The story of the Stone Man and the Stone Beast
There are stone people and stone beasts on the tombs of the feudal emperors and princes, but in front of the tomb of the same coal miner, there are also stone people and stone beasts. This is indeed a strange thing. One year, the emperor came out on a private visit and passed by a coal kiln, and out of a moment of curiosity, he walked in from the mouth of the coal kiln to see what was going on in the coal kiln. But his body, which was equally virtuous and superior, was really tired and couldn't stand it after such a sudden. Coming out of the kiln, he was tired and hungry. Passing by a small broken house, I suddenly smelled a seductive fragrance, it turned out to be a miner's mother surnamed Cao who was steaming a cage of chaff nests, and the fragrance was emanating from the steamer. The emperor was so hungry that he stretched out his hand to ask the miner's mother for some chaff to eat. The kind miner's mother, generously gave him a few. The emperor ate it greedily, feeling sweet and fragrant, much more delicious than the mountain treasures and seafood he had eaten in the palace. After a full meal, he said goodbye to the miner's mother thankfully. The emperor returned to the city of Beijing. The situation of those folk people who he saw in the private visit had long been forgotten, but the chaff nest that tasted particularly good was firmly remembered in his heart. He summoned his ministers and told them to make him chaff to eat. The ministers hurriedly found a lot of famous chefs, used all kinds of precious raw materials, and made all kinds of exquisite nests, thinking that they would get the emperor's praise, but the nest was sent to the emperor, and the emperor tasted one after another, all of which were not as good as the chaff nests eaten at the miner's mother's house. The emperor was furious and pushed several ministers and many cooks out of the noon gate and cut off their heads. When a minister saw that the emperor had killed the minister and the celebrity chef, he did not stop his anger, so he came up with the idea and said: Since His Majesty is eating at the home of a miner's mother in Datong, why not send someone to Datong to find the miner's mother and ask her to make it for His Majesty to eat with her own hands? The Emperor adopted this opinion. As a result, the miner's mother was immediately taken to the capital. When the miner's mother learned of the emperor's intentions to find him, and knew that many ministers and famous cooks had been slaughtered because the chaff nests were not to the emperor's taste, she had the courage to say to the emperor: "As the saying goes: Hungry grain is as sweet as honey, and full grain honey is not sweet. His Majesty came up from the coal kiln, hungry and tired, so the chaff nest also ate very fragrantly and sweetly. Now that His Majesty has returned to Beijing, all he eats is the taste of mountains and treasures and the sea, and I will make the same chaff nest again, that is, it is a hundred times better, and His Majesty will not be sweet when he eats it. ”
The emperor listened to the reasonable words of the miner's mother, and he dismissed the plan to make chaff nests to eat. Moreover, he thought that this old woman was very clever, and as soon as he was happy, he wanted to give her a big reward. So he asked Mother Cao, "Who else in your family?" Mother Cao replied frankly: "My family only has one son named Genzi, who digs coal in the coal kiln. "Well, call your son and I'll make him the Lord's book." Therefore, Cao Genzi, a hard-working and poor miner all year round, was immediately summoned to the capital and confusedly made the main book in front of the emperor. This can make some ministers angry, and they always try to find a way to trap the miners. Because Cao Genzi had worked in the coal dust kiln for a long time in the past, he sucked up a lot of coal dust, so the spit was black. One day when he was seen by a minister, he thought that he had caught Cao Genzi's handle, and immediately ran to the emperor and said, "This miner is a bad guy with a black heart, and the phlegm he spits out is black, and if he doesn't get rid of it as soon as possible, it will definitely be a big disaster in the future." "The emperor checked, and sure enough, the phlegm spit by this miner was black. So, in such a confused way, he killed this innocent miner again. Cao's mother was a widow, and when her son was only six years old, his father died under the kiln. Mother Cao had suffered so much hardship that it was so easy to drag the Cao family's life root to adulthood, and today she was killed by the emperor for no reason, which made her very angry, and she ran to the emperor desperately and asked, "Why did you kill my son?" The stupid and fierce Emperor replied, "Your son is a villain with a black heart." The phlegm he spat out was black. As soon as Mother Cao heard that, for this reason, she had killed her son, and she spoke up with the emperor in a straight face. She asked the emperor to send someone to the coal kiln to check it out. The emperor sent someone to the coal kiln to check it out, and sure enough, the phlegm spit by each miner was black. In the face of ironclad facts, the emperor had nothing to say. He had to admit that he had killed Cao Genzi by mistake, ordered the miner to be buried thickly, and built a stone man and stone beast in front of the miner's tomb. This is where these stone men and stone beasts come from. Now, these stone men and stone beasts are still standing quietly next to the White Cave Coal Mine, complaining about the dark old society, accusing the stupid and violent feudal emperor, singing the praises of the smart, brave, and kind miner mother, telling this tragic story to the people who came after them, making people think deeply.