At the gate of Guo's family temple, everyone gathered again, ready to go in first to worship. This time, there were a lot of people who came, and the local officials who welcomed them also gathered around, and everyone had to greet each other, which was quite lively for a while.

Taking advantage of this effort, Guo Ponu also appeared in the family temple.

It turned out that she had left the team and ran over by herself before. It's just that everyone was in a mess and didn't notice him. While the others were busy socializing, she had already gone to the family temple and chatted with the old priest who managed the family temple.

"I'm not young anymore, not when I was an adult." Guo Ponu asked the old priest: "According to the rules, can I still go in and worship?" ”

"You're not married yet, Miss." The old priest replied without hesitation: "According to the rules of our worship of God, before getting married, they are all members of their own family. You are still the daughter of the Guo family, so you can naturally go with you to worship your ancestors. ”

"That's right. I didn't care about it before, but this year I took a special look and found that there are many families in Dadu, and they don't allow their daughters to sacrifice together since they were young. Guo Ponu said.

"That's because they were more influenced by the Greeks." The old priest seems to know a lot about this: "Sacrifice is communication between descendants and ancestors. Meritorious ancestors, in heaven, are with the Father. Future generations, both physically and spiritually, are closest to their ancestors, so that their ancestors can also communicate with each other and transmit the blessings of the Father to the world and give encouragement and enlightenment to their descendants. ”

However, in the eyes of many Greeks, a woman does not possess a complete soul. This led to two results: first, they sacrificed to their ancestors, not their ancestors. Because spiritually speaking, there are limits to what they can do. Even if they ascend to heaven, female ancestors will not be able to complete the task of transmitting the blessings of the Father and guiding the souls of future generations. Therefore, it is natural that there is no need to make special sacrifices in the ceremony. ”

"Secondly, because the soul is incomplete, the woman is also unable to correctly perceive the Father and the ancestors. Involving women in the ritual has no positive effect on them, but rather adds to the chaos of such a serious and important matter. It's better not to bring them with you. ”

"This can all be explained......" Guo Ponu was very surprised.

That's just one of the claims. There are also people who believe that because women are not as physically and mentally sound as men, they are not suitable to communicate with their heavenly fathers and ancestors, because they cannot bear this kind of mental pressure. In conclusion, there are many ways to explain it, and so on. The old priest said, "When I went to Dadu to study, I learned all kinds of rituals, and I heard them talk about these things at that time." This was more than 20 years ago. ”

"Now, I've heard that there are new theories." He thought for a moment and said, "And, according to them, there are actual cases. ”

"What kind of case?" Guo Ponu asked.

"Even when worshipping ancestors, the female relatives who stayed outside suddenly went crazy and even fought with other people." The old priest replied, "It seems that this kind of thing happened in Thessaloniki and Athens. According to the local priest, this is the result of the soul's inability to withstand this divine cleansing. ”

"Really?" Guo Ponu said in surprise: "I haven't heard of it." ”

"To be honest, I haven't seen it either. Also, I don't know what the specific situation is, but they all say so. The old priest replied.

"The Greeks' understanding of doctrine has always been strange. According to their meaning, they wish that their ancestors were all men, so they were the most perfect. He shook his head, "I don't think I need to worry about them." We don't have this set in Henan. ”

"No wonder. I've been here before, but I've always attended. Guo Ponu recalled and said.

"It stands to reason that the ritual of sacrificing ancestors should involve more people. Because that's the purpose of the sacrifice. The old priest became serious: "The ritual of ancestor worship is to remember the merits of the ancestors, remember the contributions they left to future generations, and learn from their noble deeds. In these processes, they cleanse their hearts and strengthen the will of their clansmen. Let everyone know why such a person can be protected by Heavenly Father so that he has a clear code of faith and a goal to act. ”

In this way, we can also unite and stay on the right path. The reason why we worship God and the church is called 'teaching' is also because the main purpose is to undertake these educational functions. ”

"What a glorious radiance of the Father! What a great achievement of our ancestors! Our children and grandchildren live in this world, and every porridge and meal they enjoy is the creation of the Father. Every hoe and wisp taken over is the legacy of the ancestors. The Father of Heaven was in charge of Rome, so that this manifest virtue spread among the mortal world, and commanded the Romans to be a model for the nations, to promote the cause of their fathers and fathers, and to make the Quartet and barbarians obey the commands. ”

"The smoke raised by the sacrifice is the resonance of us mortals with the kingdom of heaven; The prayers we recite are our reward to our Heavenly Father and our ancestors. We now report our results to them, and if we uphold the virtues and strive to create meritorious deeds, we will join these ancestors who were sacrificed in the future and hear the reports of our descendants in the Kingdom of Heaven. ”

