宋代家庙制度考略

Investigations on the Ancestral Temple System in Song Dynasty

祭祀祖先是古人一项重要的生活内容,上至天子,下至庶民,都要进行祭祖活动,并形成了一套完整的祭祀制度。社会各个阶层按照其不同的身份地位,有着规制不同的祭祀规定:太庙是皇帝祭祖之所,家庙是世族大臣祭祖之所,庶民只能在寝室祭拜祖先。随着社会的发展,祭祀制度发生了巨大的变化,象征身份等级的家庙制度逐步瓦解,为民间祠堂所替代。

Holding memorial ceremony for the ancestors was an activity of great importance for the ancient people to be conducted from emperors to common people. There had evolved an intact system in which people of different strata offer their sacrifice in accordance with varied standard appropriate to them： emperors hold the ceremony in the Imperial Ancestral Temple, ministers and aristocrats in the family ancestral temple, and common people only at home. Great changes have taken place in the memorial system with the social development and the hierarchical ancestral temple system has been replaced by temples for common people.