Volume 297 Biographies 185: Filial Acts 2

王俊〈（劉準楊敬）〉石鼐〈（任鏜）〉史五常周敖鄭韺〈（榮瑄葉文榮）〉傅檝楊成章謝用何競王原黃璽歸鉞〈（族子繡）〉何麟孫清〈（宋顯章李豫）〉劉憲〈（羅璋等）〉容師偃〈（劉靜溫鉞）〉俞孜〈（張震孫文）〉崔鑒唐儼丘緒張鈞〈（張承相等）〉王在復〈（王抃等）〉夏子孝阿寄趙重華〈（謝廣）〉王世名李文詠〈（王應元等）〉孔金〈（子良）〉楊通照〈（弟通傑浦邵等）〉張清雅〈（白精忠等）〉

Wang Jun (Liu Zhun and Yang Jing)]〉 Shi Nai (Ren Tang)]〉 Shi Wuchang, Zhou Ao, and Zheng Yin (Rong Xuan and Ye Wenrong)]〉 Fu Ji, Yang Chengzang, Xie Yong, He Jing, Wang Yuan, Huang Xi, and Gui Yue (his clansman Xiu)]〉 He Lin and Sun Qing (Song Xianzhang and Li Yu)]〉 Liu Xian (Luo Zhang and others)]〉 Rong Shiyan (Liu Jing and Wen Yue)]〉 Yu Zi (Zhang Zhen and Sun Wen)]〉 Cui Jian, Tang Yan, Qiu Xu, and Zhang Jun (Zhang Chengxiang and others)]〉 Wang Zaifu (Wang Bian and others)]〉 Xia Zixiao, Aji, and Zhao Chonghua (Xie Guang)]〉 Wang Shiming and Li Wenyong (Wang Yingyuan and others)]〉 Kong Jin (his son Liang)]〉 Yang Tongzhao (his younger brothers Tongjie, Pu, Shao, and others)]〉 Zhang Qingya (Bai Jingzhong and others)]〉

王俊，城武人。父為順天府知事。母卒於官舍，俊扶櫬還葬，刈草萊為茇舍，寢處塋側。野火延巘將及，俊叩首慟哭，火及塋樹而止。正統三年被旌。

Wang Jun was a native of Chengwu. His father held the post of secretary in Shuntian Prefecture. When his mother died at the official residence, Jun carried the coffin home for burial, cut wild grass to build a mourning hut, and slept beside the grave. A wildfire crept along the hillside toward the grave; Jun kowtowed and wept until the flames reached the trees on the mound and then died out. In the third year of the Zhengtong reign he was officially commended.

劉準者，唐山諸生。父喪，廬墓。冬月野火將及冢樹，準悲號告天，火遂息。正統六年旌表。

Liu Zhun was a licentiate of Tangshan. Upon his father's death he lived in a mourning hut beside the grave. One winter a wildfire threatened the trees on the grave; Zhun cried out to Heaven in grief, and the fire went out. In the sixth year of the Zhengtong reign he received an official commendation.

楊敬者，歸德人。父歿於陣，為木主招魂以葬。每讀書至戰陣之事，輒隕涕不止。母歿，柩在堂。鄰家失火，烈焰甚迫，敬撫柩哀號，風止火滅。正統十三年旌表。

Yang Jing was a native of Guide. His father fell in battle; he fashioned a wooden spirit tablet to recall his soul and gave him burial. Whenever his reading touched on battle and warfare, he wept without end. After his mother died, her coffin remained in the main hall. When a neighbor's house caught fire and the flames drew near, Jing clung to the coffin and wailed; the wind dropped and the fire went out. In the thirteenth year of the Zhengtong reign he received an official commendation.

石鼐，渾源諸生。父歿，廬墓。墓初成，天大雨，山水驟漲。鼐仰天號哭，水將及墓，忽分兩道去，墓獲全。弘治五年旌表。

Shi Nai was a licentiate of Hunyuan. Upon his father's death he lived in a mourning hut beside the grave. The grave had only just been completed when heavy rains fell and mountain floods surged. Nai looked up and wailed; as the flood was about to reach the grave, the waters suddenly divided in two and flowed around it, leaving the tomb intact. In the fifth year of the Hongzhi reign he received an official commendation.

任鏜，夏邑人。嫡母卒，廬於墓。黃河沖溢，將嚙塋域。鏜伏地號哭，河即南徙。嘉靖二十五年旌表。

Ren Tang was a native of Xiayi. When his legal mother died, he lived in a mourning hut at her grave. The Yellow River overflowed and threatened to erode the burial ground. Tang threw himself to the ground and wailed, and the river immediately shifted its course to the south. In the twenty-fifth year of the Jiajing reign he received an official commendation.

史五常，內黃人。父萱，官廣東僉事。卒，葬南海和光寺側。五常方七歲，母攜以歸。比長，奉母至孝，常恨父不得歸葬。母語之曰：「爾父杉木櫬內，置大錢十，爾謹誌之。」母歿，廬墓致毀，既終喪，往迎父櫬。時相去已五十年，寺沒於水久矣。五常泣禱，有老人以杖指示寺址。發地，果得父櫬，內置錢如母言，乃扶歸，與母合葬，復廬墓側。正統六年旌表。

Shi Wuchang was a native of Neihuang. His father Xuan served as surveillance commissioner of Guangdong. He died and was buried beside Heguang Temple in Nanhai. Wuchang was only seven years old when his mother brought him home. As he grew up he cared for his mother with deep devotion and always regretted that his father had never been brought home for burial. His mother told him, "Inside your father's fir coffin are ten large coins—keep that firmly in mind." After his mother died he kept vigil at her grave until he was emaciated with grief; when the mourning period ended, he set out to bring his father's coffin home. Fifty years had already passed, and the temple had long lain beneath the water. Wuchang wept and prayed, and an old man indicated the temple's location with his staff. They excavated the site and found his father's coffin, with the coins inside exactly as his mother had described. He carried it home, buried his parents together, and once more lived in a hut beside the grave. In the sixth year of the Zhengtong reign he received an official commendation.

周敖，河州衛軍家子也。正統末，聞英宗北狩，大哭，不食七日而死。其子諸生路方讀書別墅，聞父死，慟哭奔歸，以頭觸庭槐亦死。鄉人異之，聞於州。知州躬臨其喪，賻麥四十斛、白金一斤。路妻方氏，厲誌守節，撫子堂成立，後為知縣。

Zhou Ao was the son of a soldier's family registered at Hezhou Guard. Near the end of the Zhengtong reign, when he heard that Emperor Yingzong had been captured on the northern campaign, he wept bitterly, refused food for seven days, and died. His son Lu, a licentiate, was studying at a country retreat; when he learned of his father's death he rushed home weeping, dashed his head against the locust in the courtyard, and died as well. The villagers were astonished and reported the matter to the prefecture. The prefect attended the funerals in person and sent forty hu of wheat and one jin of silver as funeral gifts. Lu's wife Lady Fang held firmly to her widowhood, raised their son Tang to adulthood, and he later became a district magistrate.

