During the Ming Dynasty, there was a man named Chen who lived in Shanxi. He was from a poor family and earned a living by teaching students. Although he was over 40 years old, he had no son. Nevertheless, over the years, he had saved up about 40-50 taels of silver from the tuition fees he received. He melted the silver into more than 10 silver ingots and would rub them one by one every night under a lamp as a pastime and then hide them under his bed so a thief would not steal them.
There was a young man named Mou Jia who lived in the same village. He had a difficult life and was struggling to survive. He knew that Chen had savings and had even climbed up to the window to peek inside his house, hoping to steal the silver ingots. However, he had no opportunity to do so. One night, Chen’s wife left the door open as she went to go out to the toilet, and Mou Jia took the opportunity to sneak into the house. He knew that the silver ingots were hidden under the bedding and hurriedly groped for them in the dark.
The thief Mou Jia tried to steal the silver
Although Chen was lying in bed, he was still awake and felt someone groping around the bedding. He lit the lamp and found that the thief was Mou Jia. He was shocked and quickly extinguished the lamp, whispering: “What are you doing? How could you do such an ugly thing and bring shame to your family?” Mou Jia was both frightened and ashamed and replied: “It’s nearing the end of the year, and I’m desperate because of hunger and cold.”
Chen said: “Alright, I’ll forgive you this one time.” He then gave all the silver ingots he had saved to Mou Jia and said: “Leave quickly and behave yourself in the future. I won’t tell anyone that you stole from me.” Mou Jia didn’t have time to thank him and left hurriedly with the silver ingots.
Then Chen shouted loudly: “Thief!” His wife hurried back and asked: “What happened?” Chen said: “A thief entered the house just now and has fled in panic. I don’t know if we’ve lost anything.”
He asked his wife to bring a candle to check. Chen’s wife found that they had lost all their savings in silver ingots and felt very regretful. Chen, however, comforted his wife and said: “Gaining or losing money is all predetermined by fate.” After that, Chen’s wife suddenly became pregnant and gave birth to several sons one after another, and their family gradually became prosperous.
After Mou Jia obtained the silver ingots, he worked hard and lived a modest life. He was able to marry a virtuous wife and achieve a comfortable life. He often told his wife about the past and wanted to repay Chen’s great kindness, but he had never had the opportunity to do so.
One year, during the autumn harvest season, Mou Jia got up at night to patrol the fields and prevent thieves from stealing the rice. The bright moon shone on the earth like daylight. He saw two people walking quickly along a small path in the fields and thought they were there to steal the rice. He held his breath and quietly observed them.
He overheard them talking in low voices. One person said: “It’s here.” The other person replied: “No, no, my measurement is the most accurate. It should be here and not there. If you don’t believe me, you can try inserting a twig here. If it doesn’t wither in ten days, then it proves the truth.” The other person said: “Alright.” So they broke off a twig and inserted it into the ground before leaving.
It dawned on Mou Jia that these two people were feng shui masters who had come to scout out auspicious locations. He quickly went to the spot where they inserted the branch and found that it was his newly acquired land. He observed the spot carefully and found that the branch did not wither after 10 days. He was overjoyed and decided to bury his deceased ancestors there.
However, his wife objected and said that they were common people who suddenly acquired a feng shui blessed burial site, and it might be difficult for them to bear the fortune. She suggested that they give the spot to Mr. Chen as a gift, and their ancestors could be buried nearby. Mou Jia agreed, but he wondered how to give the spot to Mr. Chen without offending him.
After thinking for a long time, Mou Jia suddenly had an idea and said with a smile: “I have a plan. When Mr. Chen buried his family, the grave was not dug very deep. I saw it with my own eyes. Let’s secretly move his ancestors to our land at night and then fill the old spot back up so that Mr. Chen won’t know. What do you think?”
His wife agreed, and they carried out the plan. Mr. Chen remained unaware.
A year later, Mr. Chen had a grandson named Chen Jing, who later changed his name to Chen Tingjing when he was awarded the character “Ting” by Emperor Shunzhi. He passed the imperial examinations at the age of 20 and became a scholar-official. He even taught Emperor Kangxi. In the 14th year of Kangxi’s reign (1675), he became an imperial academician, and in the 42nd year (1703), he became the chief editor of the Kangxi Dictionary.
When Mr. Chen turned 100 years old, he was still in good health. He continued to hold the spring and autumn ancestral worship ceremonies at his old grave site. All feng shui masters and diviners who saw the grave said that it was not a good spot for future generations to prosper.
Some people suggested to Mr. Chen that Mou Jia owned the most auspicious land and that if he wanted to relocate the grave, that would be the most ideal place. Chen also wanted to obtain it, but because of their past incident, he feared that Mou Jia might take offense, and felt embarrassed to ask him directly. He had to choose several other places, but they were all considered inauspicious. As a last resort, he asked someone to inquire about Mou Jia’s thoughts on the matter. Mou Jia smiled and said: “Since Chen is asking about the land, tell him he can rest easy. I already changed the grave of Chen’s family to that location a long time ago.”
So Mou Jia explained the whole story to the messenger and asked him to tell Mr. Chen. Chen was very grateful and personally went to thank Mou Jia, offering him a large sum of money as a reward, but he refused to accept it. They consulted with a feng shui master who confirmed that the land was auspicious and that if one had ancestors buried there, he could become a minister. They then erected a stone to seal the tomb, making it even more dignified. In just a few years, Chen Tingjing became a grand scholar of the imperial academy and the Minister of Personnel, just as the feng shui masters had predicted.
Translated by Eva
