Wu Ding Discovered his Prime Minister in his dream

VOU TING (or Wu Ding) was yet young when he ascended the Throne in 1317 BC. He entrusted the Government of Empire with his Prime Minister, during his three Years Mourning, and shut himself up in a House near his Fathers Tomb, in order to lament his Death, and to beg of Heaven to grant him the proper Virtues to qualify him for the high Station to which it had appointed him.

The Time of his Mourning being expired, he returned to his Palace, and saw, in a Dream, a Man presented him by Heaven to be his Prime Minister ; he beheld him with Attention, and the Features of his Face were so strongly imprinted on his Fancy that he drew an exact Portrait of him When he awoke.

Upon this he assembled his Ministers, and having related to them his Dream, and Shewed the Picture to them, he sent several of them to seek for the Person whose Picture they had seen.

They found him in a Village, called Fou Ya, in company with a great many other Artificers ; his Name was Fou Yue, a Mason by Trade. The King's officers discovered that Fou Ye had great fame in that area, for he invented a new method to build earth wall, which was called Board and Ram, a technology to build walls by ramming soil inside a wooden board frame, when the soil dried and hardened, the frames were removed. This was the great improvement in construction technology.

Fou Yue was immediately carried tor Court, where a great many Questions relating to Politicks and Government were proposed to him, to which he gave very proper and just Answers, with a great deal of Eloquence, to the Admiration of every one, so that the Emperor, after addressing him in the warmest Terms, immediately made him his First Minister.

Fou Yue prostrated himself before the Emperor, according to Custom, whom he found always very compliant with his Inflictions, the Particulars of which I shall publish in the Chu king ; the Emperor followed these Instructions regularly, and by that means became a Pattern for the best of Princes, and his Reputation extending to the most distant Nations induced them to come and pay Homage to him.

This Prince died in the fifty-second Year of the Cycle, which was the year before Christ 1265, and was succeeded by his Son, called Tsou keng.

(Du Halde, the General History of China.)

Comments

The wonderful pear-tree

Once upon a time a countryman came into the town on market-day, and brought a load of very special pears with him to sell. He set up his barrow in a good corner, and soon had a great crowd round him ; for everyone knew he always sold extra fine pears, though he did also ask an extra high price. Now, while he was crying up his fruit, a poor, old, ragged, hungry-looking priest stopped just in front of the barrow, and very humbly begged him to give him one of the pears. But the countryman, who was very mean and very nasty-tempered, wouldn't hear of giving him any, and as the priest didn't seem inclined to move on, he began calling him all the bad names he could think of. " Good sir," said the priest, " you have got hundreds of pears on your barrow. I only ask you for one. You would never even know you had lost one. Really, you needn't get angry." "Give him a pear that is going bad ; that will make him happy," said one of the crowd. "The o...

The Legend of The Three-Life Stone

The Buddhist believe metempsychosis, or the migration of the souls of animated beings, people's relationships are predestined through three states of life: the past, present, and future life. Legend has it that there's a road called Yellow Spring Road, which leads to Fogotten River. Over the river there's a bridge called Helpless Bridge (Naihe Bridge), at one end of the bridge sits a crimson stone called Three-life Stone. When two people die, they take this route to reincarnation. if they carve their name on the Three-life Stone together while they pass the stone, they are to be predestined to be together in their future life. Although before their rebirth they will be given a MengPo Soup to drink and thereby their memory of past life are obliterated. In reality, San-Sheng Shi (三生石), or Three-Life Stone is located beside Flying Mountain near the West Lake, Hangzhou. On the stone, there is seal with three Chinese characters that say "The Three-life Stone," and a de...

The Fox and The Tiger

ONE day a fox encountered a tiger. The tiger showed his fangs and waved his claws and wanted to eat him up. But the fox said: 'Good sir, you must not think that you alone are the king of beasts. Your courage is no match for mine. Let us go together and you keep behind me. If the humans are not afraid of me when they see me, then you may eat me up.' The tiger agreed and so the fox led him to a big high-way. As soon as the travellers saw the tiger in the distance they were seized with fear and ran away. Then the said: 'You see? I was walking in front; they saw me before they could See you.' Then the tiger put his tail between his legs and ran away. The tiger had seen that the humans were afraid of the fox but he had not realized that the fox had merely borrowed his own terrible appearance. [This story was translated by Ewald Osers from German, published by George Bell & Sons, in the book 'Chinese Folktales'. Osers noted that this story was ...

Chinese Æsop:

Search This Blog