roccoschili Chapter 206 Taoist Chen Hidden Gold
Chapter 206 Taoist Chen Hidden Gold
Once upon a time, there was a town under Teng County (Teng County was the old name, now called Tengzhou City, under the jurisdiction of Shandong Province) called Xia Town. There lived an old man named Jiang in the town. He was diligent and thrifty in managing his family and accumulated a lot of property.
He gave birth to a son who disobeyed discipline since he was a child. When he grew up, he became a prodigal. He was idle and wandering around all day long, and he didn't know how to do housework at all. Slowly, the family fortune began to decline.
Mr. Jiang saw this and was anxious in his heart. But he knew very well what kind of person his son was. I couldn't help but secretly worry about my son's future.
There is a Guandi Temple in Xia Town, and there lives a Taoist priest named Chen. His hometown is Gushi, Henan.
Taoist Chen and Mr. Jiang often play chess and drink tea together, and they have a very good relationship.
Mr. Jiang left a backup plan for his son. He secretly took [-] taels of gold and gave it to Taoist Chen.
Taoist Chen didn't know what his intention was and didn't dare to accept it.
Mr. Jiang said: "I know very well that my son is useless. It is estimated that he will not be able to maintain the family business in the future, and he will starve to death in the future! I hid this gold privately, and my son does not know that this money is in the family.
Now I leave this gold with you and entrust you to keep it for you. After I die, if my son realizes his evil deeds and can repent, then you can use this gold to give him alms. If he refuses to repent, then take this gold and use it to rebuild the temple! "
After hearing what he said, Taoist Chen realized his good intentions for his son.
So, he readily agreed.
Taoist Chen was worried that such a large sum of gold would not be safe in the temple, so he secretly found an earthen jar and hid the gold in the earthen jar. Then a broken chime (a percussion instrument commonly used by monks and Taoists) was built on it and buried behind the main hall of Guandi Temple.
Taoist Chen did all this quietly alone, without anyone knowing.
A few months later, Mr. Jiang passed away.
His son, Jiang, no longer had anyone to look after him, so he became even more unscrupulous. All the family property was ruined, and his life could no longer survive. His wife also ran back to her parents' home.
Later, Jiang sold his house, squandered all his money, and had no place to live. Seeing that he was in such a state of desolation, no one had any contact with him anymore.
At this point, Jiang began to feel regret.
Seeing his situation, Taoist Chen would give him a little money from time to time so that he would not starve to death on the streets.
And Jiang also began to learn to work and wanted to support himself.
Taoist Chen saw that he had changed his mind and felt that he would not make the same mistake again, so he told him that Mr. Jiang had left gold for him during his lifetime, and was going to dig it out and give it to him immediately.
That day, the two men took the iron bars to dig for gold. Who knew that when they arrived at the place where the gold was buried behind the main hall of Guandi Temple, they didn't find the broken chime.
After searching everywhere, no gold was found.
The two looked at each other, both surprised and didn't know what was going on.
After Jiang returned, he told his former friends about the incident.
When those people heard that Jiang had such a large sum of gold, they could all follow him to enjoy the rich and spicy food.
So, they started making noise together, thinking that Taoist Chen had embezzled the gold secretly, and instigated Jiang to sue the officials.
After the official received the petition, he called Taoist Chen over for questioning.
Taoist Chen did not hide anything, reported the truth truthfully, and explained that he had not embezzled, but could not find it.
The officials didn't care whether it was really lost, but they did give you such a sum of gold, so they decided that Taoist Chen must pay compensation.
Taoist Chen, a mute man, ate yellow lotus. He couldn't tell the story of his sufferings, so he could only make compensation. But he spent all his savings and was less than two-tenths of the compensation amount.
People in Xia Town no longer trust Daoshi Chen because of this incident.
Taoist Chen could no longer stay in the town. Although he was unwilling to do so, he had no choice but to abandon Guandi Temple and leave Xia Town.
Since then, Taoist Chen has been traveling abroad.
A few years later, Taoist Chen passed by Zhili one day (meaning directly subordinate. Zhili provinces in different dynasties and generations were different. Zhili Province in the Qing Dynasty included most of the current Hebei Province, Beijing and Tianjin) (all) of the Lianchi Zen Temple in the province. I felt that this temple was very clean, so I hung the list there (this is a Buddhist term, which means that wandering monks go to a certain temple to stay, and their clothes are hung under the list. Logically speaking, Taoist priests are You are not allowed to place orders in the temple.).
After staying for a while, when Taoist Chen was about to leave, he found that the monks on duty at the temple were doing Buddhist rituals and reciting the "Shou Sheng Sutra" for a certain person. .
There was an old servant playing outside the mountain gate of the temple, holding the young master who was observing the adults.
When the young man saw Taoist Chen, he immediately screamed "baaaaah" excitedly and stretched out his hands to be hugged by him.
Taoist Chen was very curious, so he came closer to take a look.
But the young master grabbed Taoist Chen's clothes, got into Taoist Chen's arms and refused to let him go.
Master Observer and his family members did not understand what was going on, so they had to apologize and let Taoist Chen hug the young master.
After the young master was comforted and Taoist Chen wanted to hand him back to the old servant, the young master started yelling "babbling" again, as if to say he wouldn't let him go.
Mr. Observer had no choice but to ask Taoist Chen to carry the young master back home.
Master Observer took out a generous gift of silver to Taoist Chen and asked him to leave. When the young master saw it, he ran after him in tears, hugged his thigh tightly, and refused to let him go.
Master Observer had no choice but to leave Taoist Chen in a small room in his back garden and arrange food and drinks.
One day, Taoist Chen wanted to chant sutras to pray for the young master who was observing the adults. He needed to use wooden fish, bells, chimes and other objects.
The family members of the Observer Master found him a broken chime.
When Taoist Chen saw it, he was shocked and said, "This is my chime! Why is it in your house?"
The family members quickly reported what Taoist Chen said to their master.
Master Observer called Taoist Chen over and asked what was going on.
Taoist Chen said: "This chime was something I used in the Guandi Temple in Xia Town, Teng County. But I used it to cover an earthen pot, and there was five hundred taels of gold in the earthen pot. I clearly put it It was buried in the ground, but for some reason I couldn’t find it!”
Master Observer asked him again where he got so much gold.
Taoist Chen told the observer that Mr. Jiang had entrusted the gold to him.
Master Observer suddenly realized that his son was the reincarnation of Mr. Jiang. This gold was hidden by Mr. Jiang, and now it is looking for its original owner.
Master Observation also told Daoshi Chen about his son.
It turned out that three days after the young master was born, he observed adults digging in the ground to bury the placenta and accidentally obtained this gold. Because my family was not short of money, I loaned out the gold to collect interest. It has been five years now.
Master Observer felt sorry for Chen Daoshi when he learned that he was innocent and had to pay money. Thinking that he and his son had a fate in the previous life, he gave the principal of five hundred taels of gold to the Taoist priest, then sent an envoy to take him back to Xia Town, and brought a letter to the magistrate of Teng County explaining the whole story. Let him engrave the story of Taoist Chen on a stone tablet as a commemoration.