File:Lion and dragon in northern China (1910) (14597584377).jpg

Identifier: liondragoninnort00john (find matches)
Title: Lion and dragon in northern China
Year: 1910 (1910s)
Authors: Johnston, Reginald Fleming, Sir, 1874-1938
Subjects: Weihaiwei
Publisher: New York, E. P. Dutton and company
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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rst of the tenth moon.1 At one extremity ofthe graveyard will often be found a large upright stoneslab on which is engraved in deep bold characters thename of the family to which all the tombs belong.The inscription is as simple as possible, usually con- THE IMPERIAL CHING DYNASTY THE TOMB OF A MEMBER OF THE YAO FAMILY, AN ELDEST SON, WHOSE PERSONAL NAME WAS SHIH-JUNAND OF HIS WIFE A DAUGHTER OF THE WANG FAMILY This stone is erected on the twelfth day of the secondmonth of the first year of Hsiian Tung (March3, 1909) by Yao Feng-lai, a son, Yao Yiieh-i, agrandson, and Yao Wan-nien, a great-grandson sisting of four Chinese characters. Choa Shih TsuYing2—to take an example—may be rendered THE ANCESTRAL GRAVEYARD OF THE CHOU FAMILY Most of the graveyards (ying ti) are very old, and asthe centuries pass, the inscriptions on the oldest monu-ments naturally tend to become illegible or the stonesthemselves are displaced and broken by the roots of 1 See pp. 186-7, 192. 2 See illustration.
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THE ANCESTRAL GRAVEYARD OF THE CHOU FAMILYp. 256.) SACRIFICIAL RITES 257 trees or other natural causes. At the periodical sacri-fices, however, care is taken to neglect no grave that isrecognisable as such. In order to make sure that noneof the ancestral spirits will be left uncared for, sacri-ficial offerings are made to the souls of the ancestors ingeneral as well as to the immediate predecessors of thesacrificers. The usual expression used in Weihaiweifor a ceremonial visit to the family grave is shang fen, to go up to the tombs.1 A graveyard is very often completely surrounded bycultivated fields. As a general rule these fields are theproperty of a branch of the family that owns thegraveyard, but sometimes the family has emigrated toanother part of the country or has had to part withthis portion of its arable acres, so that it has passedinto the hands of strangers. But the graveyard itselfis never forgotten and never alienated. No matter towhat distance the family may have moved,

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