On Saturday, April
26th, the Yee Clan gathered at the Hall near
16th Street and Thomas Road in Phoenix in what
indeed was a special celebration. This was the
25th Anniversary of the Hall that had the
necessary expansion/renovation to the structure
completed in 1989. For this occasion, not only
was Bill Yee of Flagstaff (in his 90’s)
attending but also Chuck Yee from the Tucson
suburb of Marana. The farsighted vision of
kinsmen and women to select, purchase, and
retrofit a small commercial strip center has
been truly borne out.
This unworthy
writer, as the newly-elected President of the
Yee Fung-toy Family Association, led in the
rites of ancestral veneration and respect
whose roots are as ancient as China’s history
itself, for the turtle shell and shoulder
blade “oracle bones” of the Shang Dynasty with
the earliest version of the distinctive
ideographic script – in their case 3,500 years
ago – sought the guidance of their forebears,
perceived undoubtedly to be supernatural and
powerful, through ancestor worship. Then, the
proper royal rites required the sacrifice of
the “three living [creatures]” – an ox, a pig,
and a ram, all freshly slaughtered in the
blood-drenched ritualism of all primitive
peoples, including the Israel of God.
The last emperor
of the Manchu Qing Dynasty abdicated in
February 1912 as Asia’s first democracy, the
Republic of China, was founded; long before
then, while superstitions certainly persisted,
the everyday Chinese was more likely to offer
worship to the Mahayana Buddhist
deities/emanations such as Avalokitesvara (as
Guan Yin), or Gautama Siddhartha Buddha
himself, or the Daoist Jade Emperor of Heaven
than to his own certainly non-royal ancestors.
He would recall his ancestors out of filial
piety, typically at the Qing Ming Jie, the
Clear Bright Festival, on or about April 4, 5,
or 6 – depending on the Spring Equinox – when
hopefully the winter snows had passed without
the melts flooding so that the grave sites
could be visited across the often wet fields
to the nearest hillock – to “hang shan” [‘walk
on the mountain’] where the tombs could be
swept and trimmed of weeds, inscriptions
renewed with fresh paint, and the modern
offerings made: a chicken (with head &
feet), a slab of pork, and a whole fish, all
appropriately cooked for immediate consumption
by participants. (Possibly, the digestive
systems of the spirits have also
evolved/degenerated, depending on
perspective…)
A full house
observed this remembrance, and then benefited
quite tangibly forsooth from consuming and
retrieving Cantonese style roast pork at the
buffet luncheon; the homemade desserts of the
Yee women likely outshone the commercial
porkers. This year, the donors for these were
-- Grand Elder John M. Yee, Advisers Joe Yue
and David M. Yee, Vice President Kam Yui Yi,
Jane (Mrs. Willie M.) Yee and Janet (Mrs.
Jerry M.) Yee.
As an initial
personal contribution for local Clan usage,
this unworthy writer as the President produced
and makes available an initial edition of an
exhortatory/explanatory article “Emulate Our
Model Ancestor” to further clarify that modern
ancestral veneration is not the antique
ancestor worship of a distant past: the name
of the Clan Hall does not honor the known
first Yee ancestor (Yao Yu). That Qin Duchy
chancellor served his feudal lord (Duke Mu)
during the Spring-Autumn [Annals] Era of
increasing disunity during the Eastern Zhou
Dynasty (771-473 B.C.E.) before the concluding
mass warfare of the Contending States Era
brought about imperial unification in 221
B.C.E. under Qin.
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In stark contrast,
Yu Jing, 1000-1065 C.E., lived during the
Northern Song Dynasty; he was posthumously
ennobled as the Loyal Assisting Duke [Zhongxiang
Gong] by the Zhiping-era Emperor. He is held up
as the model ancestor for emblematic success in
the civil service examinations and the
subsequent career as a scholar-official – a
uniquely Chinese phenomenon in world history.
Offering incense, wine and food before the
portrait of Yu Jing thoroughly misunderstands
Chinese culture and Chinese history: if this
were ancestor worship, the portrait ought to be
of Yao Yu, who lived 16 centuries before Yu
Fengcai/Yee Fung-toy, using the Romanization
styles from Standard Modern Chinese (the
so-called ‘Mandarin’) and informal Cantonese.
Fengcai/Fung-toy was an honorific sobriquet
conferred by others to praise his “elegant
demeanor” – indubitably also something worthy of
emulation.
If ancestor
worship were involved, it would be useful to
“sacrifice” to the right person, would it not?
Rather, the Model Ancestor veneration
crystallizes our own personal filial piety to
our parents, our grandparents, our great
grandparents, etc., etc. etc. And, he provides
at the same time an object lesson for the value
of education: to study hard, to test high, and
ultimately to attain success and recognition in
career: thereby honoring those who came before
and inspiring those who will come afterwards.
As an adult
convert to the Christian faith, it is painful to
note that the only ancient civilization/high
culture that has ever been converted to the True
Faith is the Greco-Roman one in which we
cradled. Conversions by opposing the culture
work rather well when the culture of the
Christian missionaries is clearly more
sophisticated, ennobling and humane than
heart-ripping sacrifice on Aztec pyramids, or
cannibalism in African rain forests. Conversion
by transforming culture is perhaps the only
route by which to make any lasting headway in
China, in India, and in Japan. (Islam and the
Middle East are a special case/conundrum
indeed.) One cannot transform what one does not
understand properly.
M.
Cheak Yee / Yu Wenchuo
Photos by John Tang
Originally appears in Asian American Times as of
May 1, 2014
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