鄭韺，石康人。父賜，舉人，兄頀，進士。天順中，母為瑤賊所掠。韺年十六，挺身入賊壘，紿之曰：「吾欲丐吾母，豈惜金，第金皆母所瘞，願代母歸取之。」賊遂拘韺而釋母，然其家實無金也，韺遂被殺。廉州知府張嶽建祠祀之。

Zheng Yin was a native of Shikang. His father Ci was a provincial graduate, and his elder brother Hao a metropolitan graduate. During the Tianshun reign his mother was carried off by Yao bandits. Yin was sixteen. He went alone into the bandits' camp and told them, "I have come to ransom my mother—I would not begrudge gold. But the gold was all buried by my mother; let me return in her place to dig it up." The bandits held Yin and released his mother, but the family in fact had no gold, and Yin was killed. Zhang Yue, prefect of Lianzhou, erected a shrine in his honor.

榮瑄，瓊州人。三歲而孤，與兄琇並以孝聞。天順四年，土賊據瓊城，瑄兄弟扶母走避。遇賊，琇謂瑄曰：「我以死衛母，汝急去。」瑄從之，琇與母遂陷賊中。官軍至，琇被執。主將將殺琇，瑄趨至，叩頭流血，泣請曰：「兄以母故陷賊，母老家貧，恃兄為命，願殺瑄存兄養母。」主將不察，竟殺瑄。

Rong Xuan was a native of Qiongzhou. Orphaned at the age of three, he and his elder brother Xiu were both renowned for filial devotion. In the fourth year of Tianshun, local rebels seized Qiong city, and the brothers fled with their mother. They encountered the rebels, and Xiu said to Xuan, "I will die defending our mother—you must run." Xuan fled as told, and Xiu and their mother were taken by the rebels. When government troops arrived, Xiu was captured. The commander was about to execute Xiu when Xuan rushed forward, kowtowed until his forehead bled, and pleaded through tears, "My brother was captured because of our mother; she is old and our family is poor and relies on him for her livelihood. Kill me instead and let my brother live to care for her." The commander paid no heed and executed Xuan instead.

後有葉文榮，海寧人。弟殺人論死，母日悲泣不食。文榮謂母曰：「兒年已長，有子，請代弟死。」遂詣官服殺人罪，弟得釋，而文榮坐死。

Later there was Ye Wenrong of Haining. His younger brother had killed a man and was condemned to death; day after day their mother wept and refused food. Wenrong told his mother, "I am grown and have a son of my own—let me die in my brother's stead." He went to the magistrate and confessed to the killing; his brother was freed, and Wenrong was put to death.

傅檝，字定濟，泉州南安人。祖凱，父浚，並進士。為部郎。檝年十六舉鄉試，二十成進士。弘治中，授行人，出行襄府。半道聞母病，請入京省視再往竣事。禮部尚書劉春曰：「無害於若，而可教孝。」奏許之。浚後遷山東鹽運司同知。娶繼妻，私其二奴。浚聞將治之，遂暴卒。檝心疑未發，奴遽亡去。久之，偵一奴逃德化縣，傭巨姓家。檝微行往伺奴出，袖鐵椎擊殺之，而其一不可跡矣。檝不欲見繼母，葬父畢，號慟曰：「父仇尚在，何以為人！」乃裂衣冠，屏妻子，出宿郊墟間，蓬首垢面，饑寒風雨，不知就避。親戚故人率目之為狂，檝終不自明也。子燾卒，不哭。或詰之，則垂涕曰：「我不能為子，敢為父乎！」繼母卒，乃歸。蓋自廢自罰者三十五年，又十五年而卒。

Fu Ji, styled Dingji, was a native of Nan'an in Quanzhou. His grandfather Kai and his father Jun had both passed the metropolitan examination. Jun served as a secretary in a ministry. Ji passed the provincial examination at sixteen and the metropolitan examination at twenty. During the Hongzhi reign he was appointed a courier and sent on embassy to the Xiang princedom. Halfway he learned his mother was ill and asked leave to visit her in the capital before finishing his errand. Minister of Rites Liu Chun said, "This will do you no harm and sets an example of filial duty." He memorialized the throne, and the request was approved. Jun was later promoted to assistant commissioner of the Shandong Salt Transport Commission. He remarried, and his new wife secretly took two male servants as lovers. When Jun learned of this and was about to punish them, he died suddenly. Ji harbored suspicions but had not yet acted when the slaves fled. Long afterward he traced one slave to Dehua County, where he was working as a hired hand for a wealthy family. Ji went in disguise, waited until the slave emerged, and killed him with an iron mallet concealed in his sleeve; the other could not be found. Ji refused to see his stepmother. After burying his father he cried out, "My father's murderer still lives—how can I face the world!" He tore his clothes, left his wife and children, and slept in ruined suburbs—unkempt, filthy, exposed to hunger, cold, wind, and rain with nowhere to turn. Relatives and friends all thought him mad; Ji never offered any explanation. When his son Tao died, he did not mourn. When asked why, he wept and said, "I failed my father—how dare I grieve as a father should?" Only when his stepmother died did he return home. He had punished himself in this way for thirty-five years, and died fifteen years after his return.

楊成章，道州人。父泰，為浙江長亭巡檢。妻何氏無出，納丁氏女為妾，生成章。甫四歲，泰卒。何將扶櫬歸，丁氏父予之子，而奪其母。母乃剪銀錢與何別，約各藏其半，俟成章長授之。越六年，何臨歿，授成章半錢，告之故。成章嗚咽受命。既冠，娶婦月余，即執半錢之浙中尋母。母先已適東陽郭氏，生子曰瑉，而成章不知也。遍訪之，無所遇而還。弘治十一年，東陽典史李紹裔以事宿瑉家。瑉母知為道州人，遣瑉問成章存否，知成章已為諸生，乃令瑉執半錢覓其兄。會有會稽人官訓導者，嘗設教東陽，為瑉師，與成章述瑉母憶子狀。成章亦往尋母，遇瑉於江西舟次。兄弟悲且喜，各出半錢合之，益信，遂俱至東陽，母子始相聚。自是成章三往迎母不遂，棄月廩，赴東陽侍養。及母卒，廬墓三載始返。至嘉靖十年，成章以歲貢入都，瑉亦以事至，乃述成章尋親事，上之吏部，請進一官。部臣言：「成章孝行，兩地已勘實，登之朝覲憲綱，瑉言非謬。昔朱壽昌棄官尋母，宋神宗詔令就官。今所司知而不能薦，臣等又拘例而不請旌，真有愧於古誼。請量授成章國子學錄，賜瑉花紅羊酒。」制曰：「可。」

