A case study on the worship space of the ancient ancestral hall of You Wenjian in Huishan area of Wuxi, China

ABSTRACT Ancestral Hall is the social, economic, and cultural hub of lineage unity. Its symbolic meaning is the basis of all its functions and space. The ancestral halls in Huishan have existed for nearly five hundred years. This article selects the ancestral hall of You Wenjian (尤文简) in Huishan area as the subject to present the evolutionary process of the worship space by studying the existing area and relevant literature. The findings are as follows: First, the ancestral hall of You Wenjian has both sacrificial and leisure functions. Its parallel axes unify the serious worship space with landscape. Second, the current layout of the ancestral hall is formed by repeated reconstruction and expansion, which inevitably reflected the ups and downs of a family in the past century and the changing social background in China. And last, different from royal rituals, the rituals in folk were rigorous and standardized, confined in a relatively enclosed space with fixed positions and circulation for lineage members. Focusing on the spatial characteristics of the ancestral hall and worship activities, the article provides valuable information regarding the cognition and cultural conservation of local traditional halls. Graphical Abstract


Introduction
Ancestral halls flourished in the Ming andQing Dynasties (1368-1911). Having experienced the specific historical periods 1 and the impact of urbanization, few have been well preserved in China, and most are scattered in various settlements in villages and towns. With economic liberalization in the early 1980s, the ancestral hall began to reclaim its significance as a community center, ritual site, and focal point of lineage authority. The rebuilding of ancestral halls is especially prevalent in southeastern China, where lineage organizations were historically more developed (Davis, 2005). The formation of an ancestral hall is related to self-sufficient natural economy and settlement forms of traditional society, including education, entertainment, and assembly.
Different regions and different cultural backgrounds demonstrate various architectural space characteristics. Most of the ancestral halls in southern China are often arranged in combination with residences, with a closed appearance, forming a rigorous and axisymmetric inward spatial layout, reflecting strong constraints of family beliefs and ritual norms. However, ancestral halls born in the same economic and cultural context as the Huishan ancestral hall group are more likely to be single-function buildings built on blood ties around the Taihu area. The ancestral hall group in Huishan district is located at the eastern foot of Huishan Mountain in the north-western of Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, about 1.4 km from the city (Figures 1 and 2). Most ancestral halls are simple dwellings in the Jiangnan area, uniting the sacred space for worship with the garden landscape for recreation. These halls at different times are adjacent to the city and built centrally near the mountain. Different from others scattered in villages with the same family name, the ancestral halls from different families with various functions rely on each other and gather in groups. Each gallery was unique in how its architectural spaces were organized and used. They also differ in terms of the identity, quality, and meaning of spaces, which shows the trends of continuous development and construction of culture.
In June 2006, with the approval of the State Council, Huishan Ancient Town Ancestral Hall Group was announced as a national key cultural relic protection unit. Huishan Ancient Town was included in the tentative list of world cultural heritage in 2018. Under such background, the relevant departments have formulated the protection measures for the ancient town of Wuxi and carried out a series of restoration and research work to maintain the authenticity and integrity of the ancestral hall in Huishan area. This article is also carried out on this premise.
As the archaeologist Joseph Maran mentioned, social practice is always anchored in space and time. Space does not form a fixed entity but is continuously constituted and altered through social practice (Wright et al. 2006). For the ancestral hall, the architectural space is not only the fixed background of the ceremony, but also the generator of human behaviors. This article focuses on a case study of a specific ancestral hall in Huishan area. Based on the analyses of architectural characteristics and rituals of sacrifice of the ancestral hall of You Wenjian, this article aims to record and excavate the cultural connotation of valuable relics and buildings. Furthermore, the article explores the relationship between the ceremony and architectural space in historical evolution by discussing the construction, ritual process, and the deduction of worship space.

