Qinglan, the sixth son of the Qing Dynasty grand duke Yin Wenduan (尹 Jishan), once told such a story, revealing the scourge caused by jealousy.
He said that he had a mother-in-law in his family, who was originally a maid of the Hao family, a large household in western Beijing, who often told people about the Hao family and felt ashamed and remorseful for what he had done in the past.
When this mother-in-law was in the Hao family, she was a little clever and very favored by the master and the master mother. The master Hao Dezhang's family was very rich, and he inherited his father's official position, and there was only one thing that worried him, that is, he had no children under his knees. In order to ask his heirs to inherit the incense, Hao Dezhang took a small concubine, who was pregnant when she crossed the door, and married her through the door, just to ask for the child in her womb.
Once, Hao Dezhang wanted to go to another province for business. Before leaving, he instructed his wife Liu Shiqian to treat the concubine well, although she had given birth to a child through her belly, and the one in her belly was not her own previous birth, but she needed that child to inherit the incense, and she could not be treated badly.
Liu Shi promised with a full mouth, and after her husband left, she immediately became mean to the concubine. On that day, Hao Dezhang wanted to take a concubine, she was strongly opposed, but she could not stand her husband's stubbornness, and others also came to persuade her, so she had to agree to her husband's concubine. After the concubine passed through the door, she was full of jealousy, but because her husband was at home, she did not dare to be arrogant, and now that her husband was not at home, it was her world.
When the concubine was about to give birth, she found this mother-in-law and said to her, What good is the child in someone else's belly for me, and when that gives birth, whether male or female, you will take it out and throw it into the river. When it's done, I'll repay you well. ”
The mother-in-law agreed, and when the concubine had given birth, she wrapped the child in swaddling and carried it out, handed it to a janitor, and asked him to throw the child in the river. When the janitor saw that it was a baby boy, he scolded the mother-in-law for lack of morality, but there was nothing he could do, just a coal transporter rushed by in an empty car, and he simply threw the child on the car.
Liu Shi did something lacking in virtue, but instead slandered the concubine for stealing the baby from the child's biological father, and before the confinement of the child, he drove the concubine out, and the concubine was full of grief and anger, and jumped into the river to commit suicide. A few months later, Hao Dezhang returned home, and Fang knew that these disasters had occurred in his family, and in a fit of anger, he fell ill and could not afford to be sick, and his phlegm attacked his heart, and within half a month he would die.
After Hao Dezhang's death, Liu adopted a stepson, and when the stepson grew up, he was very mean to her, scolded her, and often did not give food, and someone asked him why he was so thin as to adopt his mother, he said: "The old woman does not even want her own son born by borrowing her belly, what qualifications do she have to ask me, the son of the next abdomen!" ”
At this time, Liu Shi fang knew that the sin she suffered today was caused by yesterday, and she asked her mother-in-law to find the whereabouts of the abandoned baby. After many inquiries, the whereabouts of the abandoned baby were finally found. After the janitor left the child in the car that night, the coal carrier arrived at the coal kiln and found that there was a child in the car. He simply gave this child to the owner of the coal kiln, who happened to have no children, believing that this was a child given to him by Heaven's mercy on himself, and from then on he regarded this abandoned baby as his own child and took care of him in every way. The abandoned baby has now become the son of a rich family, helping his adoptive father to take care of the business and marrying a wife unexpectedly. The mother-in-law told him about the past, he was not shocked, not annoyed, only said that those have nothing to do with him, now that he is living very well, please do not bother again.
Soon after, Liu was locked up in a room by his stepson and starved to death. The mother-in-law left the Hao family and went to the Yin family. The Yin family did not want to hire her, but seeing that she was old and had no one to rely on, Quan took her in. Within a few years, the mother-in-law was sick and could not move, she lay all day, her body was full of bedsores, erosion and running water, smelly, and stayed up for a long time before she swallowed. This is probably also the retribution she received as a slave and cut off her master's descendants.
Qinglan believes that the mother-in-law is guilty, and it is not a pity to die, he said: Since ancient times, there have been many disasters caused by jealousy, many of which are caused by these indisputable slaves, if there is no righteous act like Gongsun Pestle to save the orphans of the Zhao family, it will definitely lead to the master's family cutting off their children and grandchildren, and such slaves are still dead.
The author's point of view: Qinglan is the son of an official eunuch, his father Yin Jishanguan worships the Viceroy of Liangjiang, a scholar of Wenhuadian University and a scholar of the Hanlin Academy, and his grandfather is a scholar of Dongge University and a soldier Shangshu, like a prodigal son born in a rich family, who has called slaves since childhood, and will not regard slaves as people at all. The mother-in-law is not false, but the real messenger is still the master, and if there is no dispatch from the master, she will not dare to do those things that damage the yin and the morality. If you want to convict, Liu Shi is the main culprit, and the mother-in-law is just an accessory, how can you put the blame on the accomplice?