Traditionally a spirit tablet represents a single ancestral soul, while those seen in Taiwan today tend to be collective in nature. These are either Japanese-influenced shrine type tablets, or combination "parental tablets" with the single ancestor's name being replaced by a phrase such as "all deceased ancestors of the X family."
傳統上的神主牌是一座牌位代表一個祖靈，在台灣今日所見者則多為集體式的祖先牌位，這是受日本人影響而改變成神龕式牌位或者是混合式的「公媽牌」，上面題刻的堂號不變，單一人名則改成「某氏歷代高曾祖考妣神位」等字樣。