The Wei clan signed and left their names. Photo by Guo Fei
Neijiang, 3 Apr (Zhongxin.com) -- On 3 April, in Hailuo Village, Zhongshan Town, Dongxing District, Neijiang, Sichuan, the Three-Hundred-Year Qingming Meeting of the Wei Clan was held, attended by more than 170 ethnic groups, including "Bashu Ghost Talents," former vice chairman of the Chinese Dramatists Association, and famous playwright Wei Minglun.
According to records, in the fifty-fifth year of the Kangxi Dynasty, the ancestors of the Wei clan moved from Dachi in Longyan Prefecture, Fujian Province, to Neijiang County, Sichuan, initially about 600 people. Nowadays, the Wei clan of the Xinglong Ancestral Hall in Neijiang County is mainly distributed in Neijiang, Fushun and other places, the number of people has grown, the specific number is difficult to determine, this Qingming meeting, also intended to collect the reproduction of the clan relatives. There are 32 characters in this line of the Wei clan, namely Zhenyu Chengjia, Imperial Court Yongshi, Changda Changzhao, Xiu Qisili, Chongde Shangxian, Xuanren Dunyi, An Fu Honor, and Tian'en Erxi.
The people of the Wei clan worship their ancestors with incense. Photo by Guo Fei
On the same day, 6 generations of ethnic people from Neijiang Gaoliang Town, "Chang" generation from Fushun Town, and "Da, Zhao, Xiu, Qi" characters from Neijiang participated. Flower baskets, incense, toasts... During the ceremony, the three characters of "Chang", "Da" and "Xiu" were sacrificed to the ancestors. Wei Minglun, a celebrity of the "Zhaozi generation" and known as a "Bashu ghost talent", represents the ancestor worship of the ethnic group. The reporter learned at the scene that Wei Minglun's clan name was "Wei Zhaolun", and because the clan name was generally not external, it changed "Zhao" to "Ming".
Wei Minglun told reporters that he vaguely remembered that when he was a few years old, he had come here to participate in the Qingming Meeting of the Wei Clan. "There is a saying: People are not afraid to grow horizontal, as long as they occupy one, they will get the Qingming Society when they eat it raw, and they will be worthy of their ancestors after death." The gist is to be a person who has made a difference, to be worthy of his ancestors. "In the past, only those who had done something could participate in the Qingming Society."
Wei Minglun demonstrated the sacrifice ceremony to the tribesmen. Photo by Guo Fei
"Ancestor worship is a reverence for the ancestors, the remembrance of loved ones and a demonstration for future generations. At the same time, this is also an inspiration for the inheritance of the 'ethnic culture' of the Chinese nation. "Wei Minglun also demonstrated the correct ritual of sacrifice on the spot: fold your hands together, stand up straight, bend your upper body slightly forward, kneel down, salute, and get up." To carry forward the tradition, we need to start with the most basic. ”
The Wei clan showed reporters the Wei family tree. Photo by Guo Fei
It is reported that not only the Wei family, but also in today's Neijiang, there are many clans with a century-old tradition, some of them are local heritage, and some are immigrants who "fill the lake and fill Sichuan". According to records, the frequent wars and chaos in Sichuan in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, coupled with the continuous famine and plague, caused a sharp decline in the population of Sichuan. At that time, Kangxi issued a decree to encourage large-scale immigration to Sichuan (including Chongqing), and promulgated a series of preferential immigration policies to this end. Migrants from Hunan, Hubei, Guangdong, Henan and other provinces migrated to Sichuan, and the decades-long "Lake Filling Sichuan" migration activity began. (End)