Today I would like to share two stories about filial piety.
Story One
In Ren County, Zhejiang, there was a District Xiucai whose family was still well off, but he was nearly forty years old and still had no heirs.
In order to seek a son, he tried his best: to ask for help from the gods, to seek medical advice, to replenish himself with meat, and as long as there was a glimmer of hope, he did it, but in the end it was to no avail.
One day, a monk came here.
Ou Xiucai saw that there was an unusual breath on the monk's body, and he couldn't help but slowly express his distress, and finally asked: "Master, why is it so difficult to have a son, please point out a thing or two!" ”
The monk replied, "This is the evil karma you have created in the past, and you can do more good karma, release, and confession to eliminate the bad karma of the past." ”
Ou Xiucai accepted the monk's initiation and hurriedly asked the monk to move to his home and set up an fasting hospitality.
In Ou Xiucai's home, the monk saw that his wife was neatly dressed, while his mother was yellow-skinned, ragged, and full of sorrow, and couldn't help but be shocked: "You have a living Buddha at home, and you are not good at raising, but you are looking for a solution outside. If you can repent and rehabilitate yourself and make good offerings to your old mother as a Buddha, within three years, you will have an induction. ”
Ou Xiucai was ashamed and gladly changed. From then on, he regarded his mother as a living Buddha and kept his duty to serve well. His wife was infected by it and was also extremely filial to her mother-in-law.
Sure enough, in less than three years, the district wife became pregnant, and within a few years, she had two sons in a row.
Story two
On May 1, 1898, just after the Battle of Manila Bay, a commander ordered everyone to take off their clothes on a ship, and when they were ready to move, an ammunition man hurriedly took off his shirt, but accidentally let the clothes slip out of his hands, flew over the ship's fence, and floated to the surface of Manila Bay.
As the tunic flew out of the ship, the ammunition man turned and walked over to the captain and made a request, hoping to allow him to jump into the sea and catch his clothes.
The captain certainly did not accede to his request.
The ammunition man walked to the other side of the ship, climbed down the ladder, then jumped into the sea and swam over to catch his clothes.
He returned to the battleship and was shackled for violating military orders.
After the fighting, he was tried by a military tribunal for violating military law and convicted.
Commodore Dewey was intrigued by the case because he wondered why an ammunition porter risked his life to break military rules for a coat, and the soldier never said what his motives were.
But when General Dewey talked to him pleasantly and asked him why he did it, he couldn't help but cry.
It turned out that before taking off his shirt, the soldier was still looking at his mother's picture, and he also kissed the picture, and then put it in the pocket of his jacket, but he accidentally fell into the sea.
The general listened to him with tears in his eyes, then lifted him out of his chair and embraced him. Immediately the general issued an order to immediately release and pardon the young warrior.
"A filial son who risked his life to retrieve a picture of his mother could not be shackled on this ship." The general said with emotion.
The title of this story is called "Filial Piety and Fishing". No one remembered the little warrior's name, but his story was widely circulated.