"The men and women who founded the Great Qin Ulus are watching us in Heaven, and our children and grandchildren will take over our business in the future. This kind of sense of mission is impossible for people who have not been educated to feel. The old priest admonished: "We are surrounded by barbarians, and we cannot relax. All men and women should be educated. Otherwise, how can we maintain virtue and morality? ”

"And the counter-example, it's the barbarians. These days, there are too many people who claim to believe in Heavenly Father. But those barbarian believers, who only knew how to shout a few slogans and recite two verses of the scriptures, moved themselves as if they had been favored by the Father and became living saints, but they did not know what this belief was, nor did they know what they should do—and what was more, their followers and clergy did not even have the will to understand. ”

As a result, they are left to wander aimlessly, using the name of the Father to disgrace the Father with their ignorant behavior. In the end, it led to the collapse of the sect and the emergence of heresies, because they themselves were the greatest heretics. The old priest said unceremoniously.

"We mortals, life is very short. Even those who claim to be long-lived are only a moment in comparison with our entire civilization. However, the Father is eternal, and so is Rome—so how can a transient person recognize and understand the eternal, and then integrate into it? That's what we need to study and educate. ”

The barbarians, however, lack this understanding. Because of the lack of rituals and music, they don't know much about history, ancestors, and concepts such as the rise and fall of civilizations. This is a very serious problem, and the barbarians are actually unable to comprehend the value of more than a single person. They are like noisy insects in the summer, unable to form a sense of the whole year. ”

"Then they can only repeat the words, 'Great, my heavenly Father.'" As for what the greatness of the Father looks like, they cannot understand; In which way it is great, I can't say. Such people, I don't want to call them believers in the Father, because they are not worthy to be called together with us. ”

"As for the Greeks, I suspect they don't understand the meaning of that either." He speculated: "It may be that the contact time is not as long as ours, so the consideration of the problem is still too blunt, and many things are not thought out too clearly." ”

"It's true that the Greeks don't know much about our etiquette." Guo Ponu thought about it and felt reasonable.

"We're used to it, after all." The old priest said, "Like my own ancestors, you can trace it back to Li Ling in the Han Dynasty. Li Ling failed to get reinforcements, did not enter the Xiongnu, and was named King of Jiankun by Shan Yu. Jiankun is the Tang Dynasty. The nobles in their kingdom are all descendants of Li Ling. ”

Therefore, the Khanate was one of the few countries that did not seek peace with the Tang Dynasty. Later, when he defeated the Uighurs and found out about the princess sent by the Tang Dynasty to make peace, he said, 'We have the same surname as the Tang Dynasty, and we cannot intermarry according to the law of etiquette,' and sent a nobleman to send her back. Later, after the collapse of the Tunjas, some people followed other Turkic-speaking tribes and migrated westward to blend in with the Bulgars. That's when our family came here. ”

And the Greeks, to put it bluntly, were only barbarians on the Persian border, and the ritual culture depended on the influence of other civilizations. At that time, Greece was divided into three major tribes: the Achaians, the Ionians, and the Dorians, each with a series of small states, independent of each other, which were razed by the Persians. Later, Macedonia, which had little fame before, unified the three major tribes, invaded Persia with brute force, established Greek colonies in various places, and migrated people to spy on the locals. Only then did they become rich, and their influence spread, and they began to pay attention to some Slovakia in front of more barbaric people, and began to sing dramas or something. But in real terms, how can this Greeks know how to count as our ancestors? ”

"That's right...... Then leave it to rest with what they say. Guo Ponu felt that it was just right, so he continued to ask: "But what I just said was before marriage, what about after marriage?" ”

"It's okay to want to return to Ning, but that's the two family's own business. In fact, there are no strict rules on the etiquette on our side. The old priest told her, "Of course, after marriage, the husband's family will be the main one." If it is such an important holiday, you should pay attention to your husband's family first. ”

"That's ......" Guo Ponu pondered: "But I really don't want to leave here and run around with other people......

"Oh, it's normal, who wants to leave their homeland, but it's all the law of nature." The old priest comforted.

"Then if I marry someone I adopted, will I be able to avoid this contradiction?" Guo Ponu took advantage of the situation and asked: "In this way, the husband's family is the adopted son of the father's family, isn't there no conflict, and there is no need to persuade both sides back and forth?" The customs and rituals on our side should support this more convenient situation. ”

"Huh?"

For the religion of etiquette, this kind of thing seems to be a bit overstepping. The old priest was directly confused, and did not answer for a while.

(End of chapter)