Literature review
Due to the large scale of the ancestral halls in Huishan area, domestic scholars mainly focused on humanistic values and external spatial characteristics. As early as 2002, Xia Quansheng, the editor of Expo of Ancestral Halls, systematically classified the types, ages, and architectural forms of buildings in Wuxi for the first time (Xia and Qin 2004.). Later, Li Fang took a further approach in discussing the corresponding protection and renewal strategies based on the analysis of the humanistic value of the ancestral halls in Huishan (Li 2009). After that, Zhang Long and Gao Dawei offered a different perspective on the formation of the cultural landscape of Huishan Mountain ancestral halls and the driving force for a comprehensive understanding of the cultural landscape to serve its conservation (Gao and Zhang 2013). In recent years, the subsequent research on Huishan ancestral hall group has gradually shifted from the research on the form of architecture to the conservation of ancestral halls (Fan 2016;Xu 2018) and the relationship between the location of Wuxi city and the landscape environment (Yao 2020). However, the spatial characteristics of the ancestral hall and its worship activities have yet to be studied. In addition, folk literature such as Huishan shi ci (惠山诗词, Huishan Poetry) and Huishan Ji (惠山集, Huishan Anthology) recorded the construction of Huishan temples, ancestral halls, and tombs (Shao 2006). The county and ancestral annals 3 also documented the construction, extension, and memorial activities of major ancestral halls in detail, including related activities such as purchasing the fete field and maintaining buildings . Intending to apply for the world heritage, the Wuxi Municipal government invited the Key Scientific Research Base of Tianjin University, State Administration of Cultural Heritage to conduct systematic surveying and mapping research on nineteen ancestral halls in Huishan district, which has been concluded, providing a solid foundation for further study.

Research methodology
Firstly, all correlated data such as books, ancestral annals, maps, photos, etc., were gathered and utilized accordingly. The contents include the major historical events at that time, the evolution of the ancestral hall, and the rituals of sacrifice folk, which are the basis of the relevant theoretical research.
Secondly, measuring the architectural plans, facades, and sections of the ancestral hall of You Wenjian (Figures 9 and 14), as well as the size and patterns of some particular structure components. The data obtained during the field investigation were presented digitally using AutoCAD software, which was then dimensionally verified by comparing them to the point clouds processed by 3d Laser Scanning (Figures 13 and 14). In addition, Government officials and residents were interviewed to understand the situation of typical traditional ancestral halls in Huishan area, functions, preservation status, and so on.
Finally, based on the existing literature and the field investigation data, the worship space evolution caused by the successive expansion and restoration of the ancestral hall of You Wenjian is presented in diagrams. Thus, the study of the ancestral hall of You Wenjian is based on the collection of archival research, building surveys, and ethnographic fieldwork, aiming to make a complete record of cultural heritage and supplement relevant research on ancestral halls in the Huishan area. The deeper symbolic meaning behind the ancestral halls will be revealed with the interpretation of architectural space.

Historical background and overall layout
The group of ancestral halls in Huishan is surrounded by mountains in the south and a river from the east. In the 15 th year of Jiajing (1536), the Ming government issued an edict to allow the construction of ancestral halls by folk. The enthusiasm for ancestor worship was suppressed for a long time since the middle age was released. 4 After the prosperity of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, a large group of ancestral halls was formed at the foot of Huishan mountain. Taking the Huishan Temple as the starting point, there are two axes, Huishan Street and Longtou River, connecting Huishan district to the outside world ( Figure 3). The subject of this article, the ancestral hall of You Wenjian, is located in the south of Huishan Temple (Figure 4), which was built to commemorate You Mao, 5 the minister of rites and a famous poet of the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1179). In the middle and late Qing Dynasty , the descendants of You had raised funds to expand the original field of fete many times, and the ancestral hall at the foot of Huishan mountain began to take shape ( Figure 5).

Definition and classification of ancestral hall
In the 1970s, the social anthropologist Maurice Freedman gave the following definition to an ancestral hall: "An ancestral hall is a building put up and maintained by a patrilineal group to house their ancestor tablets and serve as the center of their ritual and secular activities. It is physically quite distinct from any normal living accommodation. The commonest form of the ancestral hall is that which belongs to a lineage, but any such lineage that is finely segmented may contain a hierarchy of halls, each of them the ritual center of a segment." (Freedman 1970) While emphasizing the essential relations between ancestral halls and lineage, many scholars also described the various functions of ancestral halls. The ancestral hall is also a space to discuss lineage affairs, resolve conflicts, and educate the young generation (Liu, 2000).
Within the area of less than 30 hectares, there are 118 ancestral halls from Song Dynasties to Qing Dynasties in Huishan area. According to the object of worship, the ancestral halls can be divided into six types, including Xianxianci (先贤祠, Sage ancestral hall), Zhongxiaojieyici (忠孝节义祠, Ancestral hall for the faithful and filial), Zongci (宗祠, Ancestral hall for lineage members), Shenci (神祠, Ancestral hall for the gods), Muci (墓祠, Tomb ancestral hall) and Huiguanci (会馆祠, Guild hall).
Apart from the effects of external factors such as bad weather and geological changes, the layout of the ancestral hall generally presents a symmetrical and regular rectangular shape. The main buildings and patios are alternately arranged along the axis. Each main building is called a "Jin". Starting from the entrance, these buildings are "the first jin", "the second jin" and "the third jin" in turn. According to the scale of each building complex, the ancestral halls in Huishan area can also be  roughly divided into five types, including "one-jin" ancestral hall (单进式, a single building with a front yard or a back hall), "two-jin" ancestral hall (二进式, two main buildings with a patio or a courtyard), "three-jin" ancestral hall, "four-jin" ancestral hall and mixed types (the building complex with multiple axes). The research object of this paper is the ancestral hall of You Wenjian, a "three-jin" ancestral hall with two parallel axes.

