192
A CHINESE MEMORIAL HALL
DEDICATED TO
WANG TE LU
A CLAN HERO
KEITH STEVENS
Ancestral halls are the family or clan memorial chapels which every respectable clan or family throughout China had, and in Taiwan and amongst overseas Chinese communities in South-east Asia, still has. Known as Tz'u-t'ang they are fine buildings in honour of family ancestors whose tablets stand in regular order on the main altar according to their respective generations.
There were, however, also the memorial halls each dedicated to nationally renowned worthies, individuals who had served their emperors faithfully to the end of their days and had had conferred upon them posthumous honours in addition to any conferred during their lives; they were also canonised with a title which, added to the family name, reverently designated their memory.
Neither the ancestral temples nor the memorial halls to nationally renowned worthies should be confused with the Portrait Gallery of Heroes of Hall of Worthies, Ling-yen Ke, in which stood the tablets and portraits of heroes who assisted in the founding of a dynasty and supported it in the succeeding years.
A typical example of special temples erected in the memory of a renowned worthy were those built in, amongst other places, Peking, Tientsin, Shanghai, Nanking and Soochow, in honour of one of the most famous Chinese of the nineteenth century, Li Hung-chang, a statesman and diplomat [1823-1901]. He was posthumously granted by the Ch'ing emperor the honorary title of Grand Tutor, the name Wen-chung, the hereditary rank of Marquis of the first class, whilst his name was entered in the Temple of Eminent Statesmen.
Yet another form of honour, in this case of a comparatively minor mandarin albeit probably the most senior of all Taiwanese during the Ch'ing dynasty, is to be seen reflected down the side walls of the shrine hall of one such Clan temple, the Wang Memorial Chapel in rural central Taiwan. The walls are covered in memorabilia dedicated
192
A CHINESE MEMORIAL HALL
DEDICATED TO
WANG TE LU
A CLAN HERO
KEITH STEVENS
Ancestral halls are the family or clan memorial chapels which every respectable clan or family thoughout China had, and in Taiwan and amongst overseas Chinese communities in South-east Asia, still has. Known as Tz'u-t'ang they are fine buildings in honour of family ancestors whose tablets stand in regular order on the main altar according to their respective generations.
There were, however, also the memorial halls each dedicated to nationally renowned worthies, individuals who had served their emperors faithfully to the end of their days and had had conferred upon them posthumous honours in addition to any conferred during their lives; they were also canonised with a title which, added to the family name, reverently designated their memory.
Neither the ancestral temples nor the memorial halls to nationally renowned worthies should be confused with the Portrait Gallery of Heroes of Hall of Worthies, Ling-yen Ke,in which stood the tablets and portraits of heroes who assisted in the founding of a dynasty and supported it in the succeeding years.
A typical example of special temples erected in the memory of a renowned worthy were those built in, amongst other places, Peking, Tientsin, Shanghai, Nanking and Soochow, in honour of one of the most famous Chinese of the nineteenth century, Li Hung-chang, a statesman and dipolmat [1823-1901]. He was posthumously granted by the Ch'ing emperor the honorary title of Grand Tutor, the name Wen-chung, the hereditary rank of Marquis of the first class, whilst his name was entered in the Temple of Eminent Statesmen.
Yet another form of honour, in this case of a comparatively minor mandarin albeit probably the most senior of all Taiwanese during the Ch'ing dynasty, is to be seen reflected down the side walls of the shrine hall of one such Clan temple, the Wang Memorial Memorial Chapel in rural central Taiwan. The walls are covered in memorablilia dedicated
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