Five Reforms

Chapter 13 Three Reforms

Jiufengling, inside the Zhou Family Ancestral Hall.

In front of the vast majority of the Zhou family members, Zhou Wende, the supreme elder of the Zhou family, solemnly announced the various reform regulations for the Zhou family.

According to him, now that the Zhou family has officially continued its lineage as a cultivation family, it should continue its lineage in the same way as other major cultivation families.

Therefore, the first change is to rearrange generational names and change the way people address each other.

The twelve-character generational naming system, which Zhou Wende agreed upon with the clan chief and elders, is based on the principles of "clear skies and bright heavens, upholding the Tao and guarding the family, and rectifying the mind and remembering the source."

From Zhou Wende onwards, all newborn children will be named according to this twelve-character generational naming system.

Since the Zhou family cultivators are of varying ages, the specific generational names they should use are determined by dividing each generation into fifty-year periods, starting from Zhou Wende's ancestors.

According to this division, the Zhou family currently has two members of the "Ming" generation: the Supreme Elder Zhou Mingde and the First Elder Zhou Mingshan.

One person in the "Chong" generation is the second elder, Zhou Chongshan.

The two members of the "Dao" generation are the Third Elder Zhou Daoquan and the Clan Chief Zhou Daoyi.

There are three members of the "Shou" generation, all of whom are over 100 years old and belong to the Zhou family.

The "Jia" generation has the most members, with 67 members.

There are also 33 cultivators of the "Zheng" generation, and this generation name will be used for more than ten years.

Following this order, Zhou Chun, Zhou Yong, and other cultivators of the same age, along with Zhou Jingwen, who is thirty-five years old, form the "Zheng" generation.

Zhou Fei, whom Zhou Chun knew before, belonged to the "Jia" generation.

Zhou He, the peak master of Baozhi Peak, is also ranked in the "Jia" generation.

Once the generational names are established, family members within three generations must address each other as grandparents, uncles, aunts, brothers, sisters, etc.

Among peers, seniority is determined by age.

In this way, Zhou Chun ranked thirteenth among his peers in the "Zheng" generation, making him older than most of them.

To ensure that every Zhou family cultivator was familiar with the different generations of the clan, a handbook was specially distributed to each Zhou family cultivator on site. The handbook listed in detail the generation names and rankings among the current Zhou family cultivators.

Those Zhou family cultivators who were not present will also receive the same benefits later.

Clearly, the purpose of this practice of arranging generational names and changing titles is to unite all Zhou family cultivators, both inside and outside the family, and to increase their sense of identity with the family and with other members of the clan.

Using blood ties as a bond and the terms of address among relatives as buttons, all the Zhou family cultivators are connected, making them truly recognize the Zhou family as a large family.

Zhou Mingde and the other high-ranking members of the Zhou family have put in a lot of effort.

Since Zhou Mingde and other high-ranking members of the Zhou family took the lead in changing their names, even though some Zhou family cultivators felt uncomfortable about the sudden appearance of several elders of the grandfather and uncle generations, they could only endure it and could not object.

Of course, in order to dispel the discomfort in the hearts of these Zhou family cultivators, Zhou Mingde also made a serious statement on the spot, and would never allow any Zhou family cultivator to take advantage of their seniority or age to bully other clansmen of lower seniority.

Furthermore, considering that some people's names might not sound pleasant after being given generational names, the current Zhou family cultivators are allowed to still refer to themselves by their original names when speaking to outsiders.

In short, the generational naming system was created to unite the Zhou family cultivators, and it must not be allowed to become something that hinders their unity.

Following the generational naming system, Zhou Mingde quickly announced a second reform.

That is, to rank the existing Zhou family cultivators based on three factors: cultivation level, achievements, and aptitude.

The highest rank is the Supreme Elder, followed by the Clan Chief, and then the Elder.

Below the elders, there are three levels: core clan members, elite clan members, and ordinary clan members.

In the future, whether it is the annual welfare offerings, the right to exchange and use certain family resources, or the right to cultivate techniques and secret arts, they will all be graded according to the status of each Zhou family member.

Even when conflicts arise among clan members in the future, and it is difficult to distinguish who is right and who is wrong, the clan leader and elders will tend to favor the party with higher status when making judgments.

