tree of Chen in Minke Lane, Piling. His family moved to Changzhou for thousands of years, and he is the most famous. Now, at the intersection of the Grand Canal and Cailing Port, there is his ancestral temple, named Bai Zongzong. At present, the most complete ancestral temple in our city belongs to Qu's ancestral hall in the west of the city. It was donated by Qu Qiubai's great-uncle, Qu Gengfu, when he was appointed Minister of Hubei Province in Guangxu period of Qing Dynasty. Covers an area of 1.025 square meters, covering an area of more than one mu. There are two courtyards, the West Courtyard is used to store ancestral tablets, and the East Courtyard is Qiu Bai's home. 1985, the Qiubai Memorial Hall was restored and opened to the outside world. Qu Qiubai's former residence is famous in the world. Although the memorial tablet of Qu Zu is no longer enshrined in it, the pattern of the whole ancestral hall is still there, and it has been restored in strict accordance with its original appearance, which is a model in Changwu area. Now the largest ancestral temple in Changzhou is divided into two according to its nature. One is the former residence of Comrade Qu Qiubai, the old Qushi Ancestral Hall in the west of the city. First of all, the Wang Ancestral Hall in Lijiazhou, also known as Sanhuaitang, is located on the fish pond in Li Jiacun, Lijia Town, Wujin District. The ancestral hall covers an area of 826.68 square meters (excluding the ancestral hall square of 387.86 square meters), of which the construction area is 662.8 square meters. The original things are pentagons, and the existing things are pentagons and quadrangles. The scale is indeed much larger than the ancestral temple of the average family. Qushi Ancestral Hall has been changed to the former residence of Comrade Qiu Bai, so Wang Chen Ancestral Hall in Lijiazhou is of course the largest ancestral hall in Changwu.
As for family ancestral temple, according to the estimation of some experts in literature and history in this city, there are more than 600 ancestral temples in Changwu area, most of which are family ancestral temple. According to statistics, there are 32 ancestral halls in Lijia Township, which are now part of Lijia Town. At that time, there were 66 townships in Wujin, and there were so many townships. It is conceivable that there are many directories in Wujin County. In the remarks column behind many village names, there are records of several ancestral halls in the village before, and even more villages are directly named ancestral halls. Of course, times have changed, and few can be preserved until now. Some time ago, the author went to Xin 'an Township to see the ancestral hall of Xi's family, which was used as a village for a long time after 1949. Later, the factory moved out, and the original appearance remained, and another piece was set up in the Qing Dynasty. Looking through the map of the first district (urban area) of Wujin County in the 19th year of the Republic of China (1930), there are quite a few ancestral halls on it. In the area around Chunguifang, from east to west, there are Ma Gong Temple, Yun Yizhuang Temple and Zuo Gong Temple in turn, and in the area around Dongxiatang, which is connected with Chunguifang, there are Liu Gong Temple (still there), Wu Gong Temple and Wu Gong Temple in turn. Urban people's indifference to clan concept is faster than that in rural areas, and the migration of urban population is more. With the development of urban economy, social progress, and the transformation of the old city, the habit of living in groups with major surnames in urban areas has gradually disappeared. After liberation, ancestral temples in urban areas were used for other purposes, such as Qu's ancestral temple, which was once turned into a public medical clinic. Known as "ruling the family with filial piety" and "living under the same roof with the ninth generation", the Zheng Family Ancestral Hall in the Zhengzhai of Pujiang County was founded in the early Yuan Dynasty and has undergone many expansions and reconstructions. The existing buildings are relics of the late Qing Dynasty, with five buildings before and after, including stone tablets, plaques and several vigorous ancient cypresses since the Yuan Dynasty. Liujia Temple in Nanxun, Huzhou is the ancestral temple of Liu Yong, a rich family in Nanxun, Huzhou in the late Qing Dynasty. It was built in the 14th year of Guangxu (1888) and completed in the 23rd year (1897). Located in Xiaolianzhuang, Liu's private garden, facing south, the main buildings are Zhaobi, stone archway entrance hall, lobby, main hall, Shun Tak Hall and arcade. The luminous wall is splayed and consists of three parts: base, wall and wall eaves. The wall is laid obliquely with square bricks, and the bucket arch is ground under the eaves with blue bricks. Exquisite wall technology, simple modeling; There are two archways, which stand opposite each other between the zhaobi and the foyer. On the left is the "Charity Square", which was built by Emperor Guangxu to reward Liu Yong's eldest son, Liu Anlan, for donating money to help the floods in Hubei. The studio on the right is built for Jing An Lan's wife Qiu. Both workshops are four columns, three rooms and five floors, with a height of 8.5 meters. The workshop is engraved with auspicious patterns, such as dragon playing beads, cranes and deer in the same spring, Samsung shining, bangs playing toad, dragon, phoenix, lion, unicorn, bat, flowers and plants, etc. The foyer and hall are three hard-topped buildings; The main hall is three rooms wide and fifteen purlins deep. It has a porch and grass frame structure and a large space. There are wings on the left and right sides of the main hall, with a spacious courtyard in the middle; Shun Tak Hall, located in the backyard, is a "place for sacrifice and leisure". On weekdays, it is a two-story building with a portrait of Liu Zu.