In Yuemeichi, Changhua County, in the main hall of the large Liu home, ever since the ancestral tablets were stolen by thieves many years ago, the Liu descendants have put into storage the large portrait of the Founding Ancestor in Taiwan, "Sir Yuan-ping," which had been hanging in the great hall. They were afraid one day even Sir Yuan-ping would be carried off by thieves.

The question of how to best arrange the ancestral portraits is also a great ordeal for the descendants!

Even though Shih Yun-chung, who lives near Chihkan Lou in Tainan City, has in his collection six ancestral portraits of eminent family members, his sons, daughters and grandchildren rarely get a chance to look at the venerable faces of these ancestors. His daughter remembers that she has seen them only once, and that was in the display hall at a cultural artifacts exhibition.

This isn't because Shih Yun-chung is reluctant to expose these precious ancestral paintings to the light. Rather, in such a small room, there really is no place to let these nearly two meter long paintings "stretch out their arms and legs." In order for our reporter to photograph them, Mr. Shih had to carry the paintings downstairs to the courtyard to have the space to completely unroll these exquisite old paintings. This was the only chance Shih Yun-chung himself has had to see the ancestors, other than the time when he was 15 or 16 years old and his father took advantage of some fine weather to air these portraits out in the sun.

Leaving behind a pile of ancestral tablets

As far as Shih Yun-chung is concerned, these ancestral paintings which come to him from many generations ago are like precious jewels in the family heritage. But there are other descendants who have their doubts, who look on these tablets and portraits as a lot of trouble; they would rather escape, taking with them these antique porcelain vases and old candle stands, leaving a pile of ancestral tablets and pictures behind them in the old family home.

Shih Keng-hsin, who is in the same generation as Shih Yang-sui and, like him, in a line issuing from the same Founding Ancestor in Taiwan, is the father of Shih Wanshou, Professor of History at Chengkung University. In 1953, because of disputes among the many descendants in the lineage who lived together at the large family compound, the family residence was to be split up among different branches. However, since they couldn't decide how to do this themselves, the courts ordered an auction of family property. Shih Keng-hsin thought that if the residence were sold outside the family, it would be destroyed, in which case the family ancestors would also be forced out, and would scatter and have no place to call home.

At that, Shih, a civil servant, borrowed money everywhere he could, and finally saved the most important, central axis of this elegant old residence, which was called Dingmei. Sadly, he had no choice but to give up the property on which sat the surrounding wings on the left and right of the residence. Mrs. Shih recounts: "At first, in order to pay off these debts, he worked as accountant for thirteen different companies after he got off his daytime job. It was really hard! And all along the lineage was standing to one side making fun of him for purchasing ancestral property even though he hadn't any money." Speaking of these past events, she can't suppress a sigh.

But even more heart-rending was that the antiques from the old residence had already been completely divided up. The only thing left behind was around ten ancestral tablets arrayed around the home altar marking the various lines of the lineage, as well as a badly damaged ancestral portrait of the Founding Ancestor in Taiwan.

A house full of scholars

Entering this old residence, one sees the Shih family ancestral portraits hanging high in front of one. To the right, on the wall there are eight photos of graduates wearing their mortar boards, which are eight sons and daughters of Shih Keng-hsin. "The ancestors have protected us; taking the daughters- and sons-in-law into account as well, there are seven PhDs, five MAs, and four college graduates." When Mrs. Shih speaks of the children, she once again can't suppress her pride.

With the agreement of the eight brothers and sisters, and through a nomination initiated by the oldest brother Shih Wanshou, this old house has already been officially nominated as a privately owned grade 3 monument, as of February of this year.

The couplet written on the door to the main hall of the house says: "The bronze cauldron is inscribed with glorious achievement, after 100 generations it continues to remind us of its ancestors' virtue; as beautiful as jade, it will eternally rely on its descendants' plans." Life goes on; it never was exhausted by one person's accomplishments, but even more it passes on the work of generations. The significance of the existence of ancestral portraits is in the reverence shown to them by the succeeding generations. When there are descendants like those of the Shih family, one need never worry about a repeat of incidents like the auctioning off of the ancestral residence. The portrait of Shih Shih-jung, the Founding Ancestor on Taiwan, will look at the doctoral and masters' graduates' photographs, as one generation continues to follow after another.

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A huge ancestral portrait like this one is almost two meters long when unrolled. These days, there's never a place in the home where such "ancestors" can be hung. (photo by Pu Hua-chih)

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An ancestral portrait hangs high in the main hall of a traditional style old residence. If it weren't for the efforts of Shih Keng-hsin and his sons, the history of the Shih family line would probably be lost without a trace. Like the old houses and ancestral portraits, they would disappear in ash and smoke. (photo by Pu Hua-chih)