(Minghui.org) In ancient China, lust was regarded as a serious vice and as the biggest sin, because sexual relations between an unmarried man and woman is a violation of the heavenly law and human morality. For a single woman, it destroys her purity and her parents' reputation. For a married woman, it also brings humiliation to her husband's family. For a man, it results in loss of fame, blessings, life-span, and brings disaster to his family.
A young man who lived in the Fujian area during the Qing Dynasty had been engaged to a girl from a rich family when he was young. His father was modest and kind, but didn't have any savings when he passed away. The young man had to borrow some money for his wedding.
The young man had a dream before his wedding. In his dream, he was in a different world and saw a group of ladies in a beautiful house embroidering a robe. He asked them what the robe was for. They said it was for the top scholar at the national exam. The young man found that it was his name embroidered on the robe and he felt very proud.
The family of the young man's fiancé disliked his poverty, and ended up sending their maid to marry him without telling him. The young man didn't know about it until some people laughed at him one day. He asked his wife and got confirmation that she was a maid from the rich family. The young man felt humiliated and angry. He made up his mind that when he became the top scholar at the national exam and got rich some day, he would remarry.
One night, he had another dream in which he visited a different world. This time, the ladies in the beautiful house looked cold and the words they embroidered on the robe looked blurry. He asked why. The ladies told him that the gods in heaven had arranged another person to get the top ranking, because the original top scholar had recently thought about abandoning his wife.
The young man woke up and regretted having had such an unkind and immoral thought. He vowed to stay loyal to his wife for the rest of his life. He was eventually ranked as the top scholar at the national exam.
Li Deng, a man who lived in the Qing Dynasty, had received the top ranking at the regional exam when he was 18. For the following fifteen years, he never got any ranking in other exams. He was puzzled and asked a fortune-teller named Ye Jing to find the reason. Ye Jing entered a heavenly realm through meditation, and saw an official with a book which recorded Li Deng's life-long blessings and punishments.
The following was written in the book: “When Li Deng was born, gods gave him a jade seal. The plan was that he would score the first place at the regional exam at age 18; score the first place at the national exam at age 19; and be promoted to the Prime Minister position at age 53. However, after he scored first place at the regional exam, he cast his eyes full of desire on his neighbor's daughter, Zhang Yanniang. In order to get Yanniang, Li Deng framed her father, which resulted in her father being wrongfully thrown into prison.
As a result, gods reduced and put off Li Deng's next blessing by ten years. Later, Li Deng seized his brother's house, which brought a lawsuit. His planned ranking was lowered again and put off by another ten years. Later on, Li Deng raped a woman, Zheng, and framed her husband. His ranking was lowered again and put off by another ten years. Without any remorse, he committed adultery with a neighbor woman, Wang Qingniang. His blessing was completely taken away for his repeated wickedness.”
After fortune-teller Ye Jing told Li what he saw during his meditation, Li deeply regretted his behavior and eventually died of depression.
(To be continued)
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Category: Traditional Culture
