Chapter 1000

The Ye family's ancestor worship is the most grand family ceremony of the entire Ye family.

Big families all attach great importance to ancestor worship, especially big families with a long history like the Ye family, which have a profound historical heritage and numerous family branches, and attach even greater importance to the ancestor worship ceremony.

In fact, many rich families want to make a big deal out of the ancestor worship ceremony, but a real ancestor worship ceremony is definitely not something that an ordinary family can hold just because they want to.

Some nouveau riche families want to hold an ancestor worship ceremony but can't support this stage.

Because in the ancestral graves of these people, there are only the ancestors of the last three or four generations, and when it comes to their identities, the previous generations were all farmers, and there are no high-end stories that can be praised for future generations.

Although the peasant class is also very worthy of respect, in these high societies, ancestors without a sufficiently strong identity background are indeed a bit unpresentable.

Especially in the high society of Yan Jing.

In addition to comparing money and power, what is compared is family background and heritage.

There are many old people and young people who were in the banner during the Qing Dynasty in Yan Jing. These families' ancestors were nobles in the banner during the Qing Dynasty. Speaking of which, they were either some prince or some princess, and even first-rank officials in the imperial court at that time.

Such families have strong heritage. During the ancestor worship ceremony, if they take out two or three ancestors' deeds and read them out, they can immediately give people a feeling of being very powerful.

The Ye family's ancestors were also imperial officials. Ordinary families want to build an ancestral hall in their hometown for this scholar ancestor if they have a scholar in their ancestors. And the Ye family, just the scholars in their ancestors, produced hundreds of them, ten champions, and thirty-one in total, including champions and third-place winners.

In the nearly three hundred years of history of the Qing Dynasty, the imperial examination was held 112 times.

In these nearly three hundred years, there were only more than 20,000 scholars and 114 champions.

The Ye family alone accounted for nearly one-tenth, which is an extremely remarkable achievement.

Precisely because there were many talented people among the ancestors, the Ye family could continue to exist for hundreds of years and have been quite powerful, even in the chaotic years, at least they were local squires.

The Ye family has branched out for so many years. There are at least tens of thousands of Ye family descendants all over the world, and a considerable part of them went overseas.

Their ancestors, tracing back hundreds of years, are the ancestors of the Ye family.

It's just that ancient times paid attention to the eldest son inheriting the mantle, and other sons and concubines had to separate and establish their own businesses, so more and more Ye family members became collateral families, leaving only one direct line as the true sect family.

Just like Ye Chen's father had three brothers. If according to the rules of ancient times, after Ye Chen's grandfather died, the three sons of the Ye family had to separate. At that time, the eldest son Ye Changkong would inherit most of the family business and mansion.

The second son and the third son should leave the original Ye family mansion after three years of mourning for their father and establish their own families.

In this way, the two families of the second son and the third son also became collateral families of the Ye family.

At this time, the relationship between these two collateral families and the sect family was still relatively close. After all, the second and third sons were still biological brothers with the eldest.

But by Ye Chen's generation, the one who inherited the mantle of the sect family was Ye Chen's cousin, so the relationship between the two collateral families and the sect family was one generation further away.

By the third and fourth generations, these two collateral families also derived several more detailed collateral families, so their distance from the sect family was even further.

If it lasts for five or six generations, the span may have passed more than a hundred years.

At that time, everyone might not know each other at all, and could only find the names of other collateral family descendants in the genealogy.

Therefore, as a sect family, it is necessary to use the ritual of the ancestor worship ceremony to summon the collateral family members over every once in a while.

Everyone gets to know each other, gets familiar with each other, and after worshiping the common ancestors together, they strengthen the connection between bloodlines.

This is also a necessary way for big families to maintain power.

Therefore, the Ye family not only holds an ancestor worship ceremony every twelve years, but also revises the entire Ye family genealogy at the ancestor worship ceremony.

Between this twelve years and the previous twelve years, every family will have new children born, and the older generation will pass away, and young and middle-aged people will marry.

So every twelve years, countless collateral branches of the Ye family must report the population changes of their families in these twelve years to the sect family.

At that time, a respected elder will be selected by the sect family to personally continue to revise the genealogy, writing the names, deeds, etc., of these people one by one in it.

The existing Ye family genealogy records the names of millions of Ye family descendants, as well as the names of millions of their spouses, such as Ye family son so-and-so, who married so-and-so's daughter so-and-so, and for example, Ye family daughter who married so-and-so's son so-and-so.

Every revision of the genealogy is also very grand.

The master copy of the genealogy is stored in a safe with constant temperature and humidity, and is only invited out by the Ye family descendants every time they worship ancestors.

Invited out, after worshiping, it must be respectfully invited back again immediately.

Afterwards, continue to revise the new genealogy.

After the new genealogy is revised, the new genealogy must also be grandly invited back and stored together with the countless master copies before.

All Ye family members regard the genealogy as a family holy object, sacred and inviolable.

And the sect family is the only family with the right to retain the genealogy, so every time the collateral family comes to worship ancestors, in addition to kowtowing to the genealogy, they will also have a natural sense of belonging to the sect family.

This is like the emperor and ministers in ancient times, through cumbersome etiquette, rituals, and strict rules and inheritance, to strengthen the ministers' loyalty to the emperor in their hearts.

This is also a major reliance for the sect family to make the collateral family bow down.

However, Ye Chen has no impression of the Ye family's ancestor worship ceremony.

The last ancestor worship ceremony was twelve years ago, when he was still in the Jin Ling orphanage;

The previous ancestor worship ceremony was twenty-four years ago, when he was too young, so young that he had no memory of this matter 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, knowing that this was a grand ceremony for the Ye family, and also the grandest worship ceremony for ancestors and parents.

Therefore, Ye Chen couldn't help but look forward to it in his heart.

He was not looking forward to worshiping those ancestors of the Ye family, he was just looking forward to being able to worship his parents in a justified, upright, grand, and grand way.

Last time he followed Gu Yanzhong to worship his parents, he had to pretend to be Gu Yanzhong's driver and couldn't walk in front of his parents' grave with his true identity as Ye Chen and kowtow to worship, which has always been a regret in his heart.

So, he said to Gu Yanzhong, "Uncle Gu, please convey to my grandfather that I will go to the ancestor worship ceremony on Qingming Festival!"