Ancient Chinese were deeply family-bound. More often than not, people of the same family line live in the same village. United by blood relations, a family or clan in ancient China often formed a clan-based autonomous body. The head of the body, normally a male elder who commanded high respect of the clan, supervised over the handling of important affairs related to the clan.

    It was also responsible for mediating settlement of disputes, "enlightening" clan members through education, and organizing sacrificial activities in honor of gods and ancestors.

    Each clan had an ancestral hall or temple. While the venue of sacrificial activities in honor of the clan's ancestors, the ancestral hall or temple was the clan's meeting place. It became clan's courtroom where disputes were settled and clan members having broken clan rules punished. Many ancestral temples had theaters, schools and public granary where relief grain was stored. Ancestral temples were often larger in size and better in construction quality than residential buildings of the average level.

   In most cases, an ancestral temple consists of several halls in a courtyard, but there are ancestral temples with just one hall each. Ancestral temples of large clans are enclosed in compounds that consist of several courtyards, each courtyard featuring a main hall with side

halls on either side. The more powerful and prosperous a clan was, the larger and more magnificent would be its ancestral temple. Now wonder. The temple, after all, was the symbol of the past glory of the clan and its present prosperity and influence.

    Again let's say something more about Zhu'ge Liang. Some of his descendents left Sichuan in China's deep southwest for official posts at Lanxi, Zhejiang Province, on the east China coast, where they eventually settled. This branch of the Zhu'ge family grew in size with each passing generation, and eventually built a town named after Zhu'ge. The Zhu'ge Town, so to speak, gathers the largest number of Zhu'ge Liang's descendents. Besides, it is reputed for the Temple of the Prime Minister, which serves as the memorial temple in honor of Zhu'ge Liang and the ancestral temple of the Zhu'ge clan. The temple lies at the entrance of the town, in front of a pond. Here we are in the temple, a compound surrounded on three sides by verandas. What is most eye-catching, however, is the hall in the middle with a high roof, which is open on the four sides like a pavilion. Stepping into the hall, a careful observer won't miss those exquisitely carved beams and pillars.

Behind the hall, the clan's memorial hall of Zhu'ge Liang stands on a raised platform, which also serves as the clan's ancestral hall.

    On the eve of the Spring Festival, all members of the clan will gather at the temple for a ceremony to offer sacrifices to their common ancestor,  Zhu'ge Liang. A clan meeting will follow, at which men and women at 70 or older are wined and dined while steamed bread are given to

younger persons. The ritual is meant to remind clan members of the need to always keep in mind their ancestors' blessings.

   If palace structures can be taken as representing the highest architectural achievements made in a given dynasty, then it will be safe to say that ancestral temples crystallize the highest architectural achievements by local architects. A good example is the Chens' Ancestral Temple in Guangzhou City, capital of the coastal Guangdong Province, whose construction began in 1890 and was completed in 1894. This is the ancestral temple for all natives of Guangdong whose family name is Chen, hence its size -- 19 structures in six courtyards that are arranged in three neat rows, with a combined construction space of more than 8,000 square meters. A memorial tablet dedicated to the common ancestors of the Chens is worshipped in the largest hall in the rear part of the compound. This and the largest hall in the frontal part of the compound are also meeting places. The smaller halls on either side of the largest halls are classrooms of a clan school. Because of that, the Cherts' Ancestral Temple is also known as the Chens' Academy

of Learning. Beside its size, the Chens' Ancestral Temple or the Chen's Academy of Learning is reputed for exquisite carvings on its stone columns and pillars, wooden beams, bricks and the lime surfaces of some structural parts. It is, in fact, a museum of traditional Chinese

carvings. Like the temple itself, the carvings are material testimony to the influence and glamour of the Chen clan and respect of clan members for their common ancestors.

   1. Mt. Taishan, orthe "East Mountain", tops on the list of the "five sacred mountains" in China. Throughoutthe feudal times, it received numerous hordfic titles.

   2. The compound now serves as the Zhongshan Park.

   3. In 1533, work began to build one more wall - the outer wall-- round the capital city to strengthen Beijing's defense. The project came to a halt after construction was completed on the south section of the wall. So the capital city came to be known as the"inner city", and the part to the south of the capital city, as the"outer city".