Yang Chengzang was a native of Daozhou. His father Tai served as patrol inspector of Changting in Zhejiang. His wife Lady He was childless; he took a Ding girl as concubine, and she bore Chengzang. Chengzang was only four when Tai died. As He was preparing to carry the coffin home, the Ding girl's father married her off elsewhere and took her mother away. Before parting, the mother split a silver coin with He, each keeping half to give Chengzang when he came of age. Six years later, on her deathbed, He gave Chengzang her half of the coin and told him what had happened. Chengzang wept and accepted the charge. After coming of age he married; a month later he set out for Zhejiang with the half coin to find his mother. His mother had already remarried into the Guo family of Dongyang and borne a son named Min, though Chengzang knew nothing of this. He searched far and wide but found no trace and returned home. In the eleventh year of Hongzhi, Li Shaoyi, clerk of Dongyang, stayed at Min's home on official business. Min's mother, hearing he was from Daozhou, sent Min to ask after Chengzang; learning Chengzang was now a licentiate, she told Min to take the half coin and find his brother. A Kuaiji man serving as educational instructor in Dongyang, who had been Min's teacher, told Chengzang how Min's mother longed for her lost son. Chengzang set out again to find his mother and met Min on a boat in Jiangxi. The brothers wept and rejoiced, fitted their half coins together, and went on to Dongyang, where mother and sons were reunited. Chengzang tried three times to bring his mother home without success; he gave up his stipend and went to Dongyang to care for her. After her death he kept vigil at her grave for three years before returning home. In the tenth year of Jiajing, Chengzang came to the capital as a tribute student and Min arrived on business; Min reported Chengzang's quest for his mother to the Ministry of Personnel and asked that he be promoted one rank. The ministry replied, "Chengzang's filial conduct has been verified in both places and recorded in the regulations for court audience; Min's account is accurate. In the Song, Zhu Shouchang left office to find his mother, and Emperor Shenzong ordered him back to his post. Today the local authorities knew but failed to recommend him, and we were bound by precedent and did not request commendation—we have fallen short of ancient righteousness. We ask that Chengzang be appointed recorder of the Imperial Academy and that Min receive floral honors, red cloth, a sheep, and wine." The emperor decreed, "Let it be so."

謝用，字希中，祁門人。父永貞。生母馬氏方妊，永貞客外，嫡母汪氏妒而嫁之，遂生用。永貞還，大恨，抱用歸，寄乳鄰媼。汪氏收而自鞠之，逾年亦生子，均愛無厚薄。用既冠，始知所生。密訪之，則又改適，不知其所矣。用遍覓幾一載。一夕宿休寧農家，有寡嫗出問曰：「若為誰？」用告以姓名，及尋母之故。曰：「若母為誰？」曰：「馬氏。」曰：「若非永貞之子乎？」曰：「然。」媼遂抱用曰：「我即汝母也。」於是母子相持而哭，時弘治十五年四月也。用歸告父，並其同母弟迎歸，居別室。孝養二母，曲盡其誠。後汪感悔，令迎馬同居，訖無間言。永貞卒，用居喪以孝聞。鄰人失火，延數十家，將至用舍，風反火息。用時為諸生，督學御史廉其孝，列之德行優等，月廩之。

Xie Yong, styled Xizhong, was a native of Qimen. His father was Yongzhen. His birth mother Lady Ma was pregnant when Yongzhen was away on business; the legal wife Lady Wang, jealous, married Ma off elsewhere, and Yong was born. When Yongzhen returned he was furious, took the infant home, and placed him with a neighbor to nurse. Lady Wang took him back and raised him herself; the next year she bore a son of her own and loved both boys equally. Only when Yong came of age did he learn who his birth mother was. He searched for her in secret, but she had married again and could not be found. Yong searched for nearly a year. One night he stayed at a farmhouse in Xiuning; a widow came out and asked, "Who are you?" Yong gave his name and explained that he was searching for his mother. She asked, "Who is your mother?" He said, "Lady Ma." She said, "Are you not Yongzhen's son?" He said, "I am." The old woman embraced him and said, "I am your mother." Mother and son held each other and wept. It was the fourth month of the fifteenth year of Hongzhi. Yong went home and told his father; together with his younger brother by the same mother they brought her home to a separate dwelling. He cared for both mothers with devoted filial piety. Later Lady Wang repented and had Ma brought to live in the same house; they never quarreled again. When Yongzhen died, Yong's mourning was renowned for filial devotion. When a neighbor's fire spread to dozens of houses and threatened Yong's home, the wind shifted and the flames died out. Yong was then a licentiate; the education intendant, recognizing his filial piety, ranked him in the top grade of moral conduct and granted him a monthly stipend.

何競，字邦植，蕭山人。父舜賓，為御史，謫戍廣西慶遠衛，遇赦還。好持吏短長。有鄒魯者，當塗人。亦以御史謫官，稍遷蕭山知縣，貪暴狡悍。舜賓求魯陰事訐之，兩人互相猜。縣中湘湖為富人私據，舜賓發其事於官，奏核之。富人因奏舜賓以戍卒潛逃，擅自冠帶。章並下所司核治。魯隱其文牒，詭言舜賓遇赦無驗，宜行原衛查核。上官不可，駁之。會舜賓門人訓導童顯章為魯所陷論死，下府覆驗，道經舜賓家，入與謀。魯聞之，大詬曰：「舜賓乃敢竄重囚。」發卒圍其門，輒捕舜賓，徑解慶遠。又令爪牙吏屏其衣服。至余幹，宿昌國寺，夜以濕衣閉其口，壓殺之。魯復捕舜賓妻子。競與母逃常熟，匿父友王鼎家。 —已而魯遷山西僉事，將行。競乃潛歸與族人謀，召親黨數十人飲之酒，為舜賓稱冤。中坐，競出叩首哭以請，皆踴躍願效命。乃各持器伏道旁，伺魯過，競袖鐵捶奮擊，騶從駭散。仆其輿，裸之，杖齊下，霍兩目，須發盡拔。競拔佩刀砍其左股，必欲殺之，為眾所止。乃與魯連鎖赴按察司，而預令族父澤走闕下訴冤。僉事蕭翀故黨魯，嚴刑訊競。競大言曰：「必欲殺我，我非畏死者。顧人孰無父母，且我已訟於朝，非公輩所得擅殺。」噬臂肉擲案上，含血噀翀面，一堂皆驚。

He Jing, styled Bangzhi, was a native of Xiaoshan. His father Shunbin had served as a censor, was banished to Qingyuan Guard in Guangxi, and returned on amnesty. He was fond of exposing officials' misdeeds. There was one Zou Lu of Dangtu. He too had been demoted from the censorate and later became magistrate of Xiaoshan—a greedy, violent, and ruthless man. Shunbin sought out Lu's secret misdeeds to impeach him, and the two became bitter enemies. Wealthy families had illegally seized Xiang Lake in the county; Shunbin reported this to the authorities and memorialized for an investigation. The wealthy families then memorialized that Shunbin had allowed garrison soldiers to desert and had worn official dress without authorization. Both memorials were sent to the relevant offices for investigation. Lu concealed the documents and falsely claimed Shunbin's amnesty could not be verified and that he should be sent back to his original guard. His superiors refused and rejected the proposal. Shunbin's student Tong Xianzhang, an educational instructor, was framed by Lu and condemned to death; on the way to the prefecture for review he stopped at Shunbin's home to consult with him. When Lu learned of this he raged, "Shunbin dares harbor a condemned prisoner!" He sent soldiers to surround the house, seized Shunbin, and sent him straight back to Qingyuan. He also ordered his henchmen to strip Shunbin of his clothes. At Yugan he was lodged at Changguo Temple; that night they stuffed his mouth with wet cloth and smothered him. Lu then arrested Shunbin's wife and children. Jing fled with his mother to Changshu and hid in the home of his father's friend Wang Ding. Later Lu was transferred to surveillance commissioner of Shanxi and was about to leave. Jing slipped home and consulted with his clansmen, gathered several dozen relatives, feasted them, and spoke of his father's injustice. Midway through the feast Jing kowtowed and wept, begging their help, and all leapt up eager to serve. They armed themselves and lay in wait by the road; when Lu passed, Jing struck with an iron mallet hidden in his sleeve, and Lu's escort fled in panic. They overturned his carriage, stripped him naked, and beat him until both eyes were destroyed and his beard and hair torn out. Jing drew his knife and slashed Lu's left thigh, intent on killing him, but the others restrained him. They chained Lu and Jing together and went to the surveillance commission, while Jing had already sent his clansman Ze to the capital to petition for justice. Commissioner Xiao Chong, an old ally of Lu's, tortured Jing severely. Jing cried out, "If you mean to kill me, I do not fear death. But who among us has no parents? And I have already petitioned the throne—you have no right to kill me on your own authority. ] He bit flesh from his own arm and flung it on the table, then spat blood in Xiao Chong's face, shocking everyone present.

