Does anyone have a story about moral cultivation?

01. Shun, the legendary ancient emperor and one of the Five Emperors, had a surname of Yao and a given name of Chonghua. His nickname was Yu, and he was known as Yu Shun in history. According to legend, his father Gusou, stepmother, and half-brother Xiang tried to kill him many times: when they asked Shun to repair the roof of the barn, they set fire under the barn, but Shun jumped down and escaped with two bamboo hats in hand; when they asked Shun to dig a well, Gusou Sou and Xiang went down to fill the well, while Shun dug a tunnel to escape. Afterwards, Shun showed no resentment and was still respectful to his father and loving to his younger brother. His filial piety moved the Emperor of Heaven. When Shun was farming in Mount Li, elephants plowed the land for him and birds weeded for him. Emperor Yao heard that Shun was very filial and had the ability to handle political affairs, so he married his two daughters Ehuang and Nvying to him. After years of observation and testing, Emperor Yao selected Shun as his successor. After Shun ascended the throne as emperor, he went to visit his father. He was still respectful and made Xiang a prince.

02 Taste the decoction for yourself Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty Liu Heng, the third son of Emperor Gaozu of the Han Dynasty, was born to Empress Dowager Bo. He became emperor in the eighth year of his reign (180 BC). He was known all over the world for his benevolence and filial piety, and he never slacked off in serving his mother. His mother had been ill for three years, and he often couldn't sleep without blinking an eye or taking off his clothes. He personally tasted the decoctions his mother took before letting her take them with confidence. During his 24 years in office, he emphasized moral governance, promoted etiquette, and paid attention to the development of agriculture, which stabilized the society of the Western Han Dynasty, prospered the population, and restored and developed the economy. His reign with Emperor Jing of the Han Dynasty was known as the "Government of Wen and Jing."

03 Biting fingers hurts Zeng Shen, courtesy name Ziyu, was a native of Lu during the Spring and Autumn Period. He was a proud disciple of Confucius. He was known as "Zeng Zi" and was famous for his filial piety. When he was young, his family was poor and he often went into the mountains to collect firewood. One day, a guest came to the house, and my mother was at a loss, so she bit her finger with her teeth. Zeng Shen suddenly felt distressed. Knowing that his mother was calling him, he quickly returned home carrying firewood and knelt down to ask why. His mother said, "A guest came unexpectedly. I am biting my fingers in hope that you will come back." Zeng Shen then received the guest and treated him with courtesy. Zeng Shen was a man of profound knowledge and once proposed the self-cultivation method of "I should examine myself three times in a day" ("The Analects of Confucius·Xueer"). It is said that he wrote Confucian classics such as "Great Learning" and "The Classic of Filial Piety". Later Confucians respected him as "Zongsheng" .

04 A Hundred Miles of Lost Rice Zhong Yuan, courtesy name Zilu or Ji Lu, was a native of Lu during the Spring and Autumn Period and a proud disciple of Confucius. He was straightforward, brave and very filial. In his early years, his family was poor, so he often picked wild vegetables to make meals, but he had to carry rice home from hundreds of miles away to serve his parents. After the death of his parents, he became a high official and was ordered to go to the state of Chu. He was accompanied by hundreds of chariots and horses, and he had as much grain as ten thousand bells. Sitting on the folded brocade mattress and eating a sumptuous feast, he often missed his parents and sighed: "Even if I want to eat wild vegetables and carry rice for my parents, where can I get it again?" Confucius praised: "You Serving your parents can be said to be doing your best while you are alive, but you will miss them after you die." ("Confucius' Family Sayings: Thoughts")

05 Lu Yishun's mother Min Sun, named Ziqian, was a native of Lu during the Spring and Autumn Period. A disciple of Confucius, he is known as Yan Yuan for his virtue among the Confucian sect. Confucius once praised him and said: "How filial, Min Ziqian!" ("The Analects·Advanced"). His biological mother died early, and his father married a second wife and gave birth to two more sons. His stepmother often abused him. In winter, his two younger brothers wore winter clothes made of cotton, but they gave him "cotton clothes" made of reed catkins. One day, when his father went out, Min Sun shivered due to the cold while pulling the cart, and dropped the rope. He was scolded and whipped by his father. The reed flowers flew out along with the broken seams, and his father knew that Min Sun was being abused. The father returned home and wanted to divorce his second wife. Min Sun knelt down and begged his father to forgive his stepmother, saying, "If I leave my mother, I will be the only one who suffers the cold. If I divorce my mother, the three children will suffer the cold." His father was very moved and agreed to his request. When his stepmother heard about it, she regretted her mistake and treated him like her own child from then on.