Basic information of the subject
Located at the east foot of Huishan mountain, the ancestral hall of You Wenjian was built in the 24th year of Kangxi (1685), experienced military disasters, including Taiping Rebellion, and suffered heavy damage. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the main buildings were renovated. Today, the structure remains intact mainly as two-level courtyard houses with a terrace garden on the other side ( Fig.6-8). Compared with other ancestral halls in Huishan, the ancestral hall of You Wenjian has relatively complete rules of traditional sacrifice and grave worship, which was influenced by the southern tour of the Kang and Qian emperors. 6 As many as thirty-four ancestral halls of various kinds were rebuilt and newly built in Huishan during the Kang-Qian period. In the 20 th year of Qianlong (1755), the Qing government issued tang yin tie (帑银帖, appropriation from public finance) for sacrifices. Fifty-four ancestral halls, including the ancestral hall of You Wenjian, received official attention. Since then, the descendants of You have gradually established a set of rules for sacrifice, which made the ancestral hall of You Wenjian a perfect case to study the relationship between local worship culture and architectural space. Together with other ancestral halls in Huishan, the ancestral hall of You Wenjian witnessed the rise and fall in the past. The whole process is closely related to the development of Wuxi and combined with the religious culture in southern China.

Spatial elements
Built on a north-south axis, the main quarters of the ancestral hall of You Wenjian were divided into three connected sections, with the main gate in the north and two back doors in the east (Figure 9). The first section of the ancestral hall is Wanjuan Pavilion (万卷 楼), a two-level flush-gable building constructed on an elevated foundation close to the road in the north. Behind Wanjuan Pavilion, a spring in the long narrow courtyard, with stone steps leading to the second floor. The following section is Suichu Hall (遂初堂) and a tea house, forms an open terraced garden with the third section Chuihong Corridor (垂虹长廊) and Xilu Academy (锡麓书院) which was moved in after the founding of the People's Republic of China (1949). In    terms of materials, roof, and decoration, the buildings in the ancestral hall are mainly brick-wood structures, most of which are single-eave, flush-gable roofs with white walls and black tiles, conforming to the characteristics of traditional folk houses south of the Yangtze. Among the existing buildings on the site, Wanjuan Pavilion, Suichu Hall, and Xilu Academy are the original ones.

Evolution in history
The ancestral hall of You Wenjian has undergone four significant changes since its initial construction before forming its current layout. These changes have resulted in today's ancestral hall layout. According to the construction of ancestral halls in various periods recorded in the ancestral annals, the previous appearances are gradually revealed based on the current situation ( Figure 10).
Initial construction: In the 24 th year of Kangxi (1685), the descendants of You donated land and built a three-bay house at the foot of Huishan mountain. Since then, the sacrificial activity has been held here in spring and autumn.
Extension: In the 20 th year of Qianlong (1755), the Qing government issued the tang yin tie for sacrifices. Taking this opportunity, the descendants of You purchased the land for rituals. 7 Since then, the ancestral hall of You Wenjian had been restored and expanded with two buildings. In the 10 th year of Daoguang (1830), the descendants of You repaired the ancestral hall again with the donated land.
Restoration 1: In the 10 th year of Xianfeng (1860), with the outbreak of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement, the ancestral hall of You Wenjian suffered heavy losses. Over the next ten years, the lineage members renovated the ancestral hall, and the ritual rules of the family were also further revised in repair.
Restoration 2: The war continued in the 12 th year of the Republic of China (1923). According to the literature review, the ancestral hall was repeatedly occupied by local troops, seizing building materials for cooking and other uses, damaging buildings to various degrees. Later, the descendants of You repaired the damaged and added new houses ( Figure 11). 7 The maintenance of an ancestral hall required a lot of money for repairs and ritual expenses. Land for rituals was needed for providing material support.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China (1949), the government completely overhauled the main quarters of the ancestral hall and built a corridor in the east. The main buildings have been well preserved until now.

