□ Yan Dongliang
As the winter solstice approached, my feet walked into the two ancient ancestral halls in Zhejiang, where there was the long-term gaze I longed for.
During the Song Dynasty, Zhu Xi initiated the establishment of a family ancestral hall, which was approved by the imperial court. In the Qing Dynasty, family ancestral halls sprung up like mushrooms in the land of China. Since its birth, the ancestral hall of one shrine and one surname has been "yilun and tree-like" for thousands of years, and has finally become a powerful heart for the public activities of the clan.
As elsewhere, ancient villages in Central Zhejiang were formed by clan dwellings. But in the north of China, it is difficult to find traces of ancient villages at present, and the survival of ancestral halls is even rarer.
People who know the ancient history of China know that the north has been the center of political struggle since ancient times, and the rulers have severely suppressed local clan forces in order to stabilize their rule, such as the Shang Martingale Transformation Law, which has a harsh rule that all adult men are not allowed to live with their parents and brothers, otherwise they will increase taxes. This has achieved both the purpose of increasing taxes and dividing the clan forces, which is really killing two birds with one stone and killing two birds with one stone.
The southern region, especially the mountainous areas of Zhejiang, are far from the control of the dynasty, coupled with the fact that the south is mostly immigrants, traffic jams, and relatively few war disasters, and it is natural for a family to huddle together for warmth. Many of the family ancestral halls in the north have been destroyed in the wars and social changes of the past, while the ancestral halls in the south have been fortunately preserved. The ancestors of the South are lucky!
As a result, the ancestral hall that has survived here to this day, with bricks and tiles, windows and doors, and niches, has become a precious specimen of the original and simple folk customs, and has become an original folk style negative.
I understand the elaboration of the meaning of the existence of the family ancestral hall, such as saying that it is the spiritual pillar of the family lineage; saying that it is the resting place of the ancestral soul; saying that it is the inquisition for the whole clan to formulate and enforce patriarchal family rules; saying that it is a paradise for the celebration and entertainment of the clan, and so on. But in my opinion, it is the Senran altar of the ancestors of the ceremonial ancestors, and its core meaning is the unquenchable glow condensed in the swaying incense candles of the altar.
Every time I approach it, my mind is always filled with awe, warmth, and yearning.
National key cultural relics protection unit, China's historical and cultural village - Yuyuan. According to CFP.
Where there is a shrine, there must be an altar. In the temple, the shrine is enshrined in the shape of a pyramid for male ancestors. On that day, I walked into the He Clan Ancestral Hall in Wuyi Guodong, and listened to the local cultural scholar He Bo who accompanied me on the tour to tell me that in ancient times, the ancestor worship customs of the people in central Zhejiang were very rich, in addition to the time sacrifice, festival sacrifice, family sacrifice, sacrifice community, tomb sacrifice, the ancestral sacrifice also had life sacrifice, return sacrifice, and meditation sacrifice, but the ancestral sacrifice was undoubtedly the most solemn ancestor worship ceremony.
He Bo was erudite and talkative, he said, the ancients worshipped the ancestors, but not like the contemporary people are not very careful, they are dressed in dresses, the crown is neat, the patriarch reads the shrine, the people burn paper veils, must not be late, everything must be strict and orderly, follow the rules.
I stood quietly in front of the shrine of the Ho Clan Ancestral Hall, as if I were a descendant of the Ho Clan, and my gaze met at this moment with the silent and majestic, kind and warm gaze reflected from the altar.
From ancient times to the present, on the 15th day of February and the 15th day of August in the lunar calendar, the incense and fire in the ho ancestral hall and the smell of sacrificial meat and fruits have engulfed the entire ancestral hall, which has cultivated the filial piety of generations of He's descendants.
My eyes read an ancient painting on the cypress pillar of the altar: "Obey the ancestral precepts and be diligent and thrifty, and the yisun plot to cultivate and read." In the old days, the ancestors of the He clan had set strict rules of respecting Confucianism and re-religion, and had deprived the "white people" (those who had not read books) of their ancestral qualifications, and even had no chance to participate in the clan dinner after the sacrifice.
Thinking about it carefully, behind this seemingly cold and ruthless family rule, it reflects the long-term vision of the ancestors. In order to ring the alarm bell in the hearts of the clansmen from time to time, to encourage their children and grandchildren to work diligently and read the future of development.
In ancient times, there was indeed a "Fengchi Academy" in Guodong Village, and the gentlemen in the village at that time buried their heads in the cold ring ruler in mr. Hands to learn and read. Before the Republic of China, the Ming and Qing Dynasties in the village had 146 Talents, Gongsheng and Juren, and many of them had become important officials in other places, and the well-preserved He Clan Ancestral Hall was a vivid microcosm of the family culture.