06 Deer Milk Blessing Tanzi, a native of the Spring and Autumn Period. My parents are old and suffer from eye diseases, so they need to drink deer milk to treat them. He put on deer skin and went into the mountains, got into the deer herd, squeezed the deer milk, and offered it to his parents. One time when he was collecting milk, he saw a hunter about to shoot a muntjac deer. Tan Zi hurriedly lifted up the deer skin and walked out. He told the hunter about the fact that he had squeezed deer milk to treat his parents' illness. The hunter respected him as a filial piety and gave him deer milk as a gift. , escorting him out of the mountain.

07 Playing and Entertaining Lao Laizi, a hermit from the Chu State during the Spring and Autumn Period, farmed at the southern foot of Mount Meng to avoid the chaos.

He was filial to his parents and served them all the delicacies he could. He was still young at the age of 70. He often wore colorful clothes and played with a rattle like a child to make his parents happy. Once when he was delivering water to his parents, he fell when he entered the house. He was afraid that his parents would be sad, so he simply lay on the floor to study. The child cried while the elders laughed.

08 Sold himself to bury his father. According to legend, Dong Yong was a native of Qiancheng (now north of Gaoqing County, Shandong) during the Eastern Han Dynasty. He lost his mother when he was young and moved to Anlu (now in Hubei) to avoid war. Later, his father died, and Dong Yong sold himself as a slave to a wealthy family in exchange for funeral expenses. On the way to work, I met a woman under the shade of a locust tree and said she was homeless. The two got married. The woman spent one month weaving three hundred pieces of brocade to pay off Dong Yong's debts. On her way home, she walked to Huaiyin and told Dong Yong that she was the daughter of the Emperor of Heaven and was ordered to help Dong Yong pay off his debts. After speaking, he flew away in the air. Therefore, Huaiyin was renamed Xiaogan.

09 Ding Lan, who was born in Hanoi (now north of Henan and Yellow River) during the Eastern Han Dynasty, lost both his parents when he was young. He often missed his parents’ upbringing, so he carved statues of his parents out of wood. , things are like life, everything is discussed with the wooden statue, and I only eat three meals a day after serving to my parents. I must report before going out, and I must meet when I get home, and I never slack off. Over time, his wife lost respect for the wooden statue and curiously pricked the wooden statue's fingers with a needle, and blood flowed from the wooden statue's fingers. When Ding Lan came home and saw tears in the eyes of the wooden statue, he asked for the truth and then abandoned his wife.

10 Working as a servant to support his mother Jiang Ge, a native of Linzi, Qi State during the Eastern Han Dynasty, lost his father when he was young and served his mother with great filial piety. During the war, Jiang Ge fled with his mother on his back. He encountered bandits several times. The thieves wanted to kill him. Jiang Ge cried: his mother was old and had no one to support him. Seeing his filial piety, the thieves could not bear to kill him. Later, he moved to Xiapi, Jiangsu Province, and worked as a hired worker to support his mother. He was poor and barefoot, but his mother had many needs. During the reign of Emperor Ming, he was elected as filial and honest, and during the reign of Emperor Zhang, he was elected as virtuous and upright, and he was appointed as a lieutenant general with five senses

A contract that has been passed down for hundreds of years

A wealthy farmer loved him deeply son. However, in an accident, his son fell off a cliff and died. The farmer was heartbroken. In order to be able to "see" his son every day, he built a small grave in the manor. The year is 1797 AD.

A few years later, his family fell into decline and he had to sell his manor. Out of love for his son, he made a request to the purchaser: my son's grave must be part of the land and never be destroyed. And, this requirement was solemnly written into the contract.

How many years have passed, the owners of the land have changed one after another, and the names of the children have been lost. But the nameless child's grave remains intact, protected by deed after deed.

A hundred years later, this geomantic treasure was designated by the government as General Grant’s cemetery. The city of New York complied with the cemetery's covenant and preserved the unknown child's grave. General Grant is placed next to the unknown child's grave. In 1997, the then Mayor of New York City, Giuliani, came to the General Grant Cemetery to solemnly commemorate the 100th anniversary of General Grant's death. At the same time, the mayor personally signed a contract on behalf of the land owner, promising to keep the Tomb of the Unknown Child alive forever.

(Excerpted from "Yellow Race" Issue 1, 2005, author Chen Zhihong)

Discourteous, no reason

When Charles was young, he often visited his father Help out at the grocery store. There was an unpopular man in the grocery store who was known to have been unfaithful to his wife; morally speaking, he was definitely not a respectable man.

Charles also knew something about this man's character, so like other children, he was disrespectful to him. Children call other adult men "Mr. So-and-so," but they prefer to call this man only "Joe."

Charles' father heard his son's conversation with "Joe" one day, so he called his son into the office.

The son explained to his father that the word "sir" is reserved for respectable people, and that guy didn't deserve it!

"Whether he is worthy or not is his business, and it is your problem that you treat him this way. It is you who are rude now, young man!" said the father, "It is not your fault to have opinions about another person. Excuse!"

