122 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL, 1 42 



of souls. It is thought that the soul of the deceased actually dwells 

 in the ancestral tablet, and the tablet is thought of and treated as if it 

 were the ancestor himself. 



Every large family or clan has its own ancestral temple. In this 

 there is one large tablet representing the family, and one tablet for 

 each deceased ancestor, going back at least three generations. Gen- 

 erally each temple has a caretaker who daily burns incense and wor- 

 ships the ancestors before their tablets for the family. 



Families that are too poor to have an ancestral temple keep their 

 ancestral tablets in their own homes. In the homes as in the temples, 

 the tablets are worshiped daily by the burning of incense and by 

 bowing. On the first and fifteenth days of each lunar month there 

 is special worship. Incense and candles are burned, and instead of 

 merely bowing, the worshipers kowtow or knock their heads on the 

 ground, a more profound act of worship. 



Twice a year the family goes to the ancestral temple for very special 

 ceremonies of ancestral worship. They kill a pig or a sheep, and 

 chickens and ducks, which are first ofifered uncooked to the ancestors. 

 The hair is cleaned off the bodies of the pig and the sheep. Holes are 

 made in their backs, and three sticks of incense and two candles are 

 stuck into the holes and lighted. Then there is worship and prostra- 

 tions. Generally these ceremonies are performed in the homes and 

 in the ancestral temples by the oldest sons. No women can have a 

 part in the ancestral ceremonies. 



Some families observe these ceremonies in the ancestral temples 

 after the rice is planted and after the rice harvest. Others perform 

 them at Ch'ing Ming and at the arrival of winter or tiing chih. There 

 are similar offerings in many homes at New Year and at Ch'ing Ming. 



After the animals and the fowls are offered to the ancestors in the 

 ancestral temples, they are cooked and eaten at a family meal shared 

 by the deceased ancestors and the living descendants. The ancestors 

 are regarded as actually present and partaking of the food. An old 

 motto much used in West China is chin jit chai or chi ju chai, mean- 

 ing "respect or worship them as actually present." A very old custom 

 still much in use is to have a grandson of the deceased represent him 

 at the feast. 



It should be emphasized that the ancestral tablet is regarded as a 

 living thing — the ancestor himself, and is treated as such. Before 

 this is so, an official or scholar must perform a ceremony in which he 

 uses a red pen and red ink and writes in the final strokes of the words 

 shen cJiu on the ancestral tablet. 



