Taiping Inn

Beihai Prefecture is the capital of Qizhou, where the prefecture is located.

The ancestral home of the Li family is also in Beihai Prefecture, and the successive heads of the Li family are therefore called Li Beihai by the world.

However, due to the special relationship between the Li family and the Qingwei Sect, many members of the Li family bought houses and land in various islands in the East China Sea or in coastal Lanling Prefecture, so the ancestral home is inevitably a bit deserted. Only those who have retired or have been idle will live in Beihai Prefecture.

However, the Li family did not really leave the ancestral home unattended. After all, the ancestral hall, tomb field, and sacrificial field are all here, which is the foundation of the Li family. Therefore, every year a large number of Li family members return to the ancestral home to sweep the tombs and worship their ancestors, which is also considered grand. However, generally speaking, Li Daoxu, as the head of the family, does not show up, but is replaced by Li Yuanying. Before Li Yuanying, it was Li Daoshi who did it.

Even so, no one in Beihai Prefecture dared to look down on the Li family. Even when the Qingyang Sect occupied Beihai Prefecture, they still did not dare to occupy any of the Li family's land. The Li family members who stayed in Beihai Prefecture still did what they should do, no matter what the flag on the city wall changed.

This is the foundation of the Li family.

This change of the old and new heads of the family is a big deal for the Li family. The last time the head of the family changed was decades ago, so nearly 90% of the Li family members chose to go home for the New Year. It was not only to participate in the ancestor worship, but also to "see" the new head of the family. The key is the latter. After all, the ancestors may not bless him to rise to prominence, but for this head of the family, it is just a matter of talking.

Although many people have never met the new head of the Li family who has not returned to the ancestral home for many years, they have all heard of the new head of the family, and even heard of him. There is no need to say much about his deeds. Each of them can be talked about for a long time, especially the fact that he defeated the Zhang family of Shangqing Prefecture, which had been enemies with the Li family for many years, which made the Li family proud.

According to the customs of Qizhou, the ancestor worship is chosen on New Year's Eve. Li Xuan always comes back on the 29th of the twelfth lunar month, which is equivalent to officially taking over the position of head of the family first, and then worshipping the ancestors as the head of the family.

The place to take over the position of head of the family is naturally the Li family ancestral hall.

The ancestral hall has many uses. In addition to the use of "worshiping ancestors", the descendants of each family will also choose the ancestral hall when they handle weddings, funerals, birthdays, and celebrations. In addition, when the elders discuss important matters within the clan, they will also choose the ancestral hall as a meeting place to show that the ancestors are watching from above.

The ancestral hall group was built at the tomb early, called the tomb ancestral hall. During the Jin Dynasty, the Neo-Confucian sage established the system of ancestral halls in the "Family Rites", and from then on, the family temple was called the ancestral hall.

At that time, there were restrictions on the level of building ancestral halls, and the people were not allowed to build ancestral halls. It was not until the Emperor Shizong of this dynasty that the people were allowed to build temples together, but only the surnames that had been emperors or were granted titles could be called "family temples", and the rest were called ancestral halls. In this sense, the ancestors of the Li family had royal emperors, and the Supreme Taoist Ancestor also had the surname Li, and was also named "The Supreme Xuanyuan Emperor", which was higher than the title of the Confucian saint. However, the Li family is now full of a large number of adopted sons and sons-in-law. If we really talk about bloodline, it may not be the case, so the Li family's ancestral hall is still called the Li Family Ancestral Hall.

The Li Family Ancestral Hall is also the place where the clan leaders of all generations exercised clan power. Any clan members who violated clan rules would be publicly dealt with here. It is somewhat similar to the county government, and there is a clan school attached, where the clan children go to school.

Because of this, the Li Family Ancestral Hall is not just a house, but an independent courtyard with a gate. Its scale is far larger than that of ordinary people's mansions, but slightly inferior to the Li Family's ancestral house.

When Li Xuandu and his party got off the Bailonglou ship and came to the large square outside the Li Family Ancestral Hall under the leadership of Li Feiyan, the place was already crowded.

These are all Li family members who have been waiting here for a long time.

Standing in the front are all old white-haired old men. These are the elders of the "Dao" generation of the Li family. Although Li Daoxu is a son-in-law, because of the rules of the Li family, sons-in-law and adopted sons are treated as sons. Therefore, according to the generation, these old men are either Li Xuandu's uncles or Li Xuandu's uncles, not uncles from Li Qingyun. This is also the reason why Li Xuandu calls Li Feiyan "Aunt" instead of "Aunt".

Most of these people, Li Xuandu has never seen them. Li Xuandu really knows only three people: Li Feiyan, Li Daoshi, and Li Shixing.

After the "Dao" generation comes the "Ru" generation, all of whom are Li Xuandu's peers, but Li Xuandu is young, and except for Li Taiyi, all of them are his cousins, and there is no cousin. Many people of the "Ru" generation are already old, and even have children and grandchildren, most of whom are the same age as Zhang Haishi and Situ Xuance.

At this time, Li Rushi and Li Taiyi were standing among them. Although they were young, they had different identities and stood quite close to the front, allowing Li Xuandu to see them at a glance.

After that is the "Fa" generation, which is not considered young either, and there are many people in their forties. Even if Li Xuandu stands in the "Fa" generation, he is not considered old.