會競疏已上，遣刑部郎中李時、給事中李舉，會巡按御史鄧璋雜治。諸人持兩端，擬魯故屏人衣食至死，競部民毆本屬知縣篤疾，律俱絞，余所逮數百人，擬罪有差。競母朱氏復撾登聞鼓訴冤，魯亦使人馳訴，乃命大理寺正曹廉會巡按御史陳銓覆治。廉曰：「爾等何毆縣官？」競曰：「競知父仇，不知縣官，但恨未殺之耳。」廉以致死無據，遣縣令揭棺驗之。驗者報傷，而解役任寬慷慨首實，且出舜賓臨命所付血書。於是眾皆辭伏，改擬魯斬，競徒三年。法司議競遣戍，且曰：「魯已成篤疾，競為父報仇，律意有在，均俟上裁。」帝從其議，戍競福寧衛，時弘治十四年二月也。後武宗登極肆赦，魯免死，競赦歸，又九年卒。競自父歿至死，凡十六年，服衰終其身。

Once Jing's petition reached the throne, the court sent Li Shi of the Ministry of Punishments and Li Ju of the Secretariat to conduct a joint investigation with touring censor Deng Zhang. The officials hedged their verdicts: Lu was to be sentenced for secretly imprisoning a man and starving him to death, while Jing's clansmen were held to have beaten their own county magistrate nearly to death—both capital offenses by law. The several hundred others arrested received differing sentences. Jing's mother, Lady Zhu, again beat the drum of grievance at the capital to protest the injustice, and Lu dispatched an urgent appeal as well. The court then ordered Cao Lian, director of the Court of Judicial Review, to retry the case jointly with touring censor Chen Quan. Cao asked, "Why did you assault the county magistrate? ] Jing replied, "I knew my father's enemy, not a county magistrate. I only regret that I did not kill him. ] Finding no proof that the beating had been fatal, Cao ordered the county magistrate to open the coffin and examine the corpse. The examiners reported injuries, and the released corvée laborer Ren Kuan stepped forward to confess, producing the blood-stained letter Shunbin had entrusted to him at the point of death. Thereupon all confessed, and the sentences were revised to decapitation for Lu and three years of penal servitude for Jing. The judicial offices recommended banishing Jing instead, arguing: "Lu is already gravely ill, and Jing acted to avenge his father—the law allows for such circumstances. Both cases should await the emperor's judgment. ] The emperor accepted their recommendation and banished Jing to Funing Guard. This was in the second month of the fourteenth year of the Hongzhi reign. Later, when Emperor Wuzong ascended the throne and proclaimed a general amnesty, Lu was spared execution and Jing was pardoned and sent home. Nine years after that, Jing died. From his father's death until his own, sixteen years passed, and he wore mourning dress for the rest of his life.

王原，文安人。正德中，父珣以家貧役重逃去。原稍長，問父所在。母告以故，原大悲慟。乃設肆於邑治之衢，治酒食舍諸行旅。遇遠方客至，則告以父姓名、年貌，冀得父蹤跡。久之無所得。既娶婦月余，跪告母曰：「兒將尋父。」母泣曰：「汝父去二十余載，存亡不可知。且若父氓耳，流落何所，誰知名者？無為父子相繼作羈鬼，使我無依。」原痛哭曰：「幸有婦陪母，母無以兒為念，兒不得父不歸也。」號泣辭母去，遍歷山東南北，去來者數年。

Wang Yuan was a native of Wen'an. During the Zhengde reign, his father Xun fled home because the family was poor and corvée duties were crushing. Once Yuan had grown up a little, he asked where his father had gone. His mother told him what had happened, and Yuan was overcome with grief. He then opened a shop at the crossroads by the county seat, preparing food and wine to lodge passing travelers. Whenever travelers from afar stopped in, he would describe his father's name, age, and appearance, hoping to pick up some trace of him. After a long while he learned nothing. A little over a month after he married, he knelt before his mother and said, "I am going to search for Father. ] His mother wept and said, "Your father has been gone more than twenty years. We cannot even know whether he is alive. Besides, he was only an ordinary man—who knows where he may have wandered, or who would recognize his name? Do not let father and son become wandering ghosts in turn and leave me with no one to depend on. ] Yuan wept and said, "Fortunately my wife can keep you company. Do not worry about me, Mother—I will not come home without finding Father. ] Weeping, he took leave of his mother and set out, traveling back and forth across Shandong for several years.

一日，渡海至田橫島，假寐神祠中，夢至一寺，當午，炊莎和肉羹食之。一老父至，驚覺。原告之夢，請占之。老父曰：「若何為者？」曰：「尋父。」老父曰：「午者，正南位也。莎根附子，肉和之，附子膾也。求諸南方，父子其會乎？」原喜，謝去，而南踰洺、漳，至輝縣帶山，有寺曰夢覺，原心動。天雨雪，寒甚，臥寺門外。及曙，一僧啟門出，駭曰：「汝何人？」曰：「文安人，尋父而來。」曰：「識之乎？」曰：「不識也。」引入禪堂，憐而予之粥。珣方執爨竈下，僧素知為文安人，謂之曰：「若同里有少年來尋父者，若倘識其人。」珣出見原，皆不相識，問其父姓名，則王珣也。珣亦呼原乳名。相抱持慟哭，寺僧莫不感動。珣曰：「歸告汝母，我無顏復歸故鄉矣。」原曰：「父不歸，兒有死耳。」牽衣哭不止。寺僧力勸之，父子相持歸，夫妻子母復聚。後原子孫多仕宦者。

One day he crossed the sea to Tianheng Island and dozed in a spirit shrine. In a dream he came to a temple where, at noon, he cooked sedge root with meat into a broth and ate it. An old man arrived, and he woke with a start. Yuan told him the dream and asked him to interpret it. The old man asked, "What brings you here? ] He said, "I am searching for my father. ] The old man said, "Noon stands for due south. Sedge root is aconite, and meat mixed with it makes aconite hash—a homophone for 'father and son meet.' Search toward the south. Perhaps father and son will be reunited? ] Yuan was delighted, thanked him, and set off south beyond Handan and Zhangzhou to Dai Mountain in Huixian, where he found a temple called Awakening from a Dream. His heart stirred. Snow fell from the sky and the cold was fierce, so he lay down outside the temple gate. At daybreak a monk opened the door and, startled, asked, "Who are you? ] He answered, "I am from Wen'an. I have come searching for my father. ] The monk asked, "Do you know him? ] He said, "I do not. ] The monk led him into the meditation hall, took pity on him, and gave him congee. Xun was tending the kitchen fire beneath the stove. The monk, knowing he was from Wen'an, said to him, "A young man from your home district has come looking for his father. Perhaps you know him. ] Xun came out to see Yuan. Neither recognized the other until Yuan was asked his father's name—it was Wang Xun. Xun then called Yuan by his childhood name. They embraced and wept, and every monk in the temple was moved. Xun said, "Go tell your mother that I am too ashamed to return to our old home. ] Yuan said, "If you do not come home, Father, your son would rather die. ] He clutched his father's clothes and wept without stopping. The monks urged them on, and father and son made their way home together. Husband, wife, son, and mother were reunited at last. Later many of Yuan's descendants rose to office.

