There are many centuries-old ancestral halls and genealogies in the south, but why are there so few in the north?

Because of Huizhou architecture, Bamin architecture, Lingnan architecture and so on. Some of them are similar to ancestral halls. In fact, ancestral halls are not unified and standardized. From the appearance, ancestral temples in various places have basically integrated the characteristics of local houses, but because there are a large number of ancestral temples in the south, it gives people the illusion that ancestral temples originated in the south.

In fact, no matter from the ancestral temple sacrificial culture or ancestral temple family culture, the north is the birthplace of ancestral temples, and in its heyday, the number of ancestral temples in the north is more than that in the south. First of all, talk about the sacrificial culture of the ancestral temple. In my impression, the ancestral hall is not only a place for family discussion, but also a large number of memorial tablets in the middle of the ancestral hall. The sacrificial culture originated from filial piety in Confucianism.

Historically, Confucian culture originated in Shandong and gradually developed in the Central Plains. The Central Plains in history mainly refers to today's Henan, Shandong and Hebei areas, so there is every reason to believe that ancestral temples originated in the north.

From the perspective of family culture, ancestral halls can only be built by dignitaries at first, and ordinary people have no strength at all, let alone the right to build them. Later, with the gradual unsealing, ancestral temples rose among the people. At that time, ancestral temples were in different areas, which could be called family temples, ancestral temples, family temples and so on. It is not difficult to see from these names that the ancestral hall not only symbolizes the inheritance of a family, but also symbolizes the honor and glory of the family.

Historically, if someone broke the clan rules and was expelled from the clan because of something, it would be difficult for him to gain a foothold in society, because in ancient times, people paid attention to the origin and origin, and even a person's origin was integrated into his surname, such as Gong Sun X, Gong Zi X, Meng Jiangnv, etc., so the origin of ancient families often affected his life. For a long time in history, large families were basically concentrated in the north (Central Plains), so the ancestral halls in the north at that time.

In this case, a large number of Han people crossed the Yangtze River and entered Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Lingnan areas. For example, today's Hakkas and Guangfu people are basically Han people from the Central Plains. These Han people who went south not only brought a huge population, but also brought ancestral temple culture. Over time, southern ancestral temples have taken root and sprouted in various places. In order not to forget the ancestors of the Central Plains, there are more and more southern ancestral temples. More importantly, in modern times, ancestral temples and genealogies in the north were destroyed in the movement of "breaking the four old classics", while ancestral temples in the south were preserved on a large scale because they were far from the center. The final picture is that the size and number of ancestral halls in the south are higher than those in the north.