Yet as the Chinese civilization has experienced relatively frequent change of dynasties,[2]: 38–39 and gone through even harsh renovation of cultural heritage such as 'Imperial Ancestral Temple' into modern recreation facility named 'Working People's Cultural Palace' in 1950,[3]: 558–561 in present day, the most authentically preserved historic model of the 'Confucian royal ancestral shrine' is found in Jongmyo of Joseon dynasty.
[4] While old classics like Book of Rites and Rites of Zhou state that invention of the Confucian royal ancestral shrine system dates back to ages of Western Zhou, earliest evidence of stable practice under relatively rigid Confucian protocols is found in era of Eastern Han, when two major principles governing the system are materialized.
[1]: 61–62 First major principle of the system is 'Separate rooms within single building' (同堂異室), introduced in the reign of Emperor Ming (明帝).
By Emperor Ming, old practice had changed into constructing only one shrine building in the capital city, while introducing separate rooms as miao (廟) for keeping each of ancestor's spirit tablet.
This strict understanding of hierarchy inside the God-Ancestors of empire, led the system of Confucian royal ancestral shrine to arrange room for spirit tablets of royal ancestors as following; the sole progenitor goes to center, and place following ancestors (according to the relative hierarchy inside the lineage) left and right of the progenitor alternately.
Yet even though Goryeo accepted its ceremonial status equivalent to State of King under Chinese Emperor, it often tried to expand number of myo rooms from five to seven.
As Joseon had high value of Hyo (효; 孝), a mind of respecting parents and ancestors, Joseon officially declared that it was worshipping only five ancestors as State of King, yet actually detoured such principle and kept almost every spirit tablets of predecessors in shrine building for worship, by theoretically giving almost every predecessor a temple name as having same status of progenitor jo (조; 祖) or virtuous ancestor jong (종; 宗), which allows them to stay forever in the main shrine building as bulcheonjiju (Korean: 불천지주; Hanja: 不遷之主; lit.
When Joseon was reestablished into the Korean Empire, redefining its status from 'State of King' to 'Empire of Emperor', it expanded official number of royal ancestor's myo from five to seven, yet the old practice of giving every predecessor an immovable presence was also continued.
[11]: 284–286 The actual practice of the Confucian royal ancestral shrine in Joseon, awarding almost every former King an immovable status, rebuilt Jongmyo's main shrine building 'Jeongjeon [ko]' (정전) as form of having endless horizontal expansion, eventually creating a unique and iconic architectural style only found in Joseon.
One of earliest record of operating Confucian royal ancestral shrine is found in a history book, Đại Việt sử ký toàn thư of Vietnam.
In this book, records of Lý dynasty in 11th century, building a Confucian royal ancestral shrine named 'Thái miếu' (太廟) near Imperial Citadel of Thăng Long are shown.
[14]: 29–30 Though there were several endeavors, Japanese civilization never had experienced nationwide influence from system of the Confucian royal ancestral shrine throughout the history.
This history makes Japanese people in present-day use the word Sōbyō (宗廟) as simply referring to concept of just 'royal ancestral shrine', irrelevant of the strict Confucian protocols, only catching the facial denotation from kanji of it.