【Quick Wear】My Years as a Mother-in-law

Yun Xi leaned over to take a look. The man above was obviously of a higher social class and his information was not very detailed.

Matchmaker Li introduced them to Yun Xi one by one. "These families basically need a first wife for their children. The first wife is the eldest daughter-in-law in the family. She is the one who will take up the burden of the family after a hundred years. I heard that you are focusing on training the fourth daughter, so I want to find a good family for her."

Yun Xi understood that the term "first wife" referred to the legal wife or the wife of the eldest son. Later, the term also had a hidden meaning of praise. In the wealthy families of Zhao State, those who could become the first wife must be capable and have a strong sense of responsibility.

In "Dream of the Red Chamber", Jia's mother was the head wife in charge of the whole family before she retired. Wang Xifeng and Qin Keqing were both eldest daughters-in-law. Wang Xifeng's stepmother-in-law, Mrs. Xing, was not capable of managing the household, and her natal family was in decline, so the responsibility of managing the whole family fell on Wang Xifeng, the eldest grandson's wife. Wang Xifeng was the head wife and the eldest daughter-in-law of the Wang family. She had a high status, strong ability, and was tactful and responsible.

Yun Xi never thought that her youngest daughter could become the first wife. She looked at the list carefully. The list included the outstanding eldest sons of the major families in Nancheng. The ones who were too high-ranking, such as the first-class families in Nancheng, were beyond the reach of the Qi family. The second-class families were barely worthy of the Qi family. The second-class merchants of the Qi family were barely worthy of the third-class families.

Unexpectedly, Matchmaker Li pointed to the second-class Yang family and said, "Old Madam, what do you think of Yang Xinghui, the eldest son of the Yang family?"

"The Yang family is a second-rate family, right? The Qi family is no match for them." Yun Xi was not fooled and raised the question.

Matchmaker Li smiled mysteriously, "Old lady, your family is lucky enough to have caught up."

"Oh? What do you mean?" Yun Xi pricked up her ears.

"The eldest son of the Yang family had his engagement broken off. The girl's father was about to be promoted, and he would be serving in Kyoto. So the engagement was broken off without any warning." Matchmaker Li glanced at the fourth girl. "Men whose engagements were broken off have a bad reputation. He would wake up laughing in his dreams if he could marry the fourth girl."

Yun Xi's lips curled up. "That's not so exaggerated. If we can marry into the Yang family, our Qi family will naturally be more than happy to do so. But what is Young Master Yang's character like? How old is he? Does he have any bad habits?"

Matchmaker Li exclaimed, waving her hand to reassure her. "The eldest son of the Yang family is fifteen years old this year. Aside from his somewhat plain appearance, he has no flaws. He is being trained as an heir, and his abilities are beyond reproach."

Yun Xi smiled and said, "Let's wait until the seventh day after the funeral for my mother-in-law is over, and then we can see each other."

The seventh day is when an old person is buried and worshipped, and it lasts until 49 days. After that, worship is also done on the hundredth day, the first anniversary and the third anniversary. After that, worship is only done on special festivals and the New Year.

Ancient people believed that people have three souls and seven spirits. The three souls are the heavenly soul, the earthly soul, and the human soul.

Legend has it that before a person is born, the human soul is kept by the gods. When the human body is formed, the human soul will enter the flesh. At this time, the essence of yin and yang of heaven and earth will also form the human soul, thereby assisting the growth of the human soul. As people grow, the three souls of heaven, earth and man will have the same memories, behaviors and personalities.

After a person dies, the essence of the heavenly soul and the earthly soul will return to the heaven and earth again. The two souls that have lost their original essence, one will guard the body, and the other will go to the tablet enshrined by descendants to accept their worship and sacrifices. The human soul will be rejected by the god in charge of souls, and will be responsible for the good and evil deeds it has done in its lifetime.

The souls attached to the corpse and the ranking will watch the words and deeds of the descendants beside the spirit tablet and the grave like a surveillance camera, observing whether these descendants abide by the law, are kind-hearted and do not do evil, and bless these descendants to grow up healthily.

This shows the importance of ancestral halls and ancestral tombs to the ancients.

There are rules for sacrifices. Ancestors can only accept sacrifices from their direct bloodlines. Therefore, the saying "There are three types of unfilial behavior, and the worst is to have no descendants" was distorted to force people to have descendants.

In Taoist thought, the three souls belong to Yang, and correspondingly, the qi and soul are where Yin is. The qi and soul each have nice names, namely, corpse dog, hidden arrow, sparrow yin, swallowing thief, non-poison, purifying filth, and smelly lungs. The qi and soul are responsible for people's seven main emotions: joy, anger, sorrow, fear, love, hate, and desire.

Legend has it that on ordinary days, the three souls control the seven spirits, preventing them from doing evil and indulging people in lust. However, when the three souls suffer a severe blow and become weakened, they are unable to control the seven spirits, and people will fall into uncontrollable emotions of ecstasy, anger or worry and be unable to extricate themselves.

Therefore, Taoism often says that to cultivate oneself, one must first cultivate the mind. Only by cultivating the mind can one restrain the seven spirits with the three souls, prevent oneself from getting lost in lust, and thus achieve the goal of controlling oneself.

The seven souls are the essence condensed from the matter between heaven and earth, so after a person dies, the seven souls will return to heaven and earth as the body dissipates, or turn into mountains, rivers, birds, trees, or insects, feet, and rat livers, until a new body is conceived again, and they will form new seven souls in the new body.

However, the time it takes for the seven souls to disperse is often measured in units of seven. Therefore, after someone dies, a sacrificial ceremony is held every seven days, starting from the first seven days and ending at the last seven days, for a total of forty-nine days.

This ritual has two purposes: one is to comfort the seven souls of the deceased that are about to disperse, and the other is to commemorate the deeds of the deceased.

Generally, after a normal person dies, the human soul among the three souls will smoothly enter the underworld to be judged. It is the most important soul that carries the cause and effect of good and evil in life.

Legend also believes that people will be judged every seven days from the first seven days to the last seven days. On the hundredth day after death, the first anniversary of death, and the third anniversary of death, they will go to a place on time to be judged. They must be judged ten times before they can be reincarnated.

This is very hard for the descendants in the world of the living, because the heavenly soul and earthly soul of the deceased are still in the human world. If the human soul did not have great merits during his lifetime, monks and Taoists will be invited to perform rituals to enlighten the dead soul, so that the dead soul in the underworld can enter reincarnation as soon as possible and be reborn in a good way.

Therefore, burning more paper money every 6-7 days can also help the deceased suffer less physical pain.

In a few days it will be the seventh day. If you worship properly from morning to night, you will feel relaxed for a hundred days.

"Old lady, old lady? What are you thinking about?" Matchmaker Li looked at her curiously.

Yun Xi woke up as if from a dream and immediately said, "Nothing, where were we talking about?"

"Old lady, I heard there will be a big temple fair in a month. Why don't you go and take a look?" Matchmaker Li said nonchalantly.

Yun Xi recalled the original owner's memory. It seemed that there was a temple fair, but she never went there again after she got married.

"Temple fair? Outside the city?"

"There are places in both the east and west of the city, at the foot of the mountain of Lingyin Temple in the west of the city, and at the foot of the mountain of Qingfeng Temple in the east of the city. Which one are you going to take the fourth girl to, old lady?" asked matchmaker Li with a smile.