On the contrary, with so many people, Li Xuandu looked particularly young. In the clan that values ​​age and seniority the most, Li Xuandu's age really doesn't have any advantage. It's just because he has achieved so much that no one dares to say anything. If it were a few years ago, even if Li Xuandu had already entered the realm of heaven and man and was appointed by Li Daoxu himself, he would still be criticized.

When everyone saw Li Xuandu, they all bowed and saluted.

Li Xuandu hurriedly took a few steps, supported the few elders of the "Dao" generation in the front, and then bowed to everyone: "I don't deserve it, no need to be polite."

Everyone separated and made way for the road leading to the ancestral hall. A white-haired old man in the lead said loudly: "Please let the clan leader enter the ancestral hall."

Li Xuandu nodded slightly and strode towards the ancestral hall.

Behind Li Xuandu, first there were Li Feiyan and a group of people from the "Dao" generation, then Qin Su and others, then people from the "Ru" generation and people from the "Fa" generation. As for people with the word "chang" generation, most of them are still children and are not qualified to attend the ancestral hall.

Generally speaking, there are ancestral temples with one surname and one temple. Some families have very strict rules. Not to mention foreign surnames, women or children with underage are not allowed to enter without authorization, otherwise they will be severely punished. However, the Li family is in a special situation and has always been very relaxed in terms of priest rules. So they simply relaxed the ban, but they were not allowed to enter it. There were no restrictions on the others.

Li Xuandu walked all the way to the main hall of the ancestral hall and saw plaques hanging high above, with lanterns on both sides.

Most ancestral halls have hall names. Hall names are written by clan members or calligraphy masters. They are made into golden plaques hanging high in the main hall, and lanterns with hall names are hung in front of the door. When people talk about a certain family, they call it a hall. For example, the Zhang family in Zhang Luanshan is called the "Shangqing Hall Zhang Family" and the Shen Wuyou's Shen family is called the "Huainan Hall Shen Family".

Generally speaking, hall names are either related to the region. For example, the Zhang family is located in Shangqing Mansion, which is called Shangqing Hall; or they are related to virtues, such as the Four Knowledges.

The Yang family is because of the words "God knows, God knows, I knows, and I knows," which his ancestors once said when they refused bribes from others; it is either related to the achievements of their ancestors, such as the ancestors of Guo's family were once named King Fenyang. , the hall name is "Fenyang Hall"; it is either related to the names of ancestors, for example, the descendants of the poetic immortal have the hall name of "Qinglian Hall".

The Li family’s ancestral hall is named after the region, but it is not Donghai Hall, but Beihai Hall, which is also the origin of “Baihai Li”.

There are a row of seats under the plaque, and the center seat is the most gorgeous, showing that the owner's identity is different. However, no one has sat this seat for nearly twenty years.

Li Xuandu came to the seat and turned around.

The members of the Li family all looked at Li Xuandu, and a white-haired old man stepped forward and whispered loudly: "Please take the seat of the 36th generation leader of the Li family."

Li Xuan hesitated for a moment, sat on the middle chair, with the plaque of "Beihaitang" above his head, and then he stretched out his hand and pressed it down: "Everyone should sit down too."

Li Feiyan and Li Daoshi sat around Li Xuandu, and then Li Shixing and several other white-haired old men of the "Dao" generation sat down one by one. Originally, Li Shixing had been removed from the Li family, but after Li Shixing joined Li Xuandu's command, Li Feiyan restored Li Shixing's clan origin. After all, seriously, the reason why Li Shixing betrayed the Qingweizong was that he was also with their sisters. People related.

The lobby is very wide, so there are many seats. In addition to the clan leader and clan elders of the "Dao" generation, some people with the "Ru" generation can also be seated, including Li Yuanying, Li Rushi, and Li Taiyi, Li Rujian and others, including Qin Su and Gu Yusheng, also set up seats. However, these people just sit east or west, instead of the clan leader and clan elder sitting north and south.

As for the others, they could only stand.

Li Xuandu looked around for a week and slowed down his tone: "The people present today are all their own family members. Some have seen me and dealt with me, some have never seen me, they have just heard of my name. Yes I don't know much. So today I plan to introduce myself."

"My name is Li Xuandu, and my name is Zifu. I am the adopted son of the previous clan leader, the 'ru' generation. According to the principle, the inheritance of the clan leader should be that there is a legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate legitimate leg It should be said that my brother Mingxin inherited the position of patriarch, but he was at fault, so the old man passed the position of patriarch to me. From today on, I will be the 36th generation patriarch of our Li family, and I will be the 36th generation patriarch of our Li family. I wonder if you have any objections to the power of the patriarch?”

Most of the members of the Li family have a close relationship with the Qingwei Sect. Many of them are the hall masters and island masters of the Qingwei Sect. They have long seen Li Xuandu's power in the Eight Scenery Villa. How dare they have it at this time. All of them agreed with the slightest objection. Even though the rest of the people had never seen Li Xuandu's skills, they had heard of it, so they naturally agreed.

Seeing that no one objected, Li Feiyan stood up and whispered: "Since there is no objection, I would like to thank our ancestors."

Li Xuandu got up, left the main hall, and walked towards the offering hall behind.

In the offering hall, the entire wall is filled with dense ancestral tablets, followed by an incense burner on the altar, and finally nearly a hundred cushions neatly arranged.

Li Xuandu held three incense sticks in his hand and inserted them into a huge incense burner that was more than three meters wide. Then kneel on the cushion and kowtow to worship.

///txt/90542/