The Shadowfiend Clan called the "snake ring" Ouroboros; in alchemy, it was called the Ouroboros. A Jiyin person who had heard Greek mythology or Homer's epics described the meaning of the "snake ring" this way: Odysseus set out full of ambition and returned exhausted in body and spirit—a cycle joined end to end.
She compared Odysseus to "a man standing on driftwood," but not everyone was like Odysseus. More ordinary people were like duckweed adrift in troubled times, swept everywhere by wind and water.
If monks, Daoist priests, and beggars had been the easiest targets forty-odd years ago, then these refugees hauling their families along had become the new easiest targets. Clans meant the protection of relatives and communities. People of Guangdong lived by clan, and every clan built an ancestral hall for the entire lineage. It did not matter whether they truly shared an ancestor; as long as they shared a surname, they counted as one clan.
Once there was an ancestral hall, there would be sacrificial fields. This land was held in common. Beyond the grain used for ancestor worship, there would be a surplus. That grain would be sold for silver, which would then be lent out at interest. If borrowers repaid normally, that was that. But if they could not repay, small households would be hounded for their debts by sheer force of numbers. If both sides were evenly matched, they would arrange a meeting at the ancestral hall before heading out for an armed brawl.
If someone was injured, they received compensation for medicine from communal funds. If someone died, there would also be compensation in land. If someone killed another in a brawl, someone would be arranged to take the blame. Thus, Guangzhou Governor Wang Jian borrowed the methods of Song dynasty minister Fan