Chapter 999: I will go!

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

Big families attach great importance to ancestor worship, especially big families with a long history like the Ye family, which has a profound historical background and many family branches, and attaches great 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.

Some nouveau riche families want to hold an ancestor worship ceremony but cannot support the stage.

Because in the ancestral graves of these people, there are only the ancestors of the last three or four generations, and when talking about their identities, maybe the ancestors of several generations are all farmers, and there is no tall story that can be passed on to future generations.

Although the farmer class is also very worthy of respect, in these upper classes, the ancestors do not have a sufficiently powerful identity background, so it is indeed a bit unpresentable.

Especially in the upper class of Yanjing.

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

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

Such a family has a strong background. When the ancestor worship ceremony is held, reading out the deeds of two or three ancestors at will can immediately give people a feeling of being very powerful.

The ancestors of the Ye family were also court officials. Ordinary families, if a scholar came out of their ancestors, they would wish to build an ancestral hall for this scholar ancestor in their hometown. And the Ye family, hundreds of scholars came out of their ancestors, ten champions came out, and thirty-one people came out including the champions in the top three.

The Qing Dynasty has a history of nearly three hundred years, and the imperial examination has opened 112 sessions.

In these nearly three hundred years, a total of more than 20,000 scholars and 114 champions have come out.

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

Precisely because of the many talents among the ancestors, the Ye family has been able to exist for hundreds of years and has always been quite powerful. Even in the turbulent years, at least they were local squires.

The Ye family has branched out for so many years, and there are at least tens of thousands of Ye family descendants all over the world, and a considerable number of them have gone 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 filial piety for their father and establish their own families.

In this way, the second son and the third son's families 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 the time of 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 another generation away.

By the third and fourth generations, these two collateral families also derived several more detailed collateral families, so the distance between them and 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 gather the people of the collateral families every once in a while.

Everyone gets to know each other, gets familiar with each other, worships the common ancestors together, and then strengthens 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 re-revises the genealogy of the entire Ye family 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 at the same time, young adults will marry.

Therefore, 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 the genealogy and write 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, such as Ye family son so-and-so, who married whose daughter so-and-so, and for example, Ye family daughter married whose 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 descendants of the Ye family during ancestor worship.

After being invited out and worshipped, it must be respectfully invited back immediately.

Afterwards, continue to revise the new genealogy.

After the new genealogy is revised, the new genealogy must also be grandly invited back and kept 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, using cumbersome etiquette, rituals, and strict rules and inheritance to strengthen the ministers' loyalty to the emperor.

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

However, Ye Chen has no memory 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 ancestor worship ceremony before that 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 an extremely 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.

He was not looking forward to worshipping 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.

The last time he followed Gu Yanzhong to worship his parents, he had to pretend to be Gu Yanzhong's driver and could not walk to his parents' grave and kowtow with his true identity as Ye Chen, which has always been a regret in his heart.

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