In the eyes of foreigners, China people have an unusual behavior, that is, offering sacrifices to their ancestors. Indeed, China people's religious beliefs are relatively indifferent, but they have deep-rooted ancestral beliefs. A person has made achievements, and the greatest glory is to honor his ancestors; And when a person does a shameful thing, it is also said to be a disgrace to his ancestors. In the history, those China people who emigrated overseas collectively just settled down, and the first thing to do was to build ancestral temples. China people worship their ancestors, which is closely related to its specific meaning.

Now most people in China may think that as long as ancestors are ancestors. In fact, strictly speaking, not all ancestors can be called ancestors, but ancestors are honorifics for those who have made achievements among ancestors. The Book of Rites and Sacrifice Law records: "There is a Yu family who killed the Yellow Emperor and lived in the suburbs, and his ancestor Zhuan Xu lived in Yao." Confucius commented on this: "Ancestors are the beginning, words are the beginning of virtue, and Yunzu is also. Zong, respect, and respect with morality, so Yunzong. " It can be seen that ancestors refer to those ancestors who have morality.

In addition, "Selected Works of Ban Gu" said: "Hongliang Hongye is the ancestor of the table." Cai Yong's note: "The name of' the first order is the ancestor, and the middle one is the ancestor' does not destroy the temple." There is a background for not destroying the temple here. In the Zhou Dynasty, the system of seven temples for emperors was implemented, that is, the reigning emperors generally worshipped ancestors below six ancestors, but the ancestral temples with "Zu" and "Zu" temples were not destroyed by their merits, and these temples were not included in the seven temples, and there was no limit on the number in advance, so how much was counted. For example, in the Han Dynasty, "Shi Gong was greater than Gao Di, and his virtue was greater than Xiao Wen Di. Emperor Gao should be the temple of Taizong, and Emperor Xiaowen should be the temple of Taizong. Here, ancestors stand for "world work" and ancestors stand for "virtue". To put it simply, the temple names of the founding emperors who cultivated the world generally bear the word "Zu", such as Song Taizu and Ming Taizu; The temple names of emperors who are wise to protect themselves all carry the word "zong", for example, Ming Xuanzong. So "ancestors" refer to those emperors who have virtue or martial arts.

To sum up, China people worship their ancestors for the sake of respecting morality and remembering the martyrs, and the purpose is probably to spur themselves.