Hong Ancestral Hall of Chaoyang

Hong Ancestral Hall of Chaoyang

The site of the Sanrui Hall at Qibei Hong Ancestral Hall is located to the left of the Lingshan Scenic Area. During his tenure as Prefect of Chaozhou, Hong Dading, an official of the Ministry of Works in the Tang Dynasty and a Court Gentleman, often inspected various regions within the state. He noticed that on the northern slope of Lingshan in Chaoyang lay a vast plain nestled against the mountains and water, picturesque with verdant hills and clear waters — a scene so beautiful he repeatedly exclaimed it was nothing less than a paradise on earth. In the first year of the Zhenyuan era (785), he relocated his entire family to Tongyu and founded Qibei Village.

In the seventh year of Zhenyuan (791), Dading donated 1,400 mu of land and over 3,000 dan of rice rent to build Lingshan Temple. In the thirteenth year (797), he further donated 1,200 mu of mountain ponds and reservoirs to be part of the temple’s estate. To repay the kindness of the Hong patrons, Master Dadian, the founding monk, built an ancestral hall for the Hong family to the left of the temple. However, over the long years, the ancestral hall fell into disrepair multiple times. In 1988, Hong clan members from home and abroad, driven by deep filial piety and reverence for their ancestors, upheld the legacy of the Dunhuang family, and united their efforts to successfully rebuild the Hong Ancestral Hall. On March 15, 1998, the Hong Ancestral Hall was completed in the serene Lingshan Scenic Area.

The inscriptions “Hong Ancestral Hall” and “Dunhuang Family” were penned by Pujie, the younger brother of Emperor Xuantong of the Qing Dynasty.