In the Qing Dynasty, there was a clerk in Wuxi, Jiangsu, Wang, who was detained in Shunzhi Dingbai for money and grain matters and died in Beidu Prison. In April of the second year of Emperor Kangxi's reign, when Han Guang, the son of Taifu Jin of Suzhou, returned home from the capital, when his boat passed Zhangjiawan, someone shouted on the shore: "I am Wang from Wuxi, please take me back." Hanguang agreed. that person. But when he stopped the boat, he didn't see Wang coming. As soon as the boat set off, he heard Wang calling again. Han Guang asked what happened to this man. Wang had to tell Han Guang truthfully, "I'm a resentful ghost. Your boat is too far from the shore, and I can't board it."
Everyone in the boat was shocked. The ghost said, "It's okay, I'll just sit in the corner of the boat." When the boat was near the shore, it seemed that someone jumped in. Not long after the trip, the ghost screamed and jumped up again. Ask him what's the matter. The ghost said: "I lost a small cloth bag on the shore, and there was some money and food in it. When I got home and confronted people, I needed this as a proof. Please stop the boat and let me fetch it." Han Guang complied with him.
The boat traveled for three days and came to a place. It was almost evening. The ghost said, "Stop the boat for a while. There is a Puzhai here. I will go there." Han Guang asked, "What is a Puzhai." The ghost said, "It's normal. It’s about giving food.” The ghost came back after a while and said, “Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva presides over the altar and has no food for me. Because I liked to eat beef when I was alive. As long as the Bodhisattva presides over the altar, no ghost who likes beef will be allowed to eat.”
At that time, Han Guang was drunk. Hearing what the ghost said, he patted the table and exclaimed: "There is such a strange thing in the world. I usually like to eat beef, so I should quit now." After a while, the ghost burst into tears. Ask what the hell is going on. The ghost said, "The Bodhisattva of the Preceptor Altar is here, and I can't stay here any longer." Han Guang asked, "Then how do you get back?" The ghost said, "I have to wait for another boat." As soon as Han Guang stopped the boat, the ghost immediately Went away silently.
[Note] As soon as Hanguang's words of abstaining from eating beef were spoken, The Bodhisattva of the Preceptor Altar came. It can be seen that as long as people move their hearts and minds, the gods and ghosts can see clearly. The record of the merits and faults of people is infallible. Qi Jiguang used to recite the "Diamond Sutra" every day, and there were ghosts who dreamed and asked Qi Gong to read a volume of "Diamond Sutra" to save him. When Qi Jiguang was chanting the scriptures, a maid just happened to bring tea, so he waved his hand to stop it, saying no. That night, the ghost came to Qi Jiguang's dream again and said, "The sutra was recited very well, but the word "no need" was added in the middle, so it was not effective." The next day, Qi Jiguang recited reverently, without a single distraction in his heart. This night, the ghost came to thank him again: "I have been saved." Because ghosts and gods can know the thoughts of other people, every time a person thinks, the ghosts and gods know what they are thinking. Today's people, from dawn to dusk, from dusk to dawn, have many thoughts of killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, and five evils and ten evils. Like this, how can we not be condemned by the heaven and earth ghosts and gods, and how can we not offend the ghosts and gods to be angry? Therefore, when a person, only he himself knows what he is doing, he must be cautious!
Excerpted from An Shiquan Book "Wenchang Emperor Silently Doing Good Virtue": Just thought of quitting beef
The wife of the tenant Cao Er was extremely fierce and aggressive. She scolded the wind and the rain at every turn, or scolded ghosts and gods. As long as she disagreed with the neighbors and villagers, she would lift her sleeves and show her arms, holding two clothes pounding sticks, shouting and jumping like a tigress, and to fight with others, so no one dared to provoke her. One day, she went out to steal other people's wheat on a rainy day. Suddenly there was a gust of wind and thunder and lightning. Then a hail the size of a goose egg fell, and she was injured and fell to the ground. At this time, the strong wind suddenly swept a big bucket that could hold five buckets of grain, and it landed right in front of her. She hurriedly put the bucket on her head and survived. Is this because God is also afraid that she will be arrogant? Someone said: "Although this shrew is tyrannical and cruel, she serves her mother-in-law very filially. Whenever she fights with others, her mother-in-law comes out to scold and stop her, she would obediently go home with her mother-in-law. Sometimes her mother-in-law is very angry with her, and slapped her in the mouth hard. She would kneel down and apologize to her mother-in-law ." It can be seen that there is a reason why she did not die in disasters. As Confucius said: "filial piety, this is a matter of righteousness." Is it okay to be unfilial? -Ji Xiaolan's "Notes on Yuewei Thatched Cottage"
When Ji Xiaolan's father was serving in the Ministry of Punishment, there were seven people blocking the road and robbing them outside Deshengmen in Beijing. The government caught five of them, but only Wang Wu and Jin Daya slipped through the net.
