He told the guests not to start having their meal right away, saying, "Let's wait for Zhuo Shu for a while." The guests were all puzzled and said, "Huiji is one thousand miles away from here and there are rivers and lakes separating Huiji and Jianye. How can you be certain that he will be sure to come back at this time?" While the guests were saying this, Zhuo Shu arrived as scheduled. The guests were very surprised.

"A teacher is one who lectures on principles, teaches skills, and dispels confusion." This is the explanation given by Han Yu of the Tang Dynasty. One's life is given by his or her parents. How to live one's life and how to conduct oneself mostly depends on teachers. In Chinese, "teacher" (Shi) and "father" (Fu) are combined into the phrase "master" (Shi Fu). Since ancient times, there has been a saying that goes "He who teaches me for a day, is my father for life." That is to say, one should treat one's teacher with respect and humility.

The Taizong Emperor said to Feng Deyi, "Whether the running water is clean or filthy is determined by the source of the water. The ruler is the source of the government and people are like the water. If the ruler is deceptive while asking his subjects to be fair and upright, it is like expecting the water to be clean while the source is filthy. This does not make sense. I often think that the Weiwu Emperor is a deceitful man and I deeply despise the way he conducts himself. How could he set a good example with that kind of behaviour?"

However Bianji knew that Zhuangzi was coming to visit him and he felt quite uneasy. He thought, "Zhuangzi is much more knowledgeable than me and he is probably going to try and take over my country. Is he coming to fight for the position of Prime Minister?" Out of fear, Bianji ordered that Zhuangzi be arrested upon his arrival. Zhuangzi was very surprised when this actually happened but he managed to escape. When he saw Bianji, he looked him straight in the eye and walked towards him.

Afterwards, the emperor ordered a sudden inspection at his house during the mealtime and had his food brought back to the imperial palace. The emperor looked at the confiscated dishes to find that they were indeed ordinary vegetable dishes and coarse brown rice as Zhang Mi had described. The emperor admired him very much for his simple life style, so he gave Zhang Mi a nickname: Zhang Caigeng (張菜羹). Caigeng means vegetable dishes in Chinese.

In the eyes of Lao Zi, a perfect emperor should be "quiet and inactive," he should obey the Tao, and he should follow the people, that is all. To the people, "what is the importance of an emperor's power to me?" To an emperor, "if I do nothing, the people will civilise themselves; if I like quietness, the people will be righteous by themselves. If I do not interrupt, the people will become rich by themselves, if I have no desire, the people will become simple by themselves." (Chapter 57) This is the perfect state of governing a country that the Taoist scriptures clarified.

After Liu grew up, he successfully passed the Civil Service Examination (Translator’s note: passing the Civil Service Examination in ancient China would enable one to become a government official, and so it was highly regarded and considered a high achievement). His fiancée, however, had contracted a severe eye disease and turned blind. Liu’s neighbour was rather poor and because their daughter had turned blind, they felt she was unworthy of marrying Liu. So they didn’t dare to bring up the subject of the earlier engagement.

The military official asked Wang Anshi to have everyone else removed from the scene because he had to report a private issue to him. After everyone else left, he told Wang Anshi, “Last night I had a dream where it seemed I had entered Hell and I saw your son in shackles suffering in Hell. He asked me to tell you something that might be good for you. I was worried that you might not believe in my dream when your son told me, ‘My father will believe you as long as you tell him that I am being tortured in Hell because of a matter we had discussed at a certain time on a certain day.’”

In Chinese, Taizi (the crown prince) is also called Chujun (king-in-waiting). Raising a good successor to the throne was a very important job, as it affected the long-term health of the country. Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty took it very seriously. Crown prince Li Zhi was a kind and righteous person but lacked courage and determination. Emperor Taizong made careful plans to educate Li Zhi so he would be able to keep his good traits and improve on his weaknesses.

