Ancestor Worship Customs
01 · Historical Records
Xiwenxing Village is a thousand-year-old settlement, preserved intact, in which members of the Liu clan of Hedong have lived for generations; it retains a well-preserved complex of ancient buildings bearing the characteristics of the patriarchal clan system of the Ming and Qing dynasties. According to surviving bronze and stone inscriptions and the Genealogy of the Liu Clan of Hedong, the Liu descendants of this village are all descendants of Liu Zongyuan, the literary figure of the Tang Dynasty. Dwelling in Xiwenxing Village for generations, they have heeded their ancestral teachings and observed ritual propriety, passing down the family tradition and virtues of the Liu clan of Hedong and continuing its distinctive life rituals; they erected a stone tablet to record this in perpetuity in the Liu ancestral hall of Xiwenxing, offering sacrifices year-round and honoring the memory of the departed ancestors with reverence.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The Qinshui Liu family's Qingming ancestor worship is a traditional ancestor-worship ritual custom maintained by the Liu family of Xiwenxing Village, Qinshui County, Shanxi Province. The village's inhabitants to this day remain Liu descendants of a single lineage. The Qingming ancestor worship is the most solemn of all. Beginning three days before Qingming, they abstain from meat and eat vegetarian; the first bowl of the first meal in the morning must be offered at the ancestral hall. Each family sweeps the ancestral graves. On the day of Qingming, the whole clan gathers at the ancestral hall to offer animal sacrifices to the ancestors. Those living away from home all hurry back on this day to take part in the ancestor-worship ceremony. This project is of great significance for carrying forward the fine traditional Chinese value of honoring the departed ancestors with reverence and for building a harmonious society.
Three days of meatless eating before Qingming
Meat is abandoned for three days so that the household enters the ancestral hall in a state of plainness.
The first bowl of the morning offered first
The day's first bowl is carried to the shrine and offered before anyone at home may eat.
Visiting the family graves
Each household sweeps its own graves before and after the day, separately from the shrine rite.
The ancestral offerings at the hall
The whole clan assembles to present sacrificial animals in order of seniority, others waiting outside the hall.
Absent descendants called home
Clan members return from wherever they are, and those who miss a year are known to have done so.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The sacrificial rites of Xiwenxing form a school of their own within the Hedong Liu branch. The Liu descendants have lived in this village for generations; the ancestral hall and their dwellings lie in the same village, so on the day of sacrifice no long journey is needed. With the whole clan sharing one surname and one lineage, on the day of the spring sacrifice the stretch from the lane entrance to the ancestral hall is one continuous flow: every household first burns paper offerings at its own doorway, joining the stream of people only upon stepping outside. The oral transmission of these rites rests on a few very concrete things: the number of days of abstaining from meat, the rule that the first bowl of the morning meal is offered first at the ancestral hall, the arrangement of the animal offerings on Qingming day, and the deadline by which descendants away from home must return. The genealogy records this sequence on a stone tablet within the ancestral hall, so later generations act by the tablet and need not ask others year by year. The rites of Xiwenxing also contain the order of the village. Around Qingming the whole village attends to only three matters: sacrifice, grave-sweeping, and house-cleaning; one sees neither idlers nor disputes in the streets and lanes, and every family's other affairs are scheduled after the ancestor worship. If a scholar of the clan is away traveling and has not returned, his family lights a stick of incense on his behalf in the ancestral hall, so that his place in the ritual order is not left empty. Aligning the whole village's calendar on a single day is the foundation on which the Hedong Liu branch has remained undivided for a thousand years. No idle seats are set out in the ancestral hall: everyone present has a place, and even a child just learning to walk is carried to the altar to knock his head once. When the sacrifice ends and the assembly disperses, clan members do not hurry away; they linger in casual conversation before the hall for half the day, and news of who has married or who has had a child spreads through this gathering.
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04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
The Liu family residences are now a Major Historical and Cultural Site Protected at the National Level.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Liu Yixia 05-3036
- Zhuge Yi 05-3037
- Chen Dunhe 05-3038
- Fan Zhongyi
- Qu Bilaji
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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