During the Ming Dynasty a man named Zhang Weiyan from Jiangyin of Jiangsu Province was a skilled writer. He was quite well known. In the year of Jiawu, he took the court exams but failed. Standing under the posted exam results he cursed the judges who scored his exams. He felt they could not recognize those who had true knowledge.
At that moment a Taoist passed by and heard him. The man smiled and said, "I can tell that your writing must be very bad!" Zhang then vented his anger on the man, "Why do you laugh at me? You have not read my articles, how do you know my writings are bad?" The Taoist told him, "I heard the key to writing is that one needs to be at peace and maintain a calm heart. You are now cursing the judges. You must be very angry. How can you write a good article if this is what your character is like?" He thought what the man said was very rational, so Zhang asked him for help.
The Taoist said, "Your writing certainly needs to be good, but if you are destined to fail, even good writing skills will not help you. The fundamental solution is to change your attitude." Zhang asked him, "How can I change my attitude?" The Taoist replied, "If you can follow the words of heaven and do good deeds, what can't you get?"
Zhang Weiyan sighed, "I am just a poor scholar. Where can I find enough money to do good deeds?" The Taoist said, "Be compassionate and cultivate your virtue, the most important thing is your heart. It requires us to bear kindness in our heart at all times. We need to be more humble and ready to help others. The motivation to help others needs to be pure. Follow the heavenly principle. One doesn't need money to be humble. You can achieve this without being rich. Why don't you examine yourself instead of cursing the judges?” Zhang Weiyan was moved. He thanked the Taoist.
From then on Zhang Weiyan was very kind to others and strict with himself. He cultivated his virtue and became a person with high morality. He established schools and instructed the citizenry. He taught people to avoid wrongdoing and to perform good deeds no matter how minor the situation. He encouraged people to be kind to each other. He was highly praised by all.
One day three years later, Zhang Weiyan had a dream. He dreamt that he entered a large house. There was a book with names listed inside, but with many blank spaces too. He asked a person standing nearby about the blank spaces. That person told him, "This is a list of names that will be accepted this fall. If a name appears here and that person has not committed any wrongdoings, the name will be kept. The blank spaces are those who would have been accepted, but since they committed wrongdoings, their names were removed. During the past three years, you have been kind to others. Your name was added”.
Zhang Weiyan passed the court exams that year. Later he performed many good deeds for his people.
Good fortune comes from virtue, not luck
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