祧
ancestral hall
Closest English meanings
ancestral temple·inherit
The Calligrapher — Yú Shìnán 虞世南
Tang court calligrapher revered for refined, restrained regular script.
Tang calligrapher (558–638), master of regular script — Tang master of quiet, inward regular script and teacher to the imperial academy. Tang dynasty
Cultural Story
祧 belongs to the ancestral temple’s deep end: shrines of distant forebears were moved back to the 祧 as generations crowded the main hall. Hence 承祧 — to continue the lineage’s sacrifices and inherit its line — was a legal act, not merely a feeling.
Common words & phrases
- 承祧 inherit · succeed to family line
- 宗祧 ancestral sacrifice · family line
- 祧庙 ancestral temple
Read the story behind the character
Ordinary life never uses 祧 now. You meet 宗祧, the ancestral line, in genealogy prefaces; 祧庙, the side temple of remote ancestors, in museum plans of ancient ritual complexes; and 承祧 in period dramas, where an adopted heir must continue the family line.
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