黃璽，字廷璽，余姚人。兄伯震，商十年不歸。璽出求之，經行萬里，不得蹤跡。最後至衡州，禱南嶽廟，夢神人授以「纏綿盜賊際，狼狽江漢行」二句。一書生告之曰：「此杜甫《舂陵行》詩也，舂陵今道州，曷往尋之。」璽從其言，既至，無所遇。一日入廁，置傘道旁。伯震適過之曰：此吾鄉之傘也。」循其柄而觀，見有「余姚黃廷璽記」六字。方疑駭，璽出問訊，則其兄也，遂奉以歸。

Huang Xi, styled Tingxi, was a native of Yuyao. His elder brother Bozhen went into trade and did not return for ten years. Xi set out to find him, traveled ten thousand li, and discovered no trace. At last he reached Hengzhou and prayed at the temple of the Southern Sacred Peak. In a dream a spirit gave him two lines: "Entangled amid bandits, struggling along the Jiang and Han." A scholar told him, "Those lines come from Du Fu's 'Song of Chunling.' Chunling is present-day Daozhou—why not search there? ] Xi took his advice, but once he arrived he found nothing. One day he entered a privy and left his umbrella by the road. Bozhen happened to pass by and said, "This umbrella is from our home district." ] He followed the handle with his eyes and saw six characters inscribed there: "Recorded by Huang Tingxi of Yuyao." Still puzzled and startled, Xi came out to greet him—it was his elder brother—and he escorted him home.

歸鉞，字汝威，嘉定縣人。早喪母。父娶繼妻，有子，鉞遂失愛。父偶撻鉞，繼母輒索大杖與之，曰：「毋傷乃翁力也。」家貧，食不足，每炊將熟，即諓諓數鉞過，父怒而逐之，其母子得飽食。鉞饑困，匍匐道中。比歸，父母相與言曰：「有子不居家，在外作賊耳。」輒復杖之，屢瀕於死。及父卒，母益擯不納，因販鹽市中，時私其弟，問母飲食，致甘鮮焉。正德三年，大饑，母不能自活。鉞涕泣奉迎，母內自慚不欲往，然以無所資，迄從之。鉞得食，先母弟，而己有饑色。弟尋卒，鉞養母終其身，嘉靖中卒。族子繡，亦販鹽，與二弟紋、緯友愛。緯數犯法，繡輒罄貲護之，終無慍色。繡妻朱，制衣必三襲，曰：「二叔無室，豈可使郎君獨暖耶？」裏人稱為歸氏二孝子。

Gui Yue, styled Ruwei, was a native of Jiading county. He lost his mother at an early age. His father remarried and had another son, and Yue fell out of favor. Whenever his father happened to beat Yue, the stepmother would fetch a heavier rod and hand it to him, saying, "Don't tire yourself out, husband. ] The family was poor and there was never enough food. Whenever the meal was nearly ready, she would nag about Yue as he passed by; his father would fly into a rage and drive him out, and the stepmother and her son ate their fill. Hungry and exhausted, Yue crawled along the road. When he came home, his father and stepmother said to each other, "A son who won't stay at home must be out stealing. ] They would beat him again, repeatedly bringing him to the brink of death. After his father died, his stepmother rejected him still more firmly, so he took to selling salt in the market. From time to time he secretly gave money to his younger brother, inquired after his mother's meals, and sent her fine foods. In the third year of the Zhengde reign there was a severe famine, and his stepmother could no longer support herself. Weeping, Yue went to bring her home. Ashamed at heart, she did not wish to go, but having no other means of support, she went with him in the end. Whenever Yue obtained food, he gave first to his stepmother and brother, while he himself went hungry. His younger brother soon died. Yue supported his stepmother for the rest of her life and passed away during the Jiajing reign. His clansman Xiu also sold salt and was deeply devoted to his two younger brothers, Wen and Wei. Wei repeatedly ran afoul of the law, and each time Xiu spent everything he had to protect him, yet never showed anger. Xiu's wife, Lady Zhu, always made three sets of clothes and said, "The two uncles have no wives of their own—how can our sons alone stay warm? ] People in the neighborhood called them the two filial sons of the Gui clan.

何麟，沁水人，為布政司吏。武宗微行，由大同抵太原，城門閉，不得入。怒而還京，遣中官逮守臣不啟門者，巡撫以下皆大懼。麟曰：「朝廷未知主名。請厚賄中官，麟與俱往。即聖怒不測，麟一身獨當之。」及抵京，上疏曰：「陛下巡幸晉陽，司城門者實臣麟一人，他官無預也。臣不能啟門迎駕，罪當萬死。但陛下輕宗廟社稷而事巡遊，且易服微行，無清道警蹕之詔，白龍魚服，臣下何由辨焉。昔漢光武夜獵，至上東門，守臣郅惲拒弗納，光武以惲能守法而賞之。今小臣欲守郅惲之節，而陛下乃有不敬之誅。臣恐天下後世以為臣之不幸不若郅惲，陛下寬仁之量亦遠遜光武也。」疏入，帝怒稍解，廷杖六十，釋還，余不問。巡撫以下郊迎，禮敬之。

He Lin, a native of Qinshui, was a clerk in the provincial administration commission. Emperor Wuzong traveled in disguise. Coming from Datong to Taiyuan, he found the city gates shut and could not enter. Furious, he returned to the capital and sent eunuchs to arrest the officials who had refused to open the gates. From the provincial governor on down, all were terrified. Lin said, "The court does not yet know who the traveler really was. Bribe the eunuchs generously, and I will go with them. Even if the emperor's anger proves unpredictable, I alone will bear the consequences. ] When they reached the capital he submitted a memorial: "When Your Majesty visited Jinyang, I, Lin, alone was responsible for the city gate. No other official was involved. Your servant failed to open the gate to welcome the imperial carriage—a crime deserving death ten thousand times over. But Your Majesty set the ancestral temple and the altars of state aside for pleasure travel, changed clothes to move incognito, and issued no decree clearing the road or announcing an imperial progress. When the white dragon dresses as a fish, how can officials below tell who stands before them? In former times Emperor Guangwu of Han went hunting by night and reached the Upper East Gate. The gatekeeper Zhi Yun refused him entry, and Guangwu rewarded Yun for upholding the law. Now this humble official seeks to uphold the same integrity as Zhi Yun, yet Your Majesty would punish that as disrespect. I fear that under heaven and in ages to come people will say an official's misfortune today is worse than Zhi Yun's, and that Your Majesty's measure of mercy falls far short of Emperor Guangwu's. ] Once the memorial was received, the emperor's anger eased somewhat. Lin was beaten sixty blows at court, then released and sent home. The others were not questioned. From the provincial governor on down, officials went out to the suburbs to welcome him with full ceremony and respect.

