The local authority of Chengdu published on Feb. 8 the 10th group of historic buildings to be put under protection to preserve the city’s architectural achievements in history, reported Huaxi Metropolis Daily.

A total of 12 buildings were added to the directory of protected historic buildings in Chengdu. Among the new additions, several buildings are worth special mention. They are three college buildings, a unique ancestral hall that worships both male and female ancestors, and a guild hall for those originating from the neighboring Shaanxi province.

The ancestral temple that worships two surnames

Traditionally a Chinese ancestral temple enshrines one surname that is traced through the male line. But in Linqiong town, Qionglai city, under Chengdu’s jurisdiction, an ancestral temple built during late Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) has been dedicated to two surnames representing a family’s male and female ancestors – Zhang and Bai.

The existence of the Zhang’s and Bai’s Ancestral Temple was utterly rare in China’s traditional patriarchal society, in which female members’ names couldn’t be included in a family genealogy, their name boards were not placed in a family’s ancestral temple as the ones of male members, and they were not even allowed in their ancestral temple for sacrifice rites and other important family affairs.

This means that studies on the Zhang’s and Bai’s Ancestral Temple hold importance in achieving a more complete understanding of Chinese clan culture in Ming (1368-1644) and Qing dynasties. But not much information about the family’s history can be found inside the building by now. And it is a pity that the descendants of the family left their hometown one after another since the end of Qing Dynasty.

At present the building is being used as a folkloric museum, managed by the local cultural heritage authority.