ABSTRACT
Multi-line genealogies allowed connections to be made between groups. Reasons for building connections varied from job seeking in the Yuan dynasty, to searches for pedigree, and to participation in common ancestral sacrifice in specially built sacrificial halls. Halls built exclusively for ancestral sacrifice were uncommon in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, permitted only to families of martyrs who had died defending the state. As the restriction on hall building relaxed, halls were sustained by donations in return for the right to deposit in them ancestral spirit tablets.