孫清，睢陽諸生也。幼孤，事母孝。母歿未葬，流賊入其境，居民盡逃，清獨守柩不去。賊兩經其門，皆不入，裏人多賴以全。正德九年四月，河南巡按御史江良貴奏聞，並言：「清同邑徐儀女雪梅、嚴清女銳兒皆不受賊汙，憤罵見殺。沭陽諸生沈麟以知府劉祥、縣丞程儉為賊所執，挺身詣賊，開陳利害，願以身代。賊義之，二人獲釋。凡此義烈，有關風化，宜如制旌表。」章下禮官。先是，八年二月，山東巡按御史張璿奏，賊所過州縣，有子救父，婦衛夫，罹賊兵刃者，凡百十九人，皆宜旌表。時傅珪代費宏為禮部，言：「所奏人多費廣。宜準山西近例，於所在旌善亭側，建二石碑，分書男婦姓名、邑裏及其孝義、貞烈大略，以示旌揚，有司量給殯殮費。厥後地方有奏，悉以此令從事。」帝可之。至是，良貴奏下，劉春代珪為禮部，竟不請旌，但用珪前議，並給銀建坊之令亦不復行，而旌善之意微矣。

Sun Qing was a licentiate of Suiyang. Orphaned in youth, he served his mother with filial devotion. Before his mother could be buried, bandits entered the district and the residents all fled. Qing alone remained to guard the coffin and would not leave. Bandits passed his gate twice and did not enter. Many in the neighborhood owed their safety to him. In the fourth month of the ninth year of Zhengde, Jiang Lianggui, touring censor of Henan, reported the matter and added: "Sun Qing's fellow townsman Xu Yi's daughter Xueme and Yan Qing's daughter Ruier both refused to be defiled by the bandits and were killed after cursing them in fury. Shen Lin, a licentiate of Shuyang, when Prefect Liu Xiang and Assistant Magistrate Cheng Jian were seized by bandits, went straight to the bandits, explained the stakes, and offered himself in their place. The bandits respected his righteousness and released the two officials. All such acts of righteous devotion bear on public morals and should be honored with official commendation as the regulations provide. ] The memorial was forwarded to the Ministry of Rites. Earlier, in the second month of the eighth year, Zhang Xuan, the touring censor of Shandong, reported that across the prefectures and counties the bandits had traversed, 119 people—including sons who rescued their fathers, wives who shielded their husbands, and others cut down by bandit blades—deserved official recognition. Fu Gui, who had by then succeeded Fei Hong as Minister of Rites, argued that the list was too long and the cost of honoring everyone would be excessive. He proposed following a recent Shanxi model: erect two stone tablets beside each local pavilion of honored virtue, inscribing the names, hometowns, and brief accounts of filial or chaste deeds for men and women alike, and having local officials cover reasonable burial costs. Henceforth, local reports of this kind were to be handled solely under this policy. The emperor approved. By the time Liang Gui's report reached the court, Liu Chun had replaced Fu Gui at the Ministry of Rites. Liu declined to seek formal honors altogether, applying only Fu Gui's cheaper stele policy—and even the earlier practice of granting silver for commemorative arches lapsed, so the state's enthusiasm for public virtue visibly cooled.

當是時，濮州諸生宋顯章、淅川諸生李豫，皆以孝行著聞，流賊過其門不敢犯，裏人亦多賴以全。而顯章之死也，其妻辛氏自縊以殉。知州李緝為建孝節坊，並祠祀。嘉靖七年，豫獨被旌。

Around that time, Song Xianzhang of Puzhou and Li Yu of Xichuan—both licentiates—were known far and wide for filial devotion. Bandits spared their households, and many neighbors owed their lives to their moral standing. After Xianzhang's death, his wife, Lady Xin, took her own life to join him. Prefect Li Jin erected a memorial arch honoring their filial devotion and chastity, and had them enshrined for veneration. In the seventh year of the Jiajing reign, only Li Yu received state honors.

劉憲，靈石諸生也。父先亡。母年七十余，兩目俱瞽，憲奉事惟謹。正德六年，流賊入城，憲負母避之城外。賊追至，欲殺母，憲哀告曰：「寧殺我，毋害我母。」賊乃釋之，行至嶺後，憲竟為他賊所殺。賊縱火焚民居，獨憲宅隨爇隨滅。同時羅璋，遂寧諸生。大盜亂蜀中，母為賊所獲，璋手挺長槍，連斃三賊，賊舍母去。後賊追至，璋力捍賊，久之力疲，竟被執。賊憤甚，剜心剖肝，裂其屍。並正德中旌表。有李壯丁者，安定縣人。嘉靖中，北寇入犯，從父母奔避山谷。遇賊縛母去，壯丁取石奮擊，母得脫。前行復遇五賊，一賊縛其母，母大呼曰：「兒速去，毋顧我！」壯丁憤，手提鐵器擊仆賊，母得逃，而壯丁竟為賊所殺。正德中，賊掠巨鹿，執趙智、趙慧之母，將殺之。智追至，跪告曰：「母年老，願殺我。」慧亦至，泣曰：「兄年長，願留養母而殺我。」智方與爭死，而母復請曰：「吾老當死，乞留二子。」群賊笑曰：「皆好人也。」並釋之。

Liu Xian was a licentiate from Lingshi. His father had already passed away. His mother, blind in both eyes and past seventy, he tended with scrupulous devotion. In the sixth year of Zhengde, when bandits stormed the city, Liu Xian shouldered his mother and fled beyond the walls. When the bandits overtook them and moved to kill his mother, Liu Xian begged through tears: "Take my life instead—spare her. The bandits let them go—but beyond the ridge, other raiders killed Liu Xian. The bandits torched the neighborhood, yet Xian's house alone seemed to catch fire and then go out as if the flames refused to hold. Around the same period lived Luo Zhang, a licentiate of Suining. When major brigands swept through Sichuan and captured his mother, Luo Zhang took up a long spear, killed three of them in succession, and the rest released her and fled. Pursued again later, he fought until exhaustion and was taken. Enraged, they cut out his heart and liver and mutilated his body. Both men were posthumously honored during the Zhengde reign. One such case was Li Zhuangding of Anding County. In the Jiajing era, when northern raiders swept in, he fled with his parents into the hills. When bandits seized and bound his mother, Zhuangding pelted them with stones until she broke free. Farther on they met five more raiders; one seized his mother, who shouted: "Run, my son—leave me! Furious, he swung an iron tool and felled one of them—his mother escaped, but the bandits killed him. In the Zhengde era, when bandits raided Julu, they captured the mother of Zhao Zhi and Zhao Hui and were about to execute her. Zhao Zhi caught up, knelt, and pleaded: "She is old—kill me instead. Zhao Hui arrived in tears: "My brother is older and should stay to care for her—take my life." As the brothers argued over who should die, their mother intervened: "I am old—it is I who should die. Spare my sons." The bandits laughed: "What a virtuous family." Then they released them all.

