Why does wealth disappear within three generations in some families, while others prosper for centuries? Through the rise and fall of families in China and the West, this book asks what we truly leave our descendants: money, education, family values, institutions—or the lasting consequences of the way we live?

Why do Chinese people still remember their ancestors? From ancient myths and family genealogies to ancestral rituals, Spring Festival, and Qingming, this book explores how ancestral memory has endured for thousands of years—and how it may help explain the remarkable continuity of Chinese civilization.