The Ye family's ancestor worship is the most solemn family ceremony in the entire Ye family.
Big families attach great importance to ancestor worship, especially a big family with a long history like the Ye family, which has a profound history and many family branches, and attaches great importance to ancestor worship ceremonies.
In fact, many wealthy families want to hold special ancestor worship ceremonies, but real ancestor worship ceremonies are by no means something ordinary families can organize.
Some nouveau riche families want to hold ancestor worship ceremonies, but they can't afford it.
Because in the ancestral graves of these people, the ancestors of the last three or four generations may be buried, and when it comes to their identities, they may have been farmers in the previous generations, and there are no lofty stories to tell to future generations.
Although the peasant class is also very worthy of respect, in these upper-class societies, the ancestors do not have a strong enough identity background, so they are indeed somewhat unable to do anything.
Especially in the upper class society of Yanjing.
In addition to competing for money and power, what is also competing is family origin and heritage.
There are many old and young people in Yanjing who were in the banner during the Manchu and Qing Dynasties. The ancestors of these families were all aristocrats in the banner during the Qing Dynasty. Speaking of which, it was either an elder brother or a princess, and even a first-rank official in the court at that time.
member.
Such a family has a strong foundation. During the ancestor worship ceremony, just reading out the deeds of two or three ancestors will immediately give people a feeling of arrogance.
The ancestors of the Ye family were also officials in the imperial court. In ordinary families, if a scholar comes from their ancestors, they would like to build an ancestral hall for the scholar in their hometown. However, the ancestors of the Ye family have produced hundreds of Jinshi scholars and ten number one scholars.
Including the top three, there are a total of thirty-one winners.
During the nearly three hundred years of the Qing Dynasty, there were a total of 112 imperial examinations.
In these nearly three hundred years, there have been more than 20,000 Jinshi scholars and 114 top scholars.
The Guangye family alone occupies nearly one-tenth of the total, which is an extremely remarkable achievement.
It is precisely because of the numerous talents among the ancestors that the Ye family has been able to continue to exist for hundreds of years and has always been quite powerful. Even in the era of war and chaos, it was at least a powerful gentry.
The Ye family has blossomed over the years, and there are at least tens of thousands of descendants of the Ye family spread all over the world, and a considerable number of them have gone overseas.
Their ancestors, dating back hundreds of years, are the ancestors of the Ye family.
It's just that in ancient times, the eldest son inherited the mantle, and other legitimate sons and concubines had to separate their families and establish careers. Therefore, more and more Ye family members were reduced to collateral families, leaving only the direct lineage as the real patriarchal family.
Just like Ye Chen's father has three brothers, if according to ancient rules, after Ye Chen's grandfather dies, the three sons of the Ye family will split up. At that time, the eldest son Ye Changkong will inherit most of the family property and the mansion.
The second son and the third son should, after serving their father for three years, leave the original Ye family residence with their family members and start a new family of their own.
In this way, the second son and third son's families have become collateral families of the Ye family.
At this time, the relationship between these two side families was relatively close to the main family. After all, the second, third and eldest children were still brothers from the same mother.
But when it comes to Ye Chen's generation, it is Ye Chen's cousin who inherits the mantle of the patriarchal family, so the relationship between the two collateral families and the patriarchal family is another generation away.
By the time of the third and fourth generations, these two collateral families had spawned several smaller collateral families themselves, so the distance between them and the main family became even further.
If it lasted for five or six generations, the span might have been more than a hundred years.
At that time, everyone may not know each other at all, and the names of the descendants of other collateral families can only be found in the genealogy.
Therefore, as the head family of the clan, it is necessary to use the ancestor worship ceremony to summon people from the side families every once in a while.
After everyone gets to know each other, becomes familiar with each other, and worships the common ancestors together, the blood connection will be strengthened.
This is also a necessary way for a large family to maintain strength.
Therefore, the Ye family not only holds an ancestor worship ceremony every twelve years, but also revises the entire Ye family's genealogy during the ancestor worship ceremony.
Between this twelve years and the previous twelve years, new heirs will be born in each family, older generations will die, and young adults will marry.
Therefore, every twelve years, numerous branches of the Ye family have to report their family's population changes in the past twelve years to the clan head family.
At that time, the patriarch's family will select a respected old man to personally renew the genealogy and write down the names, deeds, etc. of these people one by one.
The existing Ye family genealogy records the names of millions of Ye family descendants, as well as the names of millions of their spouses. For example, the son of the Ye family so-and-so married someone’s daughter so-and-so, and for example, the Ye family’s
The daughter married the son of whose family so-and-so.
Every time the family tree is revised, it is also very grand.
The mother copy of the family tree is stored in a safe with constant temperature and humidity, and is only brought out by the descendants of the Ye family every time they worship their ancestors.
Please come out and after worshiping, you should immediately and respectfully invite the mother back.
Then, renew the new genealogy.
After the new genealogy is renewed, the new genealogy should also be ceremoniously taken back and kept together with the countless previous mother books.
All the Ye family members regard the genealogy as a sacred family object, which is sacred and cannot be desecrated.
The clan head family is the only family that has the right to retain the family tree, so every time a collateral family comes to worship their ancestors, in addition to bowing and bowing to the family tree, they will also have a natural sense of belonging to the clan family.
This is like the ancient emperors and ministers who used complicated etiquette, rituals, strict rules, and inheritance to strengthen the ministers' loyalty to the emperor in their minds.
This is also a major source of support for the patriarchal family to make subordinate families surrender.
However, Ye Chen no longer had any impression of the Ye family's ancestor worship ceremony.
The last ancestor worship ceremony was twelve years ago, when he was still in Jinling Welfare Institution;
The last ancestor worship ceremony was twenty-four years ago. He was so young at that time that he had no memory of it at all.
However, although he could no longer find the memory of the ancestor worship ceremony twenty-four years ago, he was still very clear about the Ye family's ancestor worship ceremony. He knew that this was an extremely grand ceremony for the Ye family, and it was also a tribute to the ancestors.
The most grand worship ceremony for parents.
Therefore, Ye Chen couldn't help but have some expectations in his heart.
He was not looking forward to worshiping the ancestors of the Ye family, he was just looking forward to worshiping his parents in a legitimate, dignified and grand manner.
The last time he followed Gu Yanzhong to pay homage to his parents, he had to pretend to be Gu Yanzhong's driver. He could not go to his parents' graves in an upright and honorable manner as Ye Chen, and this has always been a regret in his heart.
So, he said to Gu Yanzhong: "Uncle Gu, please tell my grandpa that I will go to the ancestor worship ceremony during the Qingming Festival!"
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