Ancestor worship culture
2020 Qingming Ritual Address to the Ancient Locust Tree and Our Ancestral Forebears Who Relocated
On the fourth day of the fourth month of the year 2020, in the Year of Gengzi, as the Qingming Festival arrives, we, the descendants of the great locust‑tree migrants, with hearts full of devotion, solemnly offer our rites to the ancient ancestors who once migrated from beneath that venerable locust tree. We present the grand sacrifice and perform the eight‑row dance; the locust‑tree lineage, with heartfelt reverence, respectfully extol the merits of our forebears and pray for the enduring peace and prosperity of China.
Shandong Dong Clan Genealogy Donation for Tracing Ancestral Roots
On September 10, 2017, the ancestral home of the Great Locust Tree welcomed a special group of relatives—members of the Dong clan from Shandong, led by Dong Guangbin, Dong Faxi, and seven others. Traveling across more than a century, they returned to their hometown solely to donate 19 jointly revised family genealogies to their ancestral village, while also hoping to locate in Hongtong the branch of the Dong clan’s eldest line that had not migrated away at the time. According to historical research, the Dong clan traces its origins to Dong Zhongshu. During the great population migrations of the early Ming dynasty, the eldest line remained in Shanxi, while the second, third, fourth, and fifth branches departed from Pingyang Prefecture, settling respectively in Feng County in northern Jiangsu, southwestern Shandong (with separate settlements in Juancheng, Jiaxiang, and Chengwu), and Fangshan in Dingtao.
2018 Qingming Ritual Address to the Ancient Locust Tree and Our Ancestral Forebears Who Relocated
On the fifth day of the fourth month in the year 2018 of the Common Era, the year of Wuxu, as the Qingming Festival arrived, the heavens and earth were bright and clear, the clouds light and the breeze gentle. We, the descendants of the Great Locust Tree of Hongdong, humbly prepare offerings of three kinds of livestock and five grains, accompanied by fresh flowers and elegant music, to solemnly honor our forebears who migrated. With the harmonious tolling of bells and drums, we look back to the past and cherish the present, extolling the aspirations of our ancestors and praying for the enduring prosperity of the Huai‑xiang region. The inscription reads: “Majestic are our ancestors, whose virtues shall ever bring salvation! How mighty our forebears—may their long songs move even the heart! In the late Yuan dynasty, across the nine provinces, war raged, smoke and flames rose on every horizon, natural disasters struck again and again, and the suffering of the people seemed beyond healing. Only in the fields of southern Shanxi did the weather remain favorable, crops flourished, and the people lived in peace and prosperity. At the dawn of the Hongwu era, when the ravages of war had scarcely subsided, an imperial decree was issued to resettle and reclaim the wastelands. Under the great locust tree, millions were gathered and dispatched on journeys stretching over ten thousand li. Those who left their homes either tilled the fields…”
Divine Master’s Exploration of Origins
The “Shen Zhu” is what we commonly refer to as a spirit tablet. In the splendid culture of ancient China, ritual worship occupied an extremely important position. In primordial times, confronted with the vast and mysterious forces of nature, humanity felt utterly helpless; thus, it was compelled to attribute all natural phenomena that were incomprehensible, inexplicable, or beyond human control to “the gods.” Moreover, people had no choice but to offer devout words and deeds in hopes of invoking the gods’ protection and blessings upon the people. Consequently, ritual sacrifice gradually became a matter of paramount importance in the political, economic, and productive life of ancient society. As far back as the early stages of slave‑holding society, ritual practices had already evolved into a distinct cultural system. Each…
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