Wang Wu fled to Luxian County, where he was blocked by a deep ditch. The only small bridge that could pass was a strong bull lying on the bridge with his eyes open in anger. As soon as he approached the little bridge, the bull rammed him with his horns. He wanted to go back and find another escape route, but when he met the patrolman, he was caught and brought to justice.
Jin Daya fled to the north of Qinghe Bridge, and was pushed into the mud by two bulls driven by a bull herder. Jin Da Ya was furious and fought with the bull herder. When Qinghe was not far from Beijing, someone recognized him as the wanted criminal and reported him to the local officials. Local officials captured him, bound him, and handed him over to the government.
Wang Wu and Jin Daya are both Hui people. They both slaughtered cattle for their profession, and they both fail to cattle. Isn't this because their slaughter is too cruel. Although cattle are beasts, they also harbor resentment, so their tyrannical spirits use the help of their own kind to take revenge! If it wasn't for this reason, Jin Daya's being crushed by the bulls could be said to be an accident, but who arranged for the bull lying on the bridge for no reason to meet Wang Wu? -Ji Xiaolan's "Notes on Yuewei Thatched Cottage"
There is a man surnamed Shi in Xian County. His job is to arrest fugitives. This person is informal, but has an open-minded and upright temperament. He looks down on those who are vile and filthy.
One day, he occasionally returned from the casino. He saw a family in the village, the husband and wife, the mother and the child were embracing and crying. He asked people why. A neighbor of this house said: "Because his family owes a debt to a rich man, the rich man is very pressing and desperate, and the man has no choice but to sell his wife to someone else to pay off the debt. The couple usually love each other and have a very good relationship. Plus their baby hasn't been weaned yet, and the mother just left the baby and walked away, can they not be mourned?"
Shi went up and asked the villager, "How much debt do you owe?" The villager said, "Thirty taels of silver." Shi asked, "How much did she sell?" The villager replied, "She sold it for fifty. She's going to be a concubine for someone else." Shi asked, "Can it be redeemed?" The villager said, "Although the deed has been written, but the money has not been paid, why can't it be redeemed?"
Shi immediately gave all the seventy taels of silver he won from the casino to the villager, and said to him, "You take these thirty taels to repay the debt, and the other forty taels, as a living capital, don't give up your wife any more. "
The villagers and his wife were so grateful, they immediately killed the chicken and served wine to entertain Shi. When the wine was almost finished, the villager picked up the child for an excuse and went out, and gestured with his eyes to his wife to accompany Shi to repay his kindness. The woman nodded silently in understanding, and when she spoke to Shi Mou, she gradually showed an intimacy. Shi also noticed this step, and said to the woman with a stern face: "I, Shi, have been a robber for half my life, and a officer to arrest fugitives for the government for the other half of my life. I am an executioner who kills people without blinking an eye. However, I will never do anything to humiliate a woman of a good family!" After eating and drinking, he flicked his arm and left without looking back.
Half a month later, a fire suddenly ignited at night in the village where Shi lived. At that time, the autumn harvest was over, and every house was full of grains and firewood. Thatched huts, stalks, and fences are all flammable things, and the wind is high and things are dry. The fire follows the wind. Shi estimated that his family had no way to escape, so he and his wife sat at home with their eyes closed and waited to die. While in a trance, I seemed to hear someone on the roof shouting from a distance: "The gods of Dongyue have an urgent document: Shi's family is fully exempt!" As soon as the voice fell, the back wall of the house collapsed with a bang, and there was a hole in front of him to escape. On the way, Shi held his wife in his left hand and his son in his right hand, and jumped out, as if he had wings on his back, and flew away from the sea of fire.