The Imperial Deity of Wenchang saw that Zhao Yongzhen had sincerely repented for his sin and had made a serious pledge. He told Zhao, “I can tell that you are sincerely repentant. If you will truly stop yourself from having any lustful thoughts and if you will advise the world’s people to refrain from lust in their speech, actions and thoughts, I will reinstate your first place and bless you with enormous good fortune.” Then the Imperial Deity of Wenchang pointed at Zhao’s heart with a pen. Zhao was shocked and woke up from the dream right away.

Xia Yuanji went up to him and asked, “May I ask you if you have seen a man chasing a horse on your way here?” But the man glowered at him and shouted, “Who cares about your horse or cow? Beat it! I am in a hurry! You are as dumb as a cow!” Xia’s servant happened to return at this precise moment and heard the man’s insolent behaviour. He shouted and reprimanded the man, ordering him to kowtow and apologising to the high-ranking Minister. But Xia Yuanji stopped the servant. He said, “Forget it! He may be tired from having been walking so fast. He didn’t know what he was saying.” He smiled at the man and released him.

Zhang Jie is famous poet in the late Tang Dynasty (618 – 907 A.D.) He wrote most of his poems in seven-character regular verse (七言律詩.) He often expressed his rage for the injustices that civilians were suffering from in society in his poems. He also showed novel and creative ideas and techniques in his poems. He once created a new form of poetry, which was known as “The Reformed Form.” His contemporaries called him a “novelty poet.” A Complete Collection of The Tang Dynasty Poetry contains 26 of his poems.

On the following day he made a special arrangement to have an inspection of Ximen in order to look for Huang Jianji. He was astonished to actually find a very low-level government official by the same name. He summoned him and was surprised to see him looking exactly the same as the man he saw in the dream. He asked Huang Jianji, “Have you done any great charity in your life? Why did The True God in the Purple Palace in my dream treat you with great respect and even placed you in a seat above mine?”

Bai Juyi, also known as Bai Letian, was a renowned poet during the Tang Dynasty. He lived from 772 to 846 AD. The less educated people at that time could easily understand the language used in his poems, with their explicit themes. The poems flowed so smoothly and his poetic style was so unique that it became a literary form commonly known as Fundamentally Plain Form (元白體.)

She looked out through the window and saw the shower had diminished. She thought, “The blanket is too thin. If I carry the baby out in such a thin blanket, he is bound to catch cold. If only there were a bigger and thicker blanket.” Then suddenly a golden streak of light appeared. A large blanket came flying down from the sky. It was not too thick or too thin. It did not catch fire when thrown into the fire. It beaded up the water when thrown into water. In addition, it had a giant Chinese character “pre-destiny” embroidered on it.

In order to educate his daughter Cai Wenji¹, he wrote an essay titled “Lessons for Women” He did not object to his daughter dressing up or wearing makeup. In fact, he believed that women should wear light makeup to make themselves more presentable and that women should keep their hair clean and glossy. On the other hand, he emphasized that it is more important for a woman to cultivate her inner beauty than to improve outer beauty. He believed that true beauty comes from the inside.

Starting as a lowly guard for Xiang Yu, Han Xin became general under Liu Bang and achieved outstanding victories repeatedly within just a few years. He was the major figure in deciding the outcome of the war between Han and Chu. Quai Tong praised this all-powerful military figure as: “A rare brilliant strategist.” His principle of manoeuvring troops was highly praised by the later military strategists. According to Han Yiwenxhi, Han Xin wrote three chapters of Hanxin Military Strategy. It’s a pity that the book has now been lost.

As they were about to cross the bridge, they suddenly heard a little girl crying for help from the forest on the other side of the river. Qian Weicheng halted his horse right away and said to Li Jianzhong, “Brother, we must hurry to her rescue!” Then he whipped the horse and crossed the bridge to rescue the little girl. But Li Jianzhong said coldly, “You may stay if you want to rescue the child. I must hurry to the capital city for the exam.” Then he rode off towards the capital city.

