The Research On The Horizontal Inscribed Boards Of Ancient Ancestral Halls And Ancient Houses In Quanzhou City

The door head and horizontal inscribed board,as a unique national culture and architectural decoration of our own country,has a long history.However,the academia pays little attention to the cultural meaning of the horizontal inscribed board.There are still a large number of door heads and horizontal inscribed boards preserved in Quanzhou,which was the starting point of the Maritime Silk Road and leading historical site.They are mostly suspended in ancient ancestral hall,the gate or hall of the ancient house.The ancient ancestral hall is divided into the special hall and the ancestral hall.The thesis shows that there are fifty special halls of past dynasties available for high-ranking officials and forty-two existing ancestral halls exclusively available for clansman to worship,which spreads over various streets and alleys.However,there must be a horizontal inscribed board in each ancestral hall.The door head and horizontal inscribed board contains rich connotations,such as the family name of the horizontal inscribed board.A stream of the central and northern residents migrated to Quanzhou at the end of Western Jin Dynasty and Tang Dynasty.They missed their hometown,so they would clearly note its place of origin in the form of Yan Sent on the horizontal inscribed board.Another example was the teachings of the ancestors written on the horizontal inscribed board.People would record ancestors' moral and glorious deeds on the horizontal inscribed board in the form of Chuan Fang and Liu Fang,setting a good example for clansman and making them praised by the later generations.Besides,the connotations of the horizontal inscribed board also includes the Confucianism,such as loyalty,filial piety,honesty and so on,which plays a subtle and positive role in education,inheriting Chinese culture,enhancing morality and ethics,thus maintaining social stability.In addition,Consanguinity and patriarchal clan behind the horizontal inscribed board enhanced family cohesion,so many enterprises in Quanzhou relied on clan force to boost their development,which could not only keep families prospering but also promote the economic development of Quanzhou.Furthermore,the ethnics Han in Taiwan are mostly Fujian immigrants.Ancestors missed their birthplace so that they took horizontal inscribed boards when they immigrated to Taiwan and hung them on the ancient houses and ancestral halls.And these horizontal inscribed boards of Fujian and Taiwan can best indicate the period when people came to Taiwan across the ocean,making the sense that south Fujian is the root of Taiwan and people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait come from the same origin,and enhancing family cohesion of China nation.But the door heads and horizontal inscribed boards are damaged by natural and man-made forces and are decreased year by year.Therefore,we should protect the ancient ancestral halls,ancient houses,and door heads and horizontal inscribed boards,making them handed down from generation to generation.