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Ci tang, the ancestral hall

Where one surname and one lineage sacrifice to their ancestors and settle their affairs; most villages are laid out around such a hall.

Pronunciation　cí táng｜Houses and settlement｜One entry in the Chaoshan glossary

Ji lue Huang gong ci, a lineage hall with carved beams, doors and windows
Ji lue Huang gong ci, a lineage hall: beams, doors and windows heavily carved. Photograph: Zhangzhugang, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons.

What it means

Where a lineage sacrifices to its ancestors, deliberates, and holds its weddings and funerals. Tablets stand in the shrine in order of generation, a long offering table before them, and the beams and the façade are where a lineage shows what it can afford.

Villages are usually laid out from the hall outward: the hall in the middle, the branches ranged to either side, the further out the later built.

Sacrifice inside a hall, the principal sacrificant kneeling in a red robe, the lineage filing past with trays
Sacrifice inside a hall: the principal sacrificant kneels in a red robe while the lineage files past carrying trays. Image: Chaoshan阿发纪实, frame from video.

How to tell one

Look at the façade: three bays or five, a plaque over the door naming the clan, a pair of stone lions or flagpole bases outside. Then look at the beams — how densely the gilt carving and the stone carving run tells you how the lineage’s years have gone.

Beams of the offering pavilion at Ji lue Huang gong ci, layer on layer of gilt carving
The beams of the offering pavilion at Ji lue Huang gong ci, gilt carving layered on gilt carving. Image: Douyin @冰, 29 June 2026.
Stone carving at the corner of a wall, with figures, birds and flowers
Stone carving at the corner of a wall: figures, birds and flowers cut into the stone. Image: Douyin @冰, 29 June 2026.

Words easily confused

A ci tang sacrifices to ancestors, a lao ye gong serves a god, and the two organisations do not overlap: the hall is run by the lineage, the temple by the village or by a management board.

Read next: Clans and kinship terms.

Same group: lao ye gong, the temple, four horses drawing a carriage, cheng, the paved yard.

Home › Glossary › Houses and settlement › Ancestral hall

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Last revised: 3 November 2026