Yao Wentian, a virtuous official of the Qing Dynasty, came from Huzhou in Zhejiang Province. On the first day of the Jiaqing year, one of his fellow townsmen dreamed he had come to a government office. Amid all the activity and noise, he heard someone shouting: “The top scholar list has come out!” He saw two officials dressed in red coming out carrying yellow flags.
At the end of each flag was a colored strip of cloth with messages that read: “The human heart is easy to cheat,” and “Divine justice is hard to twist.” Upon awakening, the man didn’t understand the meaning of his dream.
Someone told him about this dream after Yao Wentian achieved the top scholarly ranking. Yao Wentian pondered for a long time and suddenly realized: “These are the words of my late great-grandfather! When he was serving as a judge in Wanjiang, two people in the prison were framed and sentenced to death. My virtuous great-grandfather found out that there was no evidence to prove the case and set about releasing them.
At the same time, the fraudster sent him 2,000 taels of silver, attempting to bribe him to ensure that the accused were sentenced to death. My ancestor responded: “People’s hearts are easy to cheat, but Heaven’s justice is hard to twist. Heaven will not allow killing innocent people for money!” He refused to accept the bribe. The two men who were falsely accused were later acquitted. Could this be the meaning behind the words written on the two flags?
Yao Wentian was a strict and virtuous official. In the fourth year of the Jiaqing period, officials awarded him first place in the Imperial examination. He was eventually promoted to Minister of Education in the seventh year of the Daoguang period.
Dr. Nie avoids temptation
A skilled medical doctor named Nie Congzhi lived in Huating, Yi Zhou Province. Li, the wife of his neighbor, a county magistrate, once suffered from a severe illness and at one time was on the verge of death. Fortunately, Dr Nie’s treatment cured her.
One day, when her husband went to a neighboring county to attend some official business. Li feigned that she had a recurrence of her old illness and was suffering from edema and subsequently sent someone to ask Dr. Nie to help her. Upon his arrival, Li told him: “Last time, I almost died from my illness, but fortunately, I was treated by you, and I was able to recover. Considering that the things in this world are not enough to repay you for saving my life, I would like to repay you with my body.”
Dr. Nie was horrified and politely refused her offer. However, Mrs. Li cried and begged to insist on this sexual favor. Nie Congzhi was a decent man; how could he do such a degrading thing? He hurriedly turned away and went home. Mrs. Li sent more people to invite him, but Nie ignored her advances and refused to come.
One night, Mrs. Li dressed up and visited Nieh at his house, shamelessly pestering him. Nieh struggled and got away, thus ending this issue. Nie Congzhi never mentioned this to anyone.
A year or so passed, and Huang Jingguo, the magistrate of Yi Zhou, fell ill and was brought into the underworld by a messenger to testify in a case. Since he had not yet reached the designated end of his life, the magistrate of Hell ordered the messenger to send Huang back to the human world. Before Huang’s return, an underworld official told him to stay for a while and brought him to a river, where he saw a prison guard grabbing a woman and cutting open her abdomen with a knife to wash her intestines.
While witnessing this moment, a monk appeared by his side and said: “This woman is your colleague’s wife, who wanted to have an illicit affair with Nie Congzhi, but he refused her. Nie was a virtuous man for not being moved by the sight of a beautiful woman. Since Nie’s life expectancy was 60 years, and due to his upright conduct, Heaven extended his life expectancy by 12 years, further granting one of his children and grandchildren an official position in each subsequent generation. Li’s life expectancy was reduced by 12 years, and she is here to have her intestines washed to get rid of her lustful heart.”
Huang was an old friend of Nie. When he woke up, he rushed to Nie’s house and asked about this. Upon hearing this, Nie was shocked and said: “No one heard Mrs. Li’s private conversation with me. Moreover, I was the only one at home when she came to my house. The woman and I were the only ones who knew about this. Where did you hear this?” Huang told him everything he had seen and heard during his visit to the underworld. Soon after, the story spread.
After Nie’s death, one of his sons was indeed admitted to the Imperial examinations, and his grandson, Nie Tunan, became the Magistrate of Luo County in Hangzhou in the Shaoxing era. The monk’s words were valid.
Liao’s kindness brought success to his five sons
Liao Fengweng worked as a county official in Fuzhou when he was young. During the Jiaqing period of the Qing Dynasty, the head pirate Zhu Wo surrendered, and Liao was given a list of over 100 names of coastal residents who had contacted the pirates. Liao said: “Since the pirates have surrendered, there is no need to pursue those people further.” So he threw the list into the fire and destroyed it.
His superiors, however, intended to execute those residents on the list, but since they could not find the list, they had to abandon their pursuit. Liao’s kindness saved hundreds of families from being killed, and his merit in saving people’s lives was immeasurable. Later, five of Liao’s sons were all promoted to first place in the Imperial examination, and his youngest son was given a position as a high-ranking government minister. Upon Liao’s death, aged 80, his room was filled with a strange fragrance.
Translated by Audrey Wang and edited by Maria
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