In the summer of Qianlong Wuwu year, Xian County in Hebei Province repaired the city. Hundreds of workers were enlisted to tear down the original city wall and throw broken bricks onto ground from above. There are also hundreds of workers under the city wall using baskets to transport bricks. They knock the clapper when the lunch is done, and everyone eats together.
While everyone was eating, a worker, Wu Xin told others: "Just when I was transporting bricks, I suddenly heard someone in my ear say loudly: "if you kill, you have to pay back your life , if you borrow, you have to pay back your money, do you know?" I looked back. Look, it's weird to see nothing."
After a while, everyone got busy again after lunch, and the bricks were thrown down from the city wall like hail. A brick hit Wu Xin exactly. Wu Xin's head cracked and he died at that time. The crowd was shocked and yelled and made noise.
In the end, it was not clear who threw the brick and the government was unable to interrogate it, so the foreman had to pay ten thousand coins to buy a coffin for Wu Xin and bury him. Only then did everyone know that in the last life of Wu Xin,he owed the life of the person who threw the brick onto him, and in the last life, the foreman owed Wu Xin money, and the entanglement of cause and effect in the last life was still one-to-one correspondence in current life. If there were no ghosts and gods to tell first, who wouldn't think this was accidental?
-Ji Xiaolan "Yuewei Thatched Cottage Notes"
A scholar in the south of the old Cangzhou was friends with the fox, so Mr. Liu Shitui asked the scholar to introduce him to the fox.
He saw that the fox was short in stature and looked like a person in his 50s or 60s, dressed and dressed neither like the ancients, nor the people of today, but a bit like a Taoist priest. They salute each other very calmly, modestly and cautiously. After the greeting, the fox asked Liu Shitui what he meant to see him.
Liu Shitui said: "There are many differences among people in the world who come into contact with your race, and many of them are not very clear. I heard that your personality is very tolerant and cheerful, and you don’t hide your own identity. So I want to ask you to solve my confusion." The fox smiled and said, "God has produced a variety of animals, named after each. The fox’s name is the fox, so it’s the same as the human named human. Calling a fox a fox is like calling a person to be a person. What can be avoided? In our race, there are good and bad, just like people, there are good and bad. Please ask, there is nothing I can’t say."
Liu Shitui asked, "Is there a difference between foxes?" The fox said, "Any fox can cultivate, and among them, the most aura is the white fox. It's like the children of peasants who read books are few, and the children of scholars read books are much more."
Liu Shitui asked, "Is the white fox born with aura?" The fox said, "It has something to do with his species. The fox born to a fox without enlightenment is an ordinary fox. A fox born by a fox after enlightenment is born with ability to change."
Liu Shitui asked: "Since he has become enlightened, he can stay aging, and the fox recorded in the novel also has old men and old ladies. What is the reason?" The fox said, "The so-called enlightenment means that he can become a human being. The various aspects of his life, birth, aging, sickness, and death are the same as human beings. If it comes to ascending to heaven and becoming immortal, that’s another thing.” ...
Liu Shitui talked a lot with him. The main thing the fox said was to persuade him to learn Tao. He said: "We have worked hard for a hundred or two hundred lives before we can become human bodies. You are now human bodies, which is equivalent to having learned a lesson. Most people just wast their lives under the sun and the moon, and grows old with time just like the grass and trees. What a pity."
Liu dropped out of many Buddhist classics and wanted to talk to the fox about Zen. The fox refused and said, "The status of the Buddhist is very high, but if you have not reached the realm of cultivation, once you enter the cycle of reincarnation, you will be lost and forget your original identity. It’s better to ask for an immortality first, which is something I can grasp. I also often encounter real Buddha and real master, but I still dare not change my mind."
When Liu was about to leave, he said to the fox, "It is very lucky to be able to meet you today. Do you have anything to advise me?"
