aeeble

During the Qianlong and Jiaqing reigns of the Qing Dynasty, the Tseng clan, originally living in Guangdong, China, migrated to Taiwan. After several generations of diligent effort, their fortunes flourished. To honor their ancestors and glorify their forebears, in 1929 the Tseng descendants erected the Tsung-sheng Kung Ancestral Hall, enshrining Tseng Ts’an, a direct disciple of Confucius famed for filial piety and canonized by successive emperors as “Tsung-sheng Kung.” The hall blends the traditional Hakka courtyard layout with flamboyant Baroque style and is one of Taiwan’s largest and most richly decorated ancestral shrines, rivaling the Pei-p’u T’ien-shui Hall in northern Taiwan as the most important ancestral halls north and south. Covering 1,100 p’ing, the two-hall, two-wing courtyard employs plasterwork, clay sculpture, woodcarving, polychrome painting, calligraphy, and cut-and-paste Chiao-chih pottery to ornament its gate, roofs, pillars, and gables. For instance, the gateway in the forecourt, carved with animal figures, looks stately; swallow-tail ridges, water-shaped horsebacks, fire-shaped horsebacks, and Chiao-chih pottery bird-steps appear; most unusually, the main hall pillars bear “bamboo-leaf characters” written with bamboo leaves—a rare calligraphic art. Inside the main hall, ancestral tablets occupy the center, the sacrificial altar follows ancient regulations, and overhead hangs the plaque “Heaven’s Principle, Earth’s Right,” expounding the philosophy of Master Tseng. The east and west wings preserve the sacrificial space of founding ancestor Tseng Yü-cheng and the six major branches—“Chiu-ling,” “Hsi-shan,” “Nan-shan,” “Tuan-t’ang,” “Huang-k’eng,” and “Shen-p’o.” In one historic building, the Confucian ethos, values, and social organization of the Hakka are amply displayed—a precious cultural asset.