Chapter: 2134

The second and third sons should then leave their original family mansion after serving as pallbearers for three years, bringing their own families and establishing their own households.

As a result, these two collateral lineages also became part of the Ye family.

At this point, these two collateral lineages were still relatively close to the main-line lineage, since old Brother Two, old Brother Three, and old Brother One are all brothers from the same womb.

However, by the time of Ye Chen's generation, the one inheriting the main-line lineage was his cousin, so the relationship between the collateral lineages and the main-line lineage became more distant.

By the third or fourth generation, these two collateral lineages would also give rise to several smaller collateral lineages, making their distance from the main-line lineage even greater.

If it had been continued for five or six generations, the span might have already passed over a hundred years.

At that time, everyone would probably not even recognize each other, and could only find the names of their distant collateral relatives on the family tree.

Therefore, as the patriarchal family, it is necessary to use the ritual of ancestral offerings every so often to gather people from collateral lineages.

Everyone recognizes one another, gets familiar with each other, and together pays homage to their common ancestors before strengthening the connections between bloodlines.

This is also a necessary way for a big family to maintain its strength.

Therefore, the Ye family not only holds an ancestral offering ceremony every twelve years but will also update the entire Ye family genealogy on that occasion.

Between every two twelve-year periods, each family has new offspring born and old generations pass away, while young adults get married.

So, every twelve years, the Ye family's numerous collateral branches must report the changes in their population to the patriarchal family.

At that time, the patriarchal family will select one respected elder to personally update the family genealogy, recording each person's name, achievements, and other details individually.

The existing Ye family genealogy records the names of over a hundred thousand descendants of the Ye family, as well as those of their spouses, such as the son of the Ye family named so-and-so, who married the daughter of another family named so-and-so, or the daughter of the Ye family who married the son of another family named so-and-so.

Each time the genealogy is updated, it is done with great solemnity.

The original copy of the genealogy is stored in a safe deposit box at a consistent temperature and humidity, and is only brought out during ancestral worship ceremonies.

After being taken out, worshipped, and then returned, the new genealogy will be continued to be written.

Once the new genealogy is completed, it will also be solemnly put back away with all the previous versions.

All members of the Ye family regard the genealogy as a sacred family treasure, which is revered and cannot be desecrated.

Meanwhile, the patriarchal family is the only one that has the right to preserve the genealogy, so collateral branches will each time they come for ancestral worship, in addition to paying their respects to the genealogy three times nine kowtows, also develop a natural sense of belonging to the patriarchal family.

This is similar to ancient emperors and their ministers, who through elaborate rituals, ceremonies, and strict protocols, transmit loyalty to the emperor.

This, too, is a great reliance for collateral branches to kowtow to the patriarchal family.

However, Ye Chen no longer has any impression of the Ye family's ancestral worship rituals.

The last time I attended an ancestral worship ritual was twelve years ago, when I was still at the Jinling Welfare Institute; JrNovels.com