The ancient Chinese people paid special attention to the effect of music in forging people's character. They promoted the concept that the major benefit of music is education, not to stimulate the people's sensory organs. The ancient people saw "temperament forging" and "education through music" as music's primary function. In Yue Ji (Note on Music), the author said, "The old kings made ritual music to help people restrain and control their extreme desires."

Later, Cao was ordered to conquer southern China, which inevitably would involve mass killing. He said he was in poor health, and pretended to not be able to take the assignment. When his fellow generals came to visit, Cao said, "My illness cannot be cured by medicine. If you can all promise to me, with sincerity, that in the war to conquer southern China you will not kill one innocent person, then my illness will be cured." The generals burned incense and pledged to heaven that they would not kill the innocent.

“You Tiao” is Chinese for fritters of twisted dough. “You” means “fried.” “Tiao” means “strips.” It is a Chinese speciality usually served with soy bean milk at breakfast. The legend has it that it was invented by two people in Ling’an, the capital city of the Southern Song Dynasty and that the original name of “You Liao” was “Fried Kuai.”

Zhang Xuansu was a government official in the Jing Prefecture during the reign of Emperor Taizong of the Great Tang Dynasty (618-907 A.D.) Emperor Taizong once summoned him to the royal court and asked him about his philosophy on government administration. Zhang Xuansu told Emperor Taizong, “Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty (the previous dynasty) insisted on overseeing everything. He did not trust the court subjects. He relied on his own wisdom to run the entire country. That was the tragic flaw that led the Sui Dynasty to its end!

According to a Chinese legend, in an autumn, the heavy rainfalls made all the rivers in China surge. A lot of rivers raced into the Yellow River. The Yellow River became all the wider, larger and more powerful. The God of the Yellow River became very pleased and arrogant, thinking he must be reigning over the largest body of water under heaven. As he travelled down the Yellow River, he arrived at the North China Sea. He looked to the east and could not see the eastern edge of the North Sea. He became humbled before the North China Sea and sighed. “I was too arrogant,” he said. “I thought I was larger than everything else. Now I have seen your vastness. I realised I had been ignorant. I wouldn’t have even realised it had I not travelled here.”

The magistrate of the border county in the Chu State became jealous and irritated when he saw the disparity between the two states’ melons. Influenced by the magistrate, people in his county became jealous and angry with the people of the Liang State. One night they sneaked into the Liang State’s melon fields and ruined some of their melons. The next day when the Liang people found out about the mayhem, they reported to the master of arms and expressed their wish to retaliate.

Emperor Taizong of the Great Tang Dynasty and his Prime Minister Wei Zheng were the most famous and admirable pair of monarch and adviser. Wei Zheng was known for his honest feedback and constructive criticisms of Emperor Taizong, as the readers will find in many history books. Therefore, I won’t repeat them here. Instead, I will tell some of the most interesting anecdotes about them.

When the buyer came to sign the sales contract, Lu Yuanfang told him, “This is a wonderful house. The only drawback is that there is no underground water source to make a well.” The buyer immediately changed his mind and decided not to buy the house. After the prospective buyer left, Lu’s sons and nephews complained to him. Lu replied, “I don’t understand you at all. How could you conceal the flaw of the house and deceive the man for money?”

When the elderly folks learnt the story, they were very impressed with Yu Yan’s moral character. They said, “This child’s morality goes above and beyond. It is true indeed that the most difficulty situations reveal a man’s true nature. He is truly admirable.” The village folks learnt something important from Yu Yan’s story: Illness can never invade a righteous man.

Emperor Tai Zong also told his imperial subjects, “Many people believe that the emperor is fearless because he is above everyone, but I don’t believe so. I fear god’s judgement. I fear my subjects will emulate my bad speech and behaviour so I have to be cautious at all times. I also fear that I might violate the mandate of heaven [1] and the expectations of my people.”

