1.A Household That Accumulates Goodness Deserves The Blessings
In the olden days, a woman by the surname, Yan, had a daughter. She chose a husband for her daufhter by investigating the background of his ancestors to check whether they had accumulated many merits. She did not take their wealth into consideration. She reasoned that as long as the ancestors were highly virtuous, the descendants would certainly be prominent. And, true to her judgement, her son-in-law became the father of Confucius.
Confucius also praised Shun for his great conduct of filial piety. He said, "Shun whould be remembered by people even after many generations. His offsprings and desendants would be successful and prominent." These are the sayings which are based on fenuine priciples.
Here is another proof. Yang-Rong was a high-ranking officer in the Hokkien province. For many generations, his ancestors earned their living by ferrying people acroos the river in their boats. Whenever there was a flood, many houses were destroyed. There were people, animals and goods floating down the water. All the other boat owners would fight to pilferage the goods.
Only Yang-Rong's ancestors tried hard to save people without taking any goods. All the villagers laughed at their foolishness. When Yang-Rong was born, his family gradually become wealthy.
One day, a Taoist came to Yang's family. He said, "Your ancestors had accumulated many merits. Their descendants would be wealthy and enjoy fame and honour. There is an auspicious place which is suitable for constructing the ancestors' tomb." They followed his advice and built a tomb which is still known as the "White Rabbit Tomb" these days.
Later, Yang-rong was born. He passed the imperia; examination at a very young age and was promoted to the highest rank in his service in the impeial appointment. The Emperor bestowed official rank on his grandfather. Until now, the descendants are still blessed with fame and wealth. Many of them are virtuous worthies.
2.Everyone Is Endowed With Kindness And Compassion
Yang Zi-Cheng was from Jin county. He worked as a junior officer for the county's magistrate. He was honest and fair. Once, the magistrate was punishing a prisoner. Even thought, the offender was already covered with blood, the magistrate was still very angry. Yang knelt down to beg for forgiveness on behalf of the prisoner and pleaded for the magistrate to control his anger.
The magistrate said, "How could I not be angry? He has broken the law and is unreasonably evil!" Yang bowed to him and answered, "The government has long lost the way in leading its citizens. The people have no good example to follow and they have been very unruly all this while. They do not understand the law, neither do they know how to be reasonable without proper guidance. It is good enough when we can find the clue to the case. We should not be glad even if we could solve it, how could we be angry with them?" Only, then did the magistrate calm down.
Zi-cheng was a poor man who would never accept any from of bribes, be they money or material gain. When he saw that the prisoners were suffering grom hunger, he would try to relieve them even if it meant that he had to suffer hunger himself. He was truly sincere in practising all good deeds continuously.
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