Space arrangement
The ancestral hall of You Wenjian, located at the entrance to the mountain, is faced with the problem of spatial connection caused by different elevations. Against the backdrop of the natural landscape of Huishan mountain in the south, the set of buildings linked by courtyards at different levels forms a spatial organization with two parallel axes from north to south, which provides different spatial experiences and meanings by the changing topography ( Figure 12). The west comprises Wanjuan Pavilion, Suichu Hall, and a teahouse, defining a more intimate space with enclosed courtyards. The east part is dominated by Chuihong Corridor and Xilu Academy, enclosing an open courtyard with opposite buildings. The composition of the west is inward-facing, delineating a clear order from north to south -from public to private, removing private activities from the view of outsiders. The reduction in the size of the open space of the courtyard leads to an obstructed view, closed off to the outside by walls with limited fenestration, creating a central gathering place for ritual. And because of the garden's existence, the solemn atmosphere of the ancestral hall weakened, which dispels the opposition between the dead and the living. The transformation of the axis further emphasized the change in atmosphere.
The height changes in the ancestral hall is another feature. During the initial construction and subsequent reconstruction, the descendants of You also faced various situations caused by the height difference. They solved the problem well and brought more opportunities to the architectural space (Figures 13 and 14). The height between the highest and lowest points in the site is about 5 meters, divided into three layers. The height of the Wanjuan Pavilion on the first floor in the north is almost the same as Suichu Hall on the second layer. Due to the obstruction of the Wanjuan Pavilion, the roof of Suichu Hall will not appear suddenly. Xilu Academy, located at the highest point, is connected with the Chuihong Corridor on the east side of the ancestral hall. The terrace garden enclosed in the middle also clearly shows the height change of the halls (Figure 15).

The rituals of sacrifice in folk
Due to the feudal hierarchy, the ancestral hall can be divided into royal and folk in architectural form and scale. In the Qing Dynasty, ancestral halls were popularized in folk. However, due to the site's limitations and the hierarchical system's constraints, the ancestral halls in folk can be different from the imperial ancestral halls in scale. The ancestral hall is generally composed of the Xiangtang (享堂, sacrificial hall) and the front (or back) hall ( Figure 16). A common medium-sized ancestral hall can be divided into two or three sections, with courtyards between them (Zhu 2020). The worship ceremony is often held in the courtyard of Xiangtang, a relatively static process without foreshadowing space sequence and time. Everyone takes their place and completes the ceremony in the closed courtyard in front of the hall (Figure 16). Xiangtang and the front yard are the most critical worship space in an ancestral hall.
In the Ming Dynasty, the government reformed the rules of sacrifice based on Song and continued   and Jiali (家礼, Family rituals) played a normative role among the people. In terms of worship ceremony in folk, with ongoing relocation of some descendants, a set of modes has been formed, which takes genealogy as means, ancestral halls as the core, and sacrificial field as the economic basis (Wang and Zhang 2008). As a norm, the rules of sacrifice ensure the smooth implementation of various functions of the ancestral hall. These rules endow the ancestral hall with function, and its symbolic meaning is the basis of all its parts, which is   displayed in the architectural space through the worship ceremony (Qian 2012).