In the fire, a total of nine people in the village were burned to death. Neighbors clasped their hands together and recited Buddha's words, saying, "Yesterday we laughed at you behind your back! We didn't expect that seventy taels of silver would redeem three lives today!"
In my opinion, among the reasons why Shi can be blessed by the God of Life, donating money to support the villagers accounts for four-tenths of the merits, while the merits of rejecting women's sexuality account for six-tenths of the merits.
-Ji Xiaolan's "Notes on Yuewei Thatched Cottage"
My mother, Mrs. Zhang Tai, said: There was a bearer named Tian in Cangzhou, and his mother was dying of bulging disease. The bearer heard that there was a doctor in Jinghe Town who had a special medicine for this disease, but it was more than a hundred miles away from his hometown. Before dawn, he set off and ran to Jinghe Town. After taking the medicine, when night fell, he ran back again, exhausted and breathless. But that night, the water of the Wei River swelled sharply, and the wind and waves were so high that no boat dared to cross him. He was so anxious that he raised his trombone to the sky and burst into tears. The boatmen were very sorry for him, but there was nothing they could do.
At this time, a boatman stood up abruptly, and while untying the ropes of the boat, he greeted Tian and said, "As long as the heaven God has eyes, he will not drown you! Come on! I will take you across the river! "
The boatman rowed hard, and the boat rushed across the white waves, like an arrow from a string, and reached the east coast in a blink of an eye. Everyone present sighed and put their palms together to recite the Buddha.
My father Ji Yao An said: "This boatman believes in filial piety, and is even more sincere than ordinary Confucian scholars." Ji Xiaolan's "Notes on Yuewei Thatched Cottage"
My deceased father Yao Angong (Ji Xiaolan's deceased father Ji Rongshu) has a serious temperament and rarely interacts with other people.
However, one day, there was a man in tattered clothes sitting in the hall, and my father respectfully accompanied him to drink tea and talk. After a while, my father called all our brothers to the hall again, greeted this man, and said to us: "This gentleman is the fourth-generation grandson of Mr. Song Manzhu. It has been a long time since the Ji family and the Song family lost contact, and it was only today we met face to face.
Back in the midst of the war in the late Ming Dynasty, when your great-grandfather (Ji Runsheng) was only eleven years old. In those chaotic years, thanks to Mr. Song Manzhu for taking him in and raising him, your great-grandfather was able to survive. "
So, my father let this descendant of Song Manzhu live in our house, and my father helped him to find a career in many ways, so that the man could live and earn a living. Since then, my father has often used this as an example to teach our brothers that if others are kind to us and help us, we should repay with all our hearts and minds, and we don’t have to talk about cause and effect. In fact, there is no error in cause and effect. - Ji Xiaolan's "Notes on Yuewei Thatched Cottage"
The best time to plant a tree was 10 years ago,The second best time is now.
Censor Hu Muting said: Someone in his hometown raised a pig. As soon as the pig saw the neighbor's old man, it stared and roared, and ran after him to bite him. But it does not do the same when it sees others. The old man was very angry at first, and wanted to buy it and kill the meat to relieve his hatred. Soon he suddenly became enlightened and thought to himself, "This is probably the grievances in previous lives that the Buddhist scriptures said? But there are no unresolvable grievances in this world!" So he bought it at a high price and sent it to the monastery as a long-lived pig, which the monastery will feed until it naturally pass away in the future. After this, when the pig saw the old man again, it leaned close to him and approached him affectionately, no longer as fierce as it had seen before.
I have seen a painting of "Arhat Subduing a Tiger" by Sun Zhong. There are also words written by Li Yan, a native of western Sichuan. The general idea is that a man of great virtue rides a tiger like a good horse. Is it that it was originally docile? No, it is because virtue and compassion dissolve its fierceness. From this, it can be seen that between heaven and earth, all sentient beings can become friends. I hope that all living beings can get along with each other sincerely, and not fear each other and become hostile.
I think this inscription can be used as circumstantial evidence for the story told by Censor Hu Muting. -Ji Xiaolan's "Notes on Yuewei Thatched Cottage"