According to this rule, now every peak master of Jiufeng Ridge, except for Pagoda Peak, will automatically become a core member of the family.

Those who reach the late stage of Qi Refining will automatically become elite members of the clan, while the rest will be ordinary members.

This set of identity classification standards will remain in effect for the next ten years.

In other words, ordinary clansmen like Zhou Chun can automatically be promoted to elite clansmen as long as they can cultivate to the late stage of Qi Refining within ten years.

Of course, if an ordinary clansman performs exceptionally well and makes significant contributions to the clan, or has outstanding talent, he or she can be promoted to an elite clansman or even a core clansman, even if his or her cultivation level is not at the late stage of Qi Refining.

Clearly, compared to merely hearing about generational rankings, this recognition of social status is a real and tangible benefit.

This system is somewhat similar to the elite disciples, inner disciples, and outer disciples within a sect, or rather, it's just a different name.

With this tiered system of status, ordinary and elite clansmen will definitely have to work hard to improve their cultivation and accumulate merits in order to improve their treatment and obtain more cultivation resources, hoping to become core clansmen.

This highly motivating reform was undoubtedly accepted by all the Zhou family cultivators on the spot.

Then, Zhou Mingde announced the third reform.

This change concerns the regulations regarding Zhou family cultivators joining sects and getting married in the future.

The Zhou family will not prevent its members from joining other sects in the future; on the contrary, they will provide some assistance and subsidies.

However, these are not free.

If a Zhou family cultivator joins a sect and receives subsidies and assistance from the Zhou family, but fails to successfully establish a foundation before the age of sixty and thus fails to become an inner disciple of the sect, then he must return to the family and serve the family wholeheartedly in the future, or return the money and goods that the family subsidized him.

At the same time, if a Zhou family cultivator wants to leave the family for personal reasons such as marriage, he must compensate the family for all the resources that the family has spent on him over the years, and he must not pass on the family's secret techniques or leak the family's secrets.

Conversely, if a cultivator is brought to the family through personal marriage, the family will also issue a reward.

Judging from this third change, the Zhou family's family tradition is still very open-minded; at least Zhou Mingde and other high-ranking members are such open-minded people.

At least Zhou Chun put himself in their shoes. If he were to join a sect or leave his family for a woman he loved, he would be very grateful for his family's open-minded approach and remember it for the rest of his life.

Of course, he would never do such a thing.

Let's not even talk about how easy or difficult it is to get into those cultivation sects. Once you're in, unless you have exceptional talent, your treatment might not be as good as in the Zhou family. You might even be subjected to more exploitation and restrictions.

After announcing these three major reforms, Zhou Mingde went on to announce some new clan rules.

For example, it is strictly forbidden to provoke major sects and families with Nascent Soul and Golden Core cultivators, such as the Qinglian Temple in Jingguo; it is strictly forbidden to actively provoke forces in Jingguo with Purple Mansion cultivators; it is strictly forbidden to use the Zhou family's name to swindle, kill, rob, or damage the Zhou family's reputation, etc.

Correspondingly, the restriction that Zhou family cultivators were not allowed to leave the Nine Peaks Ridge mountain gate was lifted.

From now on, any Zhou family cultivator who wants to leave the Nine Peaks Ridge sect can do so as long as they have a legitimate reason and apply to the clan leader in advance. After approval, they can leave.

And so, after staying in the ancestral hall for more than an hour, listening to the Supreme Elder Zhou Mingde announce and explain the various reform decisions and clan rules, Zhou Chun and the other Zhou family cultivators were finally able to disperse and leave.

The announcement made by the clan association at the ancestral hall this time naturally sparked heated discussions among all the clan members.

Even when Zhou Chun was overseeing things at the Jingling Pavilion, he would hear several of his uncles and cousins ​​discussing this matter.

He also expressed some of his own views, mostly in agreement and support.

Without rules, nothing can be accomplished. At least in Zhou Chun's view, the changes made by Zhou Mingde and other senior members of the Zhou family were all positive, with the benefits far outweighing the drawbacks.

The Zhou family cultivators are currently discussing these changes, simply because they are not yet used to them.

Once they get used to it, they won't care about these things anymore.

(End of this chapter)