容師偃，香山人。父患癱疾，扶持不離側。正德十二年，寇掠其鄉，師偃負父而逃。追者急，父麾使遁，泣曰：「父子相為命，去將安之。」俄被執，賊灼其父，師偃號泣請代。賊從之，父得釋，而師偃焚死。後有劉靜者，萬安諸生。嘉靖間，流賊陷其縣，負母出奔。遇賊，將殺母，靜以身翼蔽求代死。賊怒，攢刃殺之，猶抱母不解，屍閱七日不變。萬歷元年旌表。又有溫鉞者，大同人。父景清有膽力。嘉靖三年，鎮兵叛，殺巡撫張文錦。其後，巡撫蔡天佑令景清密捕首惡，戮數人，其黨恨之。十二年復叛，殺總兵李瑾，因遍索昔年為軍府效命者。景清深匿不出，遂執鉞及其母王氏以去，令言景清所在。鉞曰：「爾欲殺我父，而使我言其處，是我殺父也。如仇不可解，則殺我舒憤足矣。」賊不聽，逼母使言，母大罵不輟。賊怒，支解以怵鉞。鉞大哭且罵，並被殺。事平，母子並獲旌。

Rong Shiyan came from Xiangshan. His father was paralyzed, and Shiyan never left his side. In the twelfth year of Zhengde, when raiders swept his village, he fled carrying his father on his back. With pursuers closing in, his father urged him to flee. Weeping, Shiyan refused: "Our lives are bound together—where would I go without you? They were soon captured; when the bandits set his father alight, Shiyan sobbed and begged to die in his stead. The bandits accepted; his father was spared, and Shiyan burned to death. Later came Liu Jing, a licentiate of Wan'an. When bandits overran Wan'an in the Jiajing era, he shouldered his mother and fled. Cornered by bandits about to kill his mother, he spread his arms to shield her and offered his own life. Enraged, they stabbed him to death—yet he clung to his mother even in death, and his body showed no decomposition when examined seven days later. He was officially honored in the first year of the Wanli reign. Another was Wen Yue of Datong. His father Jingqing was known for his bravery and strength. In the third year of Jiajing, the garrison mutinied and murdered Grand Coordinator Zhang Wenjin. Later, Grand Coordinator Cai Tianyou sent Jingqing to secretly arrest the ringleaders; several were executed, and the mutineers bore a deep grudge against him. Twelve years later they rose again, killed Regional Commander Li Jin, and hunted down everyone who had served the military command years before. Jingqing went deep into hiding; the rebels seized Wen Yue and his mother, Lady Wang, and demanded to know Jingqing's whereabouts. Wen Yue replied: "You mean to kill my father—and you expect me to betray where he hides? That would make me his murderer. If you must have blood, kill me and be done with it. They refused. Pressuring his mother to talk, they met only unbroken curses. Furious, they dismembered her before his eyes to break him. Wen Yue wept and cursed—and they killed him too. After order was restored, both mother and son were posthumously honored.

俞孜，字景修，浙江山陰人。為諸生，敦行誼。嘉靖初，父華充裏役，解流人徐鐸至口外。鐸毒殺華，亡走。孜扶櫬歸，誓必報仇，縱跡數十郡不可得。後聞已還鄉，匿其甥楊氏家。乃結力士十數人，佯為賣魚，往來偵伺，且謁知府南大吉乞助。大吉義之，遣數健卒與俱，夜半驟率卒入楊氏家，呼鐸出見，縛送於官，置諸法。孜自是不復應舉，養繼母以終。

Yu Zi, courtesy name Jingxiu, came from Shanyin in Zhejiang. A licentiate, he was known for steadfast integrity and loyalty to friends. Early in the Jiajing reign, his father Hua was pressed into village corvée duty to escort the exiled convict Xu Duo beyond the frontier pass. Xu Duo poisoned Hua and fled. Yu Zi brought his father's body home and swore vengeance, hunting across dozens of prefectures without success. Eventually he learned Xu Duo had slipped back home and was hiding at his nephew's house, the Yang family. He gathered a dozen brawny allies, posed as fish sellers to scout the area, and asked Prefect Nan Daji for help. Nan Daji, moved by his cause, sent armed guards. At midnight they stormed the Yang house, dragged Xu Duo out, bound him, and handed him over for execution. Yu Zi never sat for the examinations again; he devoted himself to caring for his stepmother until her death.

有張震者，余姚農家子也。生周歲，父為人所陷將死，嚙震指語曰：「某，吾仇也，汝勿忘。」震長而指瘡不愈，母告以故，震誓必報。其友謂曰：「汝力弱，吾為汝殺之。」未幾，仇乘馬出，友以田器擊之，即死。震喜，走告父墓。已而事發，有司傷其誌，減死論戍，遇赦歸。孫文，亦余姚人也。幼時，父為族人時行箠死。長欲報之，而力不敵，乃偽與和好，共武斷鄉曲。時行坦然不復疑。一日，值時行於田間，即以田器擊殺之。坐戍，未幾，遇赦獲釋。

Zhang Zhen was a farmer's son from Yuyao. When Zhang Zhen was one year old, his father, framed and dying, bit the boy's finger and whispered: "Remember this name—he is my enemy. The bite left a wound that never healed; when his mother told him why, Zhang Zhen swore he would have revenge. A friend told him: "You're not strong enough—let me kill him for you. Soon the enemy rode out; the friend felled him with a farm tool, killing him instantly. Overjoyed, Zhang Zhen ran to his father's grave to report the deed. When the killing came to light, officials, moved by his filial motive, commuted the death sentence to exile; he returned home under amnesty. Sun Wen, too, was from Yuyao. As a boy, he watched his father beaten to death by a clansman named Shixing. Grown, he lacked the strength for open revenge, so he feigned friendship and joined Shixing in bullying their neighbors. Shixing, trusting him completely, suspected nothing. One day he found Shixing alone in the fields and killed him with a farm tool. He was banished, but was soon freed by imperial amnesty.

