The daily life of a peasant girl taking the imperial examination

The seventh day of the seventh lunar month is a big day for Zhuge Village to worship its ancestors.

As dawn broke, there was activity in the courtyards of every household.

Zhuge Yunshu also got up early. She first took a bath and changed her clothes, and then put on a plain-colored ruqun (a type of traditional Chinese dress) that she had specially prepared for the ancestral worship.

After everything was prepared, Zhuge Fengshou led his family slowly toward the ancestral hall at the village entrance.

According to the customs of Daxia, if a younger generation in the family becomes successful, they are usually invited to the clan's ancestral hall and ancestral graves to pay respects to their ancestors.

The ancestral hall in Zhuge Village is where the Zhuge clan jointly worships their ancestors.

When Zhuge Yunshu and his family arrived, there were already many people in the ancestral hall, and even the incense table had been set up by the clansmen.

Zhuge Yunshu stood in the crowd, curiously examining the ancestral hall that had just been renovated.

From the outside alone, the blue bricks and gray tiles, the upturned eaves and corners give people a sense of antiquity and solemnity. In terms of layout, the ancestral hall of Zhuge Village is divided into three rooms: the main hall and the side rooms on both sides. What impressed Zhuge Yunshu the most was that the ancestral hall of Zhuge Village was surrounded by a high wall about four or five meters high. Just looking at it, one gets the illusion of a sacred and inviolable place.

Zhuge Yunshu followed the clansmen and continued walking inside.

Inside the ancestral hall, some wood and stone carvings were exquisitely crafted, clearly indicating that a considerable amount of money had been spent to hire professional master craftsmen to carve them.

Zhuge Yunshu turned his head and suddenly noticed a couplet written on two wooden pillars in the ancestral hall. The characters were neat and powerful, and he knew without a doubt that it was written by the clan chief, Zhuge Fengcang.

Then, looking up, she saw portraits of her ancestors hanging on the wall in front of the ancestral hall. There was only one, and it looked very abstract. Zhuge Yunshu guessed that this was probably her great-grandfather, who had sold everything he owned to support his second grandfather, Zhuge Fengnian, in taking the imperial examination.

This painting was probably also created by that second grandfather.

At this moment, Zhuge Yunshu looked in front of the ancestral portraits and saw that the memorial tablets were arranged from high to low. Perhaps because the Zhuge family had only recently become wealthy, only the last three rows of the memorial tablets were filled, while the rest of the space was sparsely filled, making it look empty.

If Zhuge Yunshu's grandfather, Zhuge Fengshou, knew about this idea, he would probably chase after her with his cane all day without getting tired.

Of course, Zhuge Yunshu wasn't stupid; she only dared to think about it in her heart.

After half a cup of tea.

Once all the clan members had arrived, clan chief Zhuge Fengcang led village chiefs Zhuge Fengtian and Zhuge Fengshou to the front of the ancestral hall. After the three of them stood in place, the other clan elders followed.

At this moment, the clan chief took out a very thick family genealogy book from his bosom.

He first introduced the origin of the Zhuge family, including the family's surname and migration history.

It was only at this time that Zhuge Yunshu learned that her Zhuge clan had fled to Yunshui Town as a whole during a famine, and settled down here because of its excellent geographical location.

After these introductions, the clan chief, Zhuge Fengcang, read out the deeds of the ancestors recorded in the clan genealogy according to the order of seniority. It must be said that their Zhuge Village really did produce a capable person. The specific official position he held was not detailed in the genealogy, but in short, Zhuge Yunshu heard that he was a very, very capable person.

Zhuge Yunshu wondered if Zhuge Kongming was her ancestor.

Thinking this, I couldn't help but shake my head with amusement.

Because the timeline doesn't match up at all, and even worse, there is no such thing as the Wei, Jin and Northern and Southern Dynasties in this timeline.

The clan head spent a full hour reading this genealogy.

Although there are no particularly remarkable ancestors mentioned above, and the introductions are not extensive, the clan chief is indeed remarkable, personally compiling a brief biography for each of these ancestors.

When asked how she knew about this, Zhuge Yunshu looked up at the sky.

The story is a long one. It all started on a dark and stormy night when she was invited by the clan chief. Together with Zhuge Yun Chu, Zhuge Yun Xi, Zhuge Yun Jin, and Zhuge Yun Bo, they secretly completed a family genealogy. Not only that, each of them was assigned several ancestors to write about their life stories. They worked day and night for several days to finally produce the new family genealogy for their Zhuge Village.

You can't say it's fabricated or fake.

This is because, according to the clan chief Zhuge Fengcang, these stories were expanded upon based on the rough summary in the clan genealogy.

For example, there is a page that introduces an ancestor who was forced to go to the battlefield at the age of fourteen and was never heard from again. However, twenty years later, he suddenly returned home in glory, bringing back a wife named Chen who was quite insightful.

When Zhuge Yunshu saw such a brief introduction, he would first elaborate on the male ancestor's twenty years of life, writing about one or two pages, and then give a detailed introduction to the mysterious female ancestor, also about one or two pages.

Even more remarkably, she gave this ancestor a name.

In any case, in that era, women's names were given quite casually and were often very similar. Some women even lost their own names after marriage, and names like Daya or Erya were considered a luxury...

From the moment they got married, they were addressed as so-and-so's wife or so-and-so's mother, and this continued until they grew old and died.

Therefore, Zhuge Yunshu secretly wanted to give them a formal name.

As women, they give birth to children and manage household affairs, and their contributions are not much less than those of men. So why are these male ancestors given names and surnames, while the female ancestors are only given a perfunctory name as so-and-so's wife? This is too unfair.

So, Zhuge Yunshu discussed it with Zhuge Yunchu and Zhuge Yunxi, and finally decided to add the names of so-and-so's wife or so-and-so's mother whenever they saw such names.

In particular, Zhuge Yunshu and Zhuge Yunchu were even bolder. Whenever they encountered someone who was going to marry into the family, they would directly change the name to "so-and-so's husband".

Upon hearing this, Zhuge Yunxi, though afraid of being blamed by her grandfather, found Zhuge Yunshu's words to be very reasonable.

After all, having married into the family means that she has come to live with them, so naturally she should follow the customs of the host family.

In short, after being embellished by these women, the images of each of these ancestors instantly became more vivid and complete.

Although, while reading, the clan chief Zhuge Fengcang sometimes frowned terribly, sometimes smiled broadly, and even shed two tears when he read the touching parts.

Not only him, but also the clansmen of Zhuge Village were deeply moved.

It turns out that their ancestors, whether female or male, had such legendary and arduous lives.

In short, the ultimate purpose of praising the merits of ancestors is to instill in the living members of the clan a sense of reverence and respect for them, and then to encourage future generations by citing examples of their outstanding achievements and contributions to the clan.

Chieftain Zhuge Fengcang felt he had done a great job, especially when he saw the bloodshot eyes of his clansmen below, he couldn't help but nod in satisfaction.

Exactly! Yun Shu and his kids are far too audacious. They actually dared to give their ancestors random names and even altered some information.

However, considering how nicely they named his mother and aunt, he turned a blind eye.

Although he didn't want to admit it, he had a question in his heart: since those people had married into the Zhuge family, why were they given a higher status than their wives after their deaths because of their gender?

Thinking this way, Zhuge Fengcang couldn't help but feel even more convinced of the actions of Zhuge Yunshu, Zhuge Yunchu, and Zhuge Yunxi.

Well done! A brilliant revision!

From now on, the Zhuge family must follow these rules.

Regardless of gender, everyone should have a name and surname so that their deeds can be passed down to future generations.

This is the demeanor a large family should have.