Ni Shan attended the qualification examination for government officials repeatedly but he was never able to pass it. Some people laughed at him. “You give charity to the poor people almost every day. Why does a virtuous man like you repeatedly fail the examination? Perhaps God is blind after all?” Ni Shan was not discouraged by the scornful remarks. He kept on giving money to poor people as usual.

Xiong Zhiyi was a man from the Great Tang Dynasty in China. On his way to Chang’an, the Imperial City, to take the Imperial Examination for Government Officials, he was stuck in a hotel in Tongguan for over a month because of the incessant rains. One day he heard a man sighing in the adjacent hotel room. He knocked on the man’s door to inquire after him.

On the east side of the front gate in the southern part of the city, there is the largest and most famous temple in Beijing, the Temple of Heaven, where emperors came to pray to heaven for good harvests on the 15th day of the first lunar month every year. Qiniandian is the main building in this temple. In Chinese culture, the name of the building means Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests.

Wang Wei loved mountains and forests. He often took lengthy strolls in the woods alone to experience the feeling of being an integral part of the nature. It must have been a very beautiful and profound feeling, but Wang Wei found it hard to share it with others who were not in the same realm. This must be why Wang Wei wrote, “I savor the pleasant feelings with no one.” What he was truly saying is: “If only I could share this wonderful feeling with someone!”

"The baby swallows would open their big mouths and ate everything the mother swallow brought them. I watched the mother swallow feeding her babies every day. One day I put one of my fingers into the nest, and the baby swallows tried to eat my finger. I took three large thorny seeds and gave each baby swallow a thorny seed. They died shortly afterwards. When the mother swallow returned and saw her dead babies, she wailed sadly and flew away. To this day, every time I think of it, I still regret killing the three baby swallows.”

Stories about exemplary filial conduct abound in Chinese history. The Twenty-Four Examples of Filial Piety were chosen and compiled by Guo Jujing from the Fujian Province during the Yuan Dynasty (1280-1368 CE) while he was mourning the death of his father. He recounted the feats of filial children towards their parents from the age of the primordial Emperor Shun down to his own era.

Pang Anchang said: “The baby had already come out of the placenta, but one of his hands mistakenly held onto the intestine and wouldn’t let go. Therefore, no medicine would do the trick. I only applied the needle on his Hukou point through her belly. The baby felt pain and drew the hand back, so he was born. There was no other special trick.”

In the thicket he found only frosted leaves and green stalks coated with snowflakes and ice. Look as he might, there were simply no fresh shoots growing in the winter. The thought of his poor mother lying sick on her bed, waiting for bamboo shoot broth, made his heart ache. Uncontrollably, tears began to fall in rivers to the ground beneath the tall, emerald canes. Even now, as his tears flowed down, he kept a light of faith in his heart. If he was truly sincere in his search, perhaps....

The Emperor sent Li Qi as Ambassador to Zhang Shicheng to call for his surrender. Zhang Shicheng didn’t follow the common courtesy between battling armies of not harming the messenger from the opposing army and incarcerated Li Qi. Soon after, the Emperor’s army resumed its attack on Zhang’s army of rebels. Zhang Shicheng was outraged. He took Li Qi out of the prison and ordered him to kneel down. Li Qi declared, “My knees are made of steel! They won’t bend for any bandit!”

One day Old Master Lai overheard his parents lamenting, “Look at our son, he’s already in his dotage! Surely our own days must be drawing to a close!” When he heard that, his heart could not endure the helpless feelings that arose. “I must find a way to lighten their hearts!” he vowed. Determined to keep his parents from lamenting over their increasing years, he hit upon a plan.

Stories about exemplary filial conduct abound in Chinese history. The Twenty-Four Examples of Filial Piety were chosen and compiled by Guo Jujing from the Fujian Province during the Yuan Dynasty (1280-1368 CE) while he was mourning the death of his father. He recounted the feats of filial children towards their parents from the age of the primordial Emperor Shun down to his own era. Even today, these stories form an important part of orthodox Chinese virtue.