Deduction of worship space
From the above analysis, we can get a general impression of the sacrificial process of ordinary ancestral halls. According to the detailed records of the sacrificial process in the annals of You's ancestral hall, the article selects the end of the 19 th century (1890), which has a complete architectural space layout and rules of sacrifice during the reign of Guangxu, to deduce the worship space of the ancestral hall of You Wenjian ( Figure 17): 1) The day before the sacrifice: The deacon enters the hall and sweeps Xiangtang with the chief priest.
According to documents, the original ancestral hall was surrounded by walls, and the entrance to the north end of the Chuihong Corridor was the main gate before. The axis of the entrance is east-west, perpendicular to the main quarters' axis.  2) Day of sacrifice: Lights were lit in the hall, and the chief priest led lineage members into the ancestral hall in costumes.
Through the long narrow courtyard at the entrance, the first section of the hall came into view, a two-story building for a tea break. As the turning point of the axis, the main hall was the important transitional space of the main quarters. People from afar settled down here, enjoying the scenery from the north through the window on the second floor. At the same time, it foreshadowed Xiangtang, the main sacrificial space in the ancestral hall.
3) Before sacrifice: Set the incense Sacrificial vessels and other items were set on the back porch of Xiangtang. The ceremony was carried out on the back porch and its courtyard. Lineage members stood in the yard and faced Xiangtang. All sounds were still except for the praying voice, with the white smoke curling up from the incense table.
4) Positions in the ceremony: The chief priest stood in the middle under the eave of Xiangtang, and lineage members stood in the south. Those older than the chief priest stood on the east stage, with the others on the west. Prayers stood at the prayer table, and those in charge of the sacrifices stood in the east. Sizunzhe (司 尊者, the one who was holding vessels) stood at the vessel table, and Tongzan (通赞, the one who was chanting in the ceremony) waited on the east side of the hall.
Most of the moves were completed by the chief priest alone. Under the leadership of the chief priest, lineage members knelt and kowtowed again and again. There was no climax during the whole process, and the descendants of You completed the worship of their ancestors in peace. Unlike the solemnity of the royal ancestral temple, the ancestral hall here abandoned the opposition between the dead and the living with the function of sightseeing. Death is not the opposite of life but a part of it. The lineage members pursued filial piety and obtained a more detached life experience. 5) During the ceremony: Everyone took their place, and the ceremony began.
After washing hands, the chief priest went to the incense table to pray, sprinkle wine, bowed, and returned to the original position. Everyone knelt and kowtowed; Then, the chief priest came in front of the altar holding a cup of wine, knelt, and offered up sacrifices (coins and silk). The rest of the staff knelt, prayed, and kowtowed.
The chief priest came to the blessing seat, drank the blessing wine, accepted the meat, and returned to the original position.
After removing the sacrifices and sending them to the altar, all the lineage members knelt, kowtowed, and prayed -those in charge of silk came to the brazier and burned the rest of the silk. After roasting, the ceremony was over.
The roaming of the ancestral temple is a continuous process with the height changes, from low to high, from closeness to openness, constantly moving forward and upward, and finally arriving at the center of the ancestral hall. The route coincides with the tour route; tourists can also receive the feeling of the lineage members in those years.

Discussion and conclusions
The ancestral hall of You Wenjian is a combination of sacrifice and tourism. Its parallel axes unify the serious worship space with garden space, which is quite different from the ancestral halls in large-scale settlements formed in other areas of China.
The current layout of the ancestral hall is formed by repeated reconstruction and expansion, resulting in a change of the plan's orientation. Each building in the ancestral hall of You Wenjian was carefully situated within the existing landscape and with a controlled change in the layout compared to the earlier ones. The changes embodied in each structure inevitably reflected changing economic, social, and cultural contexts.
Bill Hiller, the expert in space syntax, believes that there is some primary "social logic of space" in society. Space is generated under the guidance of "social logic", Churches, temples, courts, markets, and other places we see in our daily life are all generated under the guidance of a certain "spatial social logic", with their own established "doctrines" or codes of conduct, which are endowed with specific social significance (Hiller, 1991). British anthropologist Mary Douglas once pointed out that a larger space means more formality (Douglas 2002). The temple buildings in ancient China were built through strict social rituals and spatial sequences, which allowed participants to experience a dynamic, time-related, and psychologically-changing experience as they moved, creating an atmosphere of solemnity. However, the space of the ancestral hall in folk is a combination of freedom and rules in the context of traditional Chinese rituals. On the one hand, the general layout of the building is in harmony with the surrounding landscape, not in the pursuit of regularity but in organic growth. On the other hand, the sequence of axes reinforces the importance of Xiangtang and its public character in a private house. The deduction of the worship space of the ancestral hall of You Wenjian is a reasonable speculation on the original architectural plan, which is based on the existing layout and the literature records. The ceremony was held in Xiangtang and its backyard.
Everyone had a fixed position and circulation in less than 100 square meters. The process was rigorous and standardized, and the worship of ancestors was completed in peace.
Today, the repaired ancestral hall of You Wenjian has become one of the scenic spots for residents and foreign tourists for recreation. The existing ancestral hall retains a relatively intact foundation and wood components, with reliable image data and literature. In terms of heritage protection, this article makes a complete and authentic record of the ancestral hall of You Wenjian through field investigation, literature collection, and map surveying. On this basis, the spatial characteristics are analyzed, and the folk rituals of worship behind them are further studied. The deduction of sacrifice space has been made according to the relevant literature, including standing positions in ceremonies, the placement of sacrificial vessels, and the process of rituals. If the former is a detailed description of the authenticity of the heritage, the latter is a deep consideration of its original function and value, which is of great significance for its future conservation and renovation. This article takes the case of the ancestral hall of You Wenjian as the subject, hoping to establish a detailed research sample through a detailed analysis of a specific ancestral hall, which provides a basis and reference for the understanding and protection of local ancestral buildings.

Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Funding
This work was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China [No. 2020YFC1522405].