There are many plaques, pillars and door links in the He Clan Ancestral Hall in Guodong Village, which are also rare in many village ancestral halls I have been to. "Yuxiu Ancestral Hall", "Qi Ying Shuowang", "Dezhong Xiangshan", "Jinshi and Di", were all outstanding figures praised by the provincial capital and the prefecture at that time, and the "Famous Historical and Cultural Villages of China" deserved to be named.
The gaze in the altar hall is not difficult to see in the strict family rules, which makes the descendants afraid to cross the thunder pool. I was deeply shocked by something Hobo told me.
In ancient times, on Longshan Mountain, which was close to Guodong Village, the trees and grasses were sparse, and after the torrential rain, the flash floods rushed into the village with mud and stones from the mountains to smash the houses and destroy the fields, and the villagers lived here worried and uneasy. The ancestors of the He clan set up forest ranger rules in the middle of the temple: Anyone who has gone out to return to the village must bring back the good tree species and plant it on the Dragon Mountain; the villagers go up the mountain to cut down a large tree and cut off one of its arms; cut down a small tree and break its finger; destroy the branches and pluck one of its fingernails. When a violator is punished, he must kneel in front of the altar and swear to the ancestors that he will never do it again.
Since then, there have been excellent vegetation on Longshan Mountain, creating an auspicious feng shui for Guodong Village to drive away disasters safely. From the majestic gaze of the ancestors, the Guodong people understood "retribution", and only by fearing nature can human beings get the protection of nature.
That afternoon, I hurried to another village in Wuyi, also known as the "Famous Historical and Cultural Village of China", named Yu Yuan. The White Wall, Black Tile, Three Entrances and Two Courtyards of the Yu Clan Ancestral Hall greeted my arrival with its lofty momentum.
Perhaps with the winter solstice approaching, the descendants of the Yu clan had long since inserted incense and lit candles on the offerings of the altar. Generation after generation of Yu's descendants have been worshipping a kind of reverence and remembrance, praying that the ancestors' souls will return to their hometowns, that they can look at them with kindness, and hope that the wind and rain will be smooth and the family will be safe.
Standing in the altar, my eyes were drawn to the ancient opera stage that was directly opposite the "first stage in Jinhua Eight Counties". This ancient opera stage with carved dragon paintings is nearly 500 years old and is tall and gorgeous. In front of the stage, a wide flattened area with strips of stone is set aside, and there are grandstands on the left and right sides for the elders in the village to watch the play.
I was attracted by the colorful painted aloi (exquisite paintings on the top cover of the stage) of the ancient opera stage, and went to the center of the stage to shoot with my head up with a camera. After the shooting, I turned around and suddenly found that the spirit tablets in the altar were placed slightly higher than the stage, in an overlooking posture. I think that the clans who built the ancestral hall in those years had a good intention, so that the eyes of the ancestors sitting in the shrine would not be blocked, so that they could share the entertainment of opera together.
I was intoxicated by this masterpiece of ancient architecture in the Yu Ancestral Hall, and no, there were also the ancestors of the Yu clan who sat high and high in the altar, and they must have been intoxicated by her as much as I did.
Every New Year's Festival, especially in the harvest year, the industrious and simple Yu clan people who advocate culture will hang lanterns in this ancestral hall and hire the best drama classes in Jinhua with heavy money. The "ancestral hall drama" is sometimes performed for ten days and a half months, and the tiredness of the farmers' hard work in the wind and rain will be dissolved by a cheer under the stage.
In an instant, I seemed to hear the drums and the sound of the trumpets, and I was surrounded and bumped by a joyful cultural atmosphere that can only be felt in the countryside, and the lively scene of watching the grass stage drama in the countryside as a child was illusioned.
Isn't this exactly what the ancestors in the altar wanted to see? Through a series of colorful dramas, the Yu clan people read the joys and sorrows and ups and downs of life experiences in life, read the history and traditional culture that they are familiar with or unfamiliar with, and draw rich spiritual nutrition from this folk entertainment activity.
Walking into the ancient ancestral hall, walking into the altar wearing a mysterious mask, and the eyes that shot directly into my eyes made me feel both distant and close, both awe and kindness. One day, we will also leave the earthly world, but we will no longer enjoy the formal worship of the altar spirit card. But I yearn for a true realm, leaving a clear gaze of kindness and love, staying in the heavens and the earth, for the children and grandchildren to remember.
About author:Yan Dongliang is a member of the Chinese Prose Literature Association and the Zhejiang Writers Association. He has published essay collections such as "Pomegranate Red" and "Time Negatives".
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