The fox hesitated for a long time and said: "People under three generations probably don't have a good reputation. This is for people after three generations: since ancient times, the saints are calm and peaceful, without any pretentiousness. Unlike some modern scholars, they often show off and cause trouble. "
After Liu Shitui left, he felt a little unhappy, because Liu Shitui himself is usually too sharp, some people said he was a bit too much. -"Ji Xiaolan. Notes from Yuewei Thatched Cottage"
Confucius on Goodness: In the Spring and Autumn Period, Confucius had two students, one is Zi Gong and the other is Zilu.
Zi Gong is a big businessman, he often does business in other countries. There is a law in the Kingdom of Lu that as long as you see your countrymen being sold as slaves in other countries, you can redeem him, and the ransom for the reward will be paid by the kingdom. Is this law good? very good! Wake up every countryman to love and rescue his compatriots.
Zigong ransoms the people back in the country. When the government gave him the ransom, Zigong did not accept it, and most people would think that Zigong was noble and did not want the ransom.
But when Zi Gong came to Confucius, Confucius criticized him: "Zigong, you are doing it wrong." The people of Lu are very poor. When they go to other countries to see their fellow citizens, he will consider: "If I redeem When he came back, I went to take the ransom, as if it was a bit despicable than Zigong." He would be worried, because he took the ransom and seemed not as noble as Zigong, but he did not take the ransom, and his financial situation was very tight. Maybe his life at home is difficult. Of course, he will hesitate when saving people, which will have bad effects. For example, if one hundred people save people, one of them hesitates, and it is very likely that he will not be able to redeem his countrymen. Therefore, Confucius said: "If you do this, bad things will occur."
On another day, Zilu was walking on the road and happened to encounter a person drowning. When Zilu saw it, he jumped down and rescued him. The person who was rescued was very grateful and gave his cow to Zilu. Zilu was also very happy and led the cow back.
Confucius praised Zilu when he learned that in the future, many people in Lu will have the courage to help others and save their lives, because Zilu's performance can make everyone deeply feel that those who do good will have good rewards.
Most people think that it is more correct that Zi Gong is not subject to the ransom, and that Zi Lu Su Niu is not as noble as Zi Gong. But Confucius observes things not only at the present, but also at the future, not at the moment but at the long-term, and not at only one person but at the impact on the world.
There is no suffering in life, the wise see the Tao, and there is no sadness in death. There is no sorrow among all beings. Bhikkhu disengage craving and stays in Zen, then rebirth will end and there will be no rebirth. -"You Po Xian Na Po Tan Ti Zi Jing"
The reason why Emperor Wenchang instructed us and gave us his admonishment was because he wanted us to behave well. But can we really deserve to be human? Mencius said: "You can't be regarded as a human without compassion. You can't be regarded as a human without shame and courtesy." It's not easy to be a human being by this standard. Everything in the world is possessed by humans, and how respected are humans! Human can be called emperors and kings, how noble human are! Human are born without money, and when they die, they are empty-handed. How poor human are! As soon as the delicacy enters the human throat, it instantly becomes feces and filthy, how humble human are! Everyone has lived in the mother's fetus, how humble human are! Human eat all the birds and beasts, how cruel human are! Human are wearing silk fabrics and satin, but their abdomen is full of excrement and urine. How hypocritical human are! Human loves his own lover in his own heart, and is driven by his lover's love but willingly, how timid human are! Human just point to a hiding place and think it is home, how small a human is! What a shame it is for a human to be morally virtuous during the day and preach benevolence and righteousness, but to do ugly and ashamed things at night! Human live today, but there is no guarantee that they will be alive tomorrow, how fragile human are! As soon as the King of Hades calls human, human leave this world, how cowardly human are! The "Abhitam Lun" said: "Human characters have eight meanings." "Lou Tan Zhengfa Sutra" said: "In the world of Yan Futi(our world), there are six thousand four hundred kinds of differences between humans." In this way, is the word "human" easy to be recognized?