During the Kangxi Dynasty of the Qing Dynasty, there was a large family surnamed Zhang in a certain place in Jinan Province, Shandong Province, who had made a lot of money in the silk business in Jiangnan earlier, and after having money, he bought a piece of land to build a house in his hometown of Jinan, because he had been doing business in Jiangnan for many years, so he particularly liked the architectural style of Jiangnan. He specially went to Suzhou to invite a few famous craftsmen to build a house in his hometown, and he did not hesitate to buy a large number of wood and stone from Jiangnan, which looked magnificent and exquisite after construction. Even the local Zhixian lords visited their homes and exclaimed in amazement.
Soon after building a house, this old man Zhang married a wife and a concubine, bore him several sons, and bought a lot of land in the local area, becoming a large landlord on the rich side of the local area. One day, a very good friend of Mr. Zhang came to visit his house, and Mr. Zhang said a strange thing to him. It was one of his youngest sons who suddenly spoke to him one day.
Mr. Zhang said that he had a son who had died before, when he was only seventeen years old, and he was still very young. Although his son was dead at that time, his soul was often floating in the house, and the trance was like a dream, and he never left his home. This old man Zhang was grief-stricken every day because of the loss of his son, so he wrote poems and couldn't stop crying every time he read them.
Mr. Zhang's poem is written like this: "The old man lost his son, and the sun wept into blood." The old man is seventy years old and does not make many times to say goodbye. His son's soul, who was still wandering in the Zhang family, heard his father's cries and was deeply moved in his heart, so he swore: "If I can be reborn as a human being again, I must be a child of the Gu family again." After a few days, his son's soul was indeed taken to a place, and a man who looked like a county official was ordered to go to Zhangjia to give birth, and then he lost consciousness.
After a while, he suddenly felt that his heart understood, opened his eyes, and saw Old Master Zhang and his brother at home, and at the same time, there were relatives standing around him. Only he could not speak, knowing that he had indeed regained his life. He couldn't remember much about what had happened since then. The youngest son of the Zhang family, when he was seven years old, his brother beat him while playing with him. But the youngest son suddenly said, "I'm your brother, why did you beat me?" When Mr. Zhang heard this, the whole family was shocked. At this time, he told the story of his previous life, and everything was not bad at all. The younger siblings' nicknames can all be called out.
After this old man Zhang and his friend told him about this, his friend said to him, I think it may make you do good deeds, and even the underground yin si knows your good deeds, so that your son, who has died at the age of seventeen, will continue to be reborn into your family. After listening to it, Mr. Zhang also felt that this friend of his was right, usually this Mr. Zhang is a person who is kind and charitable, and his wife is still a devout Buddhist who has a special Shrine at home, and he will burn incense and worship the Buddha every day. Perhaps because of this, Heaven felt his good deeds and pious heart that allowed his dead son to continue to be reborn in his own home.
After this incident, this old man Zhang did more good deeds, especially in the year when the local disasters were encountered, he also took out his own grain to boil porridge to fill the hungry people, and saved a lot of people. Known locally as Zhang Shanren, he eventually lived to be 92 years old and died in his sleep.