Ritual altars are always linked with the desire and longing of the higher power. People hold various forms of rituals to show their admiration towards “Gods” in their culture in order to beg for a good fortune.

Ancestral Temple is also a kind of ritual altars in China. It is originated from Confucian culture and principals. Ancestral Temples existed from Xia, the first prehistoric dynasty in China.

In an ancestral temple, ancestors who belong to the same clan are memorized by their clansman through memorial tablets or their iconographies.

Because in China, since ancient times, there have been more likely to be big families instead of small ones, the ancestral temple are always filled with hundreds of tablets for descendants to admire. In some degrees, the existence of ancestral temples represents Chinese’s attachment towards their own family. They tend to bond the clan’s honor with their personal honor, considering their clan, instead of individual, as priority. Chinese hold ritual activities in ancestral temples

Chinese see seniority in the family very important. They think the elder should have bigger rights in the clan. Moreover, at the beginning, only the empire had the rights to hold a ritual to memorize his/her ancestors. Common people were not allowed to have this kind of ritual until the civilization evolutes gradually. So, memorizing ancestors is seen as a holy activity in Chinese’s mind.

All in all, the ancestral temple, as a ritual altar, shows Chinese’s deep-rooted value that families should be an integrate. They shared the same honor and disgrace. To some extents, Chinese see ancestors as divine as “God”. Heritage of blood always occupies an important status in Chinese’s mind.