ABSTRACT
Ancestor worship for many centuries has been the state worship, and the universal worship of the Chinese. Some were Buddhists, Taoists, Confucianists, and Mohammedans, but all were ancestor worshippers. It is largely for the purpose of developing that one great principle of all the Chinese civilization, the foundation of all the Chinese social and ethical system filial piety. For the individual, then, ancestor worship preserves his name, and for the ethical system it develops the doctrine of filial piety. Therefore, according to this view of the Chinese, ancestor worship is not a religious rite, but a social and ethical obligation. Confucius says: 'serving the dead as they were served when alive, and serving the departed as if they were still abiding among us; this is the summit of filial conduct'. It is impossible to understand it clearly without going into their homes, seeing their tablets, or their temples, and witnessing the importance they attach to this cult.
