A Dream from Myself!
Having resolved to work hard in this era, Shen Le settled down and began gathering information about this family.
As a small child, his sources of information were extremely limited. Fortunately, a good opportunity soon arose:
The ancestral rites!
On the first day of the sixth month, the family gathered together. They first offered incense to their ancestors, then assembled for a meal. As a seven-year-old by nominal age, he was already qualified to stand in the line, bowing with utmost respect and kowtowing one after another:
"Grandfather Shen, personal name Chang... endured hardship to establish the family, migrating from Ji Province to the Wu Region..."
What a sin. A common farming family could only remember a few generations at most.
Their migration from Ji Province had supposedly happened only fifty years ago. Could they not even remember the names of ancestors further back?
Then again, "The Son of Heaven has seven ancestral temples, feudal lords have five, high officials have three, scholars have one, commoners have none and worship in their homes." Ordinary people were only fit to worship a few generations.
Any further back, illiterate farmers relying on oral transmission could not remember much, nor did they have the means to hold sacrifices. What? You said after they became prosperous?
After becoming prosperous, naturally there would be literate descendants, hired tutors, scholars or civil officials, concubines, and the like to help make up the names of seven generations of ancestors for worship...
Shen Le kowtowed respectfully along with the others. Of course, at his current height, he was basically just lying facedown on the prayer cushion. After finishing one kowtow, he heard the elderly man standing at the head of the line continue:
"My late father, Shen, personal name Le... personally led the whole