During the First Year of the Song Dynasty, there was a rich man named Zhang Shuhua in Jinhua, whose ancestors had made a fortune in the silk business earlier, made a lot of money, and then bought a piece of land in Jinhua to build a magnificent mansion. In order to show his wealth, he specially spent a lot of money to invite famous craftsmen in Suzhou and other places, according to his intentions to design a back garden imitating Suzhou garden, on the day of the completion of the house, even the local Zhixian lord personally came to visit his courtyard, and after seeing it, he was amazed, which shows the wealth of this Zhang family.
This Zhang Shuhua is the eldest son of Old Master Zhang, and he also has a younger brother who has been clever and clever since he was a child, and later went to a famous local private school to study, and when he was twenty-two years old, he was admitted to the Juzhong Examination, when he was thirty-one years old, he was admitted to the Jinshi, and then he became an official in the imperial court, and usually rarely returned home. Therefore, after the death of Old Master Zhang, most of the Zhang family was inherited by the eldest son, Zhang Shuhua.
Although this Zhang Shuhua has money, he has a kind heart, not a mean person, he is very kind to his tenants, and he can help tenants when they are in difficulty. Therefore, there is a good reputation for this great benevolent person in the local area. He also donated rice and boiled porridge for the hungry people when the local disaster was suffering, saving many people. In addition to running a family business, this Zhang Shuhua usually has a hobby, that is, to believe in the theory of gods and Buddhas. A person once calculated a gua for him, saying that he had a long life, good fortune, and was a person of great wealth and nobility before he died, and his subsequent experience did verify that the statement of the gua gua was correct, so Zhang Shuhua had a special trust in the affairs of the gods and Buddhas. For this reason, he has also made many strange people and strange things. Among his friends was such a magical hermit, and he was also surprised by what he had done.
That was when he was in his forties, playing in the local mountains. He once met a hermit on the mountain near the local area, and he stayed in Zhang Shuhua's home for a period of time, during which time Zhang Shuhua treated him very well and gave him some care in food, so this person was very satisfied. When he was in Zhang Shuhua's house, he would prophesy some blessings and misfortunes, and these prophecies would be said later, in addition, he was also good at calculating astronomy and manipulating gods and ghosts. Zhang Shuhua had more respect for him, and he also had more respect for him, and called him the Dao Chief.
This person stayed in Zhang Shuhua's house for about half a year, and one day he suddenly said to Zhang: "I have a skill, I want to leave, I want to take it as a farewell gift, the so-called water painting." Then he asked Zhang Shuhua to dig a pool in the open space in the back hall, an area of one inch, more than a foot deep, smeared with hemp ash, and filled the pool with water every day. When the water no longer penetrated, he prepared the Danqing ink stone, he first took the pen to beat his teeth for a long time, and then waved the pen and ink on the surface of the water. Look closely, only to see the muddy color of the water.
After two days, this person used fine silk to spread around on the water, and with the effort of a meal, he unveiled this silk to see that the ancient pines, strange stones, figures, and house trees were all there. Seeing these Zhang Shuhua felt very surprised, bitterly asked, this person just said that he is good at controlling the color, do not let the color sink and scatter. Then he gave the painting to Zhang. And the title zhang calculated that he would live a long life. It is also true that Zhang Shuhua died in his sleep when he was ninety-eight years old, and died without illness.