The ceremony was extremely complicated. Fangzheng did a rough calculation. All the steps numbered a total of forty-nine steps! The time needed for all of them, even for the faster ones, took nearly an hour to complete!
If one was more serious, it would need ninety minutes to two hours!
And this was only the pre-ceremony before the prayers. Praying was not just closing the eyes and clasping the palms together. There was also a set of matching movements and tone to use. The words said were not sentences, but the songs he sang. Although the song was very unpleasant…
Moreover, this song seemed to have an inkling of the Beijing opera. Often, a word could be dragged out for very long until one was out of breath.
There were not many words to say in the prayer, but it took about half an hour to sing it.
In other words, the entire prayer process took about two hours!