While one of Wang’s neighbours rebuilt his home, he laid a large pile of building material in front of the main entrance of Wang Wenzheng’s home. As a result, Wang was unable to use the main entrance. He had to use a smaller side door that required him to lower his head when passing the door. However, Wang never made any complaint to his neighbour or anyone else. It was not until his neighbour finished the work that Wang Wenzheng and his family could finally use the main entrance again. Wang Wenzheng acted as if nothing had ever happened. He simply started using the main entrance again.

When Tan was quite young, both his parents came down with an eye disease that the doctors said could only be cured by giving them deer’s milk to drink. As the family was very poor and deer milk was both rare and expensive, the young boy was upset and worried that he wouldn’t be able to provide the medicine that could cure his mother and father.

In the Jin Dynasty (265-420 A.D.), a respectful eight-year-old boy named Wu Meng served his parents with devoted compliance. His family was extremely poor and could not afford to install any mosquito netting. On hot summer nights the mosquitoes would come swarming in as thick as smoke. The little boy would remove his shirt and let the insects land on his bare skin. He would watch then drink their fill of his blood, and fly away without raising a hand to shoo them off, no matter how painfully they stung him. Wu Meng wasn’t a fool, but why didn’t he brush the bugs away?

On Lan Sun’s wedding night, Liu Hongjing had a dream where a man in civilian clothes carrying a scroll knelt down to him from a distance. The man said with tears, “I am Lan Sun’s father. I wanted to thank you for your good deed, but I had nothing to offer. I heard you have a short life span, so I decided that I must go see the King of Heaven and ask him to consider extending your life span. I am here to tell you that I am going to see the King of Heaven.”

Stories about exemplary filial conduct abound in Chinese history. Twenty-Four Examples of Filial Piety were chosen and compiled by Guo Jujing from the Fujian Province during the Yuan Dynasty while he was mourning the death of his father. He recounted the feats of filial children towards their parents from the age of the primordial Emperor Shun down to his own era.

In the 17th Century, a Spanish missionary discovered an underground tunnel in Guatemala, Central America. It extends about 1000 kilometres under the Andes Mountains. In order to protect the tunnel so that it will be excavated only when humankind has mastered enough science and technology, the entrance of the tunnel has been sealed by the Peruvian government and is tightly guarded. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation has listed this tunnel as a world cultural relic.

When she came back, she found Zengzi preparing to slaughter a pig. She hurriedly stopped him: "I said that just to comfort him." Zengzi said, "You cannot lie to a child. Since they are young and have no social experience, they follow what their parents tell them. If you lied to him today, you would actually be teaching him to lie to others like that. If a mother lies to her child, the child won't listen to her. Is this a good way to teach children?"

There is a story recorded in the Three-Character Primer entitled, "Four-year-old Kong Rong offering pears." This is a textbook for children, said to have been compiled by Wang Yinglin in the Southern Song Dynasty. The story tells about the kind and generous nature of Kong Rong, who was born in the last years of the Eastern Han Dynasty.

Researchers have uncovered strong evidence that the ancient Chinese used diamonds to grind and polish ceremonial stone burial axes as long as 6,000 years ago -– and incredibly, did so with a level of skill difficult to achieve even with modern polishing techniques. The finding, reported in the February issue of the journal Archaeometry, places this earliest known use of diamond worldwide thousands of years earlier than the gem is known to have been used elsewhere.

In ancient China, a pharmacist would typically dig a pit in the ground so that the medical pot could be easily balanced. While the servant was digging in the ground, a frog suddenly leaped out of the dirt. It had golden skin and a red Chinese character, “Wu”, on its back. The servant dared not hide this strange incident from the Emperor, so he told the Emperor what he had seen.