Ancestor Worship Customs
01 · Historical Records
In the Southern Song period, Huang Motang, the first ancestor of the Hakka Xiasha Huang lineage, traveled afar to open the land and found the village; his tomb is on the northwestern slope of Lianhua Mountain in present-day Shenzhen, built in the eighth year of the Chunyou era of the Southern Song (1248). The surviving "Ancestral Hall of Huang Sige" of the ninth-generation ancestor was first built in the Ming Dynasty. The Xiasha ancestral tomb was built in the Chunyou era of the Southern Song, and the ancestral temple was first built in the Ming Dynasty.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Xiasha ancestor worship is a traditional sacrificial ritual activity of the Huang lineage maintained in Xiasha Village, Futian District, Shenzhen, Guangdong Province. The handed-down Huang Family Genealogy records family precepts; the third is "value sacrifice," which states: "Water has its source, trees have their roots, and people have a heart. One should establish an ancestral hall, set aside sacrificial property, and in spring and autumn command all members of the clan to gather at the ancestral hall and hold ceremonies, so as to promote the virtue of benevolence and filial piety and dispel foolish and ignorant thoughts." Xiasha ancestor worship customarily divides into two sacrifices, spring and autumn: the spring sacrifice worships only at the ancestral hall, while the autumn sacrifice worships both at the ancestral hall and at the ancestral tomb. When worshipping at the ancestral hall, drums are beaten, music played, and firecrackers set off; elders over 60 years old, wearing long gowns, proceed to the middle hall to perform three kneelings and nine prostrations; then the direct heir of the eldest house, the clan chief, and the clan association president proceed in order to the main hall to perform the rites of the first, second, and third offerings, the sacrificial text is read aloud, and then the descendants step forward in batches to pay homage. Xiasha natives living overseas also send representatives back every year to take part in the ancestor-worship activities. During the ancestor-worship period, folk performances of dragon dance, lion dance, and Cantonese opera are held at the same time, and the big-basin vegetable feast is held.
The spring rite hall alone
The spring rite stays indoors, followed by feasting and performances that fill the square all day.
Three kneelings and nine prostrations
Elders in long gowns kneel three times and bow nine before the hall, putting seniority first.
The three graded offerings
Three graded offerings follow, with the prayer read between them, before the younger line comes up in turn.
Drums, music and firecrackers open the rite
Drums, music and firecrackers mark the start, after which the hall falls silent as people take their places.
The autumn rite at the ancestral graves
Autumn moves from hall to grave, the village lying below as each branch offers incense to the mound.
Lion dances and basin feast of the feast days
Lion dances, opera and a stacked basin feast share the days of the rite, piety and festivity together.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The Huang lineage of Xiasha is an urban kinship community in Futian District, Shenzhen; the order of the ancestor-worship rites rotates between two places, the ancestral hall and the ancestral tomb. The spring sacrifice worships only at the hall, while the autumn sacrifice worships at both hall and tomb — the rites are elaborate and fall into two segments, so the locals say the spring sacrifice is the family sacrifice and the autumn sacrifice is the grave sacrifice, and the relative weight of each is self-evident. In the ancestral hall, old and young are mingled: elders over 60, wearing long gowns, enter first, and only after they have performed three kneelings and nine prostrations does the turn come for the direct heir of the eldest house, the clan chief, and the clan association president to perform the offerings. Many of the clan's young men have gone abroad to trade; when the sacrifice season arrives, representatives return from overseas to stand on the steps together with those in the village; after the rites there are also lion dances, martial arts hall drills, and the village-wide big-basin vegetable feast — the voices of the crowd and the sound of gongs and drums rise together in the square before the hall, and the whole village is as lively as on a festival day. The relative weight of the two sacrifices has a practical basis in the villagers' minds: the spring sacrifice worships the living — every household must have someone present, and one absence leaves one debt unpaid; the autumn sacrifice worships the earth — the grave is on the hill, and whether or not a person comes, a bundle of paper can still be burned, so the autumn sacrifice is somewhat looser. Around the sacrifice dates, people working away from home return one after another; long benches are set out in rows in the square before the ancestral hall, and those seated on a single bench are often an entire family, young and old.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Ancestor Worship Customs · Ancestor Worship Customs · Ancestor Worship Customs · Ancestor Worship Customs · Ancestor Worship Customs · Ancestor Worship Customs · Ancestor Worship Customs · Ancestor Worship Customs · Ancestor Worship Customs.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Xiasha Village faces Hong Kong across the river; all its villagers are surnamed Huang, and there are now about 3,000 Huang descendants of Xiasha origin living overseas. This project is of great significance for inheriting the fine traditions of the Chinese nation, strengthening community cohesion, and maintaining close ties with overseas Chinese and compatriots in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macao; it also has value for folklore studies.
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)
This static English edition is rendered at the edge for search engines, AI crawlers and readers without JavaScript; it mirrors the bilingual dossier. 阅读中文版，或返回 英文名录。