page_title: Ancestor veneration in China
section_title: Practices
hierarchical_section_title: Ancestor veneration in China / Practices
caption_attribution_description: English: Inside the Sifangcheng Pavilion of Ming Xiaoling. The great bixi tortoise, holding the Shendong Shengde stele honoring of the Hongwu Emperor. Some of the photos are taken from the same point, and are meant to be stitched into a wider-angle ("panoramic") picture with a tool like hugin.
context_page_description: Chinese ancestor worship or Chinese ancestor veneration, also called the Chinese patriarchal religion, is an aspect of the Chinese traditional religion which revolves around the ritual celebration of the deified ancestors and tutelary deities of people with the same surname organised into lineage societies in ancestral shrines. Ancestors, their ghosts, or spirits, and gods are considered part of "this world", that is, they are neither supernatural nor transcendent in the sense of being beyond nature. The ancestors are humans who have become godly beings, beings who keep their individual identities. For this reason, Chinese religion is founded on veneration of ancestors. Ancestors are believed to be a means of connection to the supreme power of Tian as they are considered embodiments or reproducers of the creative order of Heaven.
  Ancestor veneration is completely or almost exclusively focused on male ancestors hence one of its names being "Chinese patriarchal religion" as it was believed that because women did not pass down surnames, they were incapable of carrying down a bloodline.
context_section_description: In Chinese folk religion, a person is thought to have multiple souls, categorized as hun and po, commonly associated with yang and yin, respectively. Upon death, hun and po separate. Generally, the former ascends into heaven and latter descends into the earth and/or resides within a spirit tablet; however, beliefs concerning the number and nature of souls vary. In accordance with these traditional beliefs, various practices have arisen to address the perceived needs of the deceased.
caption: A stone tortoise with the "Stele of Divine Merits and Saintly Virtues" (Shengong Shende), erected by the Yongle Emperor in 1413 in honor of his father, the Hongwu Emperor in the Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum ("Ming Mausoleum of Filial Piety").
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