(Excerpted from "Global Times" on February 28, 2005, author Rubel Shelly, compiled by Liu Juncheng)

Give your life a chance for others

I once read a novel about a German Nazi officer who loved playing basketball and told a group of prisoners of war: As long as they can throw the basketball into the basket, they will be spared their lives. Otherwise, they will be shot on the spot immediately.

There happened to be a basketball player among the prisoners of war. After witnessing the tragic deaths of many people in front of him, he calmly and quickly threw the basketball into the basket.

The German officers came up with new tricks. He said: "You can leave; but there are still more than ten people staying here. You can shoot for them one by one. If they all hit, they can also be released, but if one misses, then you all have to... …”

The muscles on the athlete’s resolute face twitched before he nodded in agreement. Of course, almost everyone in the crowd looked at his hands. But without looking at anyone else, he threw all the basketballs into the basket one by one. Only for the last time, the basketball swayed a few times on the edge of the hoop. The crowd screamed in despair, but the basketball finally rolled into the hoop.

He looked at his hands - they were shaking.

People were rescued and looked at him with respect.

(Excerpted from "Tonight News" on March 24, 2005, author Pan Ganjun)

Thanks to that hand

On the eve of Thanksgiving, a newspaper office in Chicago, USA He asked a female primary school teacher for a painting, hoping to get some pictures drawn by children from poor families. The content of the pictures was something he wanted to thank.

The children happily drew on the white paper. The female teacher guessed that these ghetto children had very little to be thankful for, probably most of them would draw pictures of the turkey on the dining table or the ice cream bar.

When little Douglas handed over his painting, she was surprised: he painted a hand.

Whose hand is this? This abstract representation puzzled her. The children also guessed, one said: "This must be the hand of God." The other said: "It is the hand of the farmer, because the farmer fed the turkeys."

The female teacher approached little Douglas—— In front of this brown-skinned, thin, small, curly-haired child, I asked him in a low voice: "Can you tell me whose hand you drew?"

"This is your hand. Teacher." The child replied quietly.

She then remembered that after school, she often held the children’s sticky little hands and sent them walking for a while. Little Douglas's family was very poor, and his shabby clothes were always dirty. The teacher's hand has a special meaning to little Douglas. He wanted to thank it. (Excerpted from "Western Suburbs Monthly" Issue 2, 2005, author anonymous)

Love Growth Lesson

A doctor went to a primary school in southern England to visit his old classmates. As soon as she entered the campus, she saw a boy on crutches limping past. After a while, I saw another girl with gauze wrapped around her eyes, being supported by a boy three or four years younger than her, walking cautiously into the classroom.

With a look of surprise on his face, the doctor asked his old classmate: "Why do you have so many disabled children here?" The old classmate explained with a smile: "This is a love growth class in our school. In order to make these childish children The mind can truly understand and sympathize with the suffering and misfortune of others. We require all students to have a blind day, a sick day, a deaf day, a disabled day and a mute day during a semester. On the day of blindness, their eyes will be wrapped and they will not be able to see anything. Then we will assign children to help them. This will benefit both the blind people and those who help them.

"

So the doctor came to a blindfolded little girl and asked kindly: "You can't see, don't you feel uncomfortable? "No, it was a little uncomfortable at first, but when I think about those people who can't see anything in their lives, I feel so lucky." Then, the little girl said enthusiastically: "Since I passed the day of blindness, sickness, muteness and disability, my love has increased tenfold." Because it is also a very happy thing to show love to those in need. ”

(Excerpted from "United Daily News" on January 29, 2005, author Wang Jinyou)

The last toilet paper

Once when I was offering incense in the temple, I suddenly felt My stomach felt very uncomfortable. I rushed to the nearest bathroom, but on such a busy day, there was no toilet paper left, so I forced myself to find another remote bathroom with few people, and I started. I checked each compartment to see if there was any remaining toilet paper. Fortunately, I found a small roll here, which was only a few layers thin. At this time, I had the urge to put it away. I had the urge to tear them all down and use them, but then I thought, what if some poor guy with the same predicament as me comes here again? Out of gratitude to the person who left the paper for me, I just use it. I took out less than half of the toilet paper and left the rest for the next user.

About two hours later, my stomach started to feel uncomfortable again! Like last time, I ran to the nearest place first. But the toilet paper had not been replenished. I had to go to the remote bathroom with almost despair. I was even convinced that there would be no toilet paper left there. The strange thing is that in the cubicle I used last time, the toilet paper I left behind was still there. Originally, I wanted to do something good and leave the toilet paper to someone else, but that person turned out to be me! Then the "next user"! Guess what I did? Out of gratitude to the person who left the paper for me, I tried to use only the leftovers, even though I knew it was me. Half of toilet paper (from "Global Times" on April 1, 2005, compiled by Liu Juncheng)