崔鑒，京師人。父嗜酒狎娼，召與居。娼恃寵，時時陵鑒母，父又被酒，數侵辱之。一日，娼惡言詈母，母復之，娼遂擊敗母面。母不勝憤，入室伏床而泣，將自盡。鑒時年十三，自學舍歸，問之，母告以故。鑒曰：「母無死。」即走至學舍，挾刃還。娼適掃地，且掃且詈。鑒拔刃刺其左脅，立斃，乃匿刃牖下，亡走數里，忽自念曰：「父不知我殺娼，必累我母。」急趨歸，父果訴於官，將縶其母矣。鑒至，告捕者曰：「此我所為，非母也。」眾見其幼，不信。鑒曰：「汝等不信，請問兇器安在？」自出刃示之，眾乃釋母，縶鑒置獄。事聞，下刑部讞。尚書聞淵等議，鑒誌在救母，且年少可矜，難拘常律。帝亦貸其罪。

Cui Jian was a native of the capital. His father drank heavily, consorted with a courtesan, and made Jian live with them. The courtesan, favored by his father, constantly belittled Jian's mother, while his drunken father repeatedly abused her as well. One day the courtesan reviled his mother; when his mother answered back, the courtesan beat her face bloody. Overcome with humiliation, his mother retreated to her room, collapsed on the bed in tears, and prepared to take her own life. Jian, then thirteen, came home from school, asked what was wrong, and his mother told him everything. "Mother, you must not die," he said. He ran to the school, seized a knife, and came back. The courtesan was sweeping the floor, muttering curses as she worked. He stabbed her in the left side and she fell dead at once. He hid the knife under the window sill and ran several li—then it struck him: if his father did not know he had killed the courtesan, his mother would bear the blame. He raced home just as his father had reported the murder to the magistrate, who was about to arrest his mother. Jian stepped forward and told the officers: "I did this—not my mother. No one believed a child could be the killer. "If you won't believe me," he said, "then tell me—where is the weapon? He retrieved the knife and showed it; only then did they release his mother and bind Jian for jail. When news reached the court, the case was referred to the Ministry of Punishments. Minister Wen Yuan and his colleagues noted that Jian had acted to save his mother, that he was young and deserving of sympathy, and that strict application of the usual penalty would be unjust. The emperor pardoned him as well.

唐儼，全州諸生也。父蔭，郴州知州，歸老得危疾。儼年十二，潛割臂肉進之，疾良已。及父歿，哀毀如成人。其後遊學於外，嫡母寢疾。儼妻鄧氏年十八，奮曰：「吾婦人，安知湯藥。昔夫子以臂肉療吾舅，吾獨不能療吾姑哉？」於是割脅肉以進，姑疾亦愈。儼聞母疾，馳歸，則無恙久矣，拜其妻曰：「此吾分也，當急召我，何自苦如此！」妻曰：「子事父，婦事姑，一也。方危急時，召子何及。且事必待子，安用婦為。」儼益嘆異。嫡母歿二十年，而生母歿，儼廬墓三年。嘉靖四年貢至京，有司奏旌其門。

Tang Yan was a licentiate from Quanzhou. His father Yin, former prefect of Chenzhou, fell gravely ill after retiring. At twelve, Yan secretly cut flesh from his own arm and fed it to his father, who soon recovered. When his father died, he mourned with the sorrow of a grown man. Later, while he was away studying, his stepmother fell gravely ill. Yan's wife, Lady Deng, was eighteen. With sudden resolve she said, "I am only a woman—what do I know of medicines and brews? Once my husband cut flesh from his own arm to heal his father—is it beyond me to heal my mother-in-law? So she cut flesh from her own side and fed it to her. The stepmother recovered. When Yan heard his mother was ill, he raced home—but she had already been well for some time. He bowed to his wife and said, "That was my duty. You should have sent for me at once. Why put yourself through such suffering? His wife replied, "A son serves his father; a wife serves her mother-in-law. The obligation is the same. In a crisis, by the time you can send for a son, it is already too late. And if every duty must wait for a son, what is a wife for?" Yan marveled at her all the more. Twenty years after his stepmother's death, when his birth mother died, Yan mourned at her grave in a hut for three years. In Jiajing 4 he was sent to the capital as a tribute student; the local authorities memorialized the throne, and his family received an official commendation.

丘緒，字繼先，鄞縣諸生他。生母黃，為嫡余所逐，適江東包氏。未幾轉適他所，遂不復相聞。緒年十五，父歿，事余至孝。余疾，謹奉湯藥，不解衣帶者數月。余重感其孝，病革，與訣曰：「我即死，汝無忘若母。」時母被逐已二十年矣。一夕，夢人告曰：「若母在臺州金鰲寺前。」覺而識之。次日，與一人憩於途，詰之，則包氏故養馬廝也。叩以母所向，曰：「有周平者曾悉其事，今已戍京衛矣。」緒姊婿謁選在京，遺書囑訪平，久之未得。一日，有避雨於邸門者，其聲類鄞人，叩之，即周平也，言黃已適臺州李副使子。緒得報，即之臺，而李已歿，其嗣子漫不知前事。緒仿徨掩泣於道，有傷之者，導謁老媒妁王四，曰已再適仙居吳義官。吳，仙居巨族也。緒至，歷間數十家，無所遇。已而抵一儒生吳秉朗家，語之故。生感其意，留止焉。有叔母聞所留者異鄉人也，恚而咻之。生告以緒意。叔母者，黃故主母也，頗憶前事，然不詳所往。呼舊蒼頭問之，雲金鰲寺前，去歲經之，棺已殯寺旁矣。緒以其言與夢合，信之，行且泣，牛觸之墜於溝，則輿夫馬長之門也。駭而出，問所從來。緒以情告。長曰：「吾前輿一婦至縉雲蒼嶺下，殆是也。」輿緒至其處。緒遍物色，無所遇，倀倀行委巷中。一媼立門外，探之，知為鄞人，告以所從來。嫗亦轉詢丘氏耗，則緒母也。抱持而哭，閭裏皆感動。寺旁棺者，蓋其姒氏雲。所適陳翁，貧而無子，且多負。緒還取金償之，並迎翁以歸，備極孝養。嘉靖十四年，知縣趙民順入覲，疏聞於朝，獲旌表。

Qiu Xu, courtesy name Jixian, was a licentiate of Yinxian County. His birth mother, surnamed Huang, had been driven out by the principal wife, Lady Yu, and remarried to the Bao family east of the river. She soon married again elsewhere, and contact was lost entirely. Qiu Xu was fifteen when his father died; he served Lady Yu with exceptional devotion. When she fell ill, he nursed her with medicines, never changing clothes or loosening his belt for months on end. Deeply moved by his devotion, Lady Yu, on her deathbed, bid him farewell: "When I am gone, do not forget your own mother. By then his mother had been cast out twenty years earlier. One night a figure appeared in his dream and said, "Your mother is at Jin'ao Temple in Taizhou. He woke and fixed the words in his mind. The next day he rested on the road with a stranger and, questioning him, found he had once been a groom in the Bao household. When Xu asked after his mother's whereabouts, the man said, "A man named Zhou Ping once knew the whole story; he is now serving in the capital garrison. Xu's brother-in-law was in the capital awaiting appointment; Xu wrote asking him to find Zhou Ping, but months passed without success. One day a man sheltering from rain at an inn gate spoke with a Yin accent. Xu questioned him—it was Zhou Ping, who said Huang had married the son of Vice Commissioner Li of Taizhou. Xu set out for Taizhou at once, but Li was already dead and his heir knew nothing of the past. Xu wandered the road weeping; a passerby took pity and brought him to an old matchmaker, Wang Si, who said Huang had remarried to Assistant Commander Wu of Xianju. The Wu were a leading family in Xianju. Xu arrived and knocked on dozens of doors without finding her. Eventually he came to the home of a scholar, Wu Binglang, and told him the whole story. Moved by Xu's purpose, Wu Binglang took him in. An aunt heard that Wu was sheltering a stranger and, enraged, drove Xu out with curses. Wu Binglang explained Xu's quest to her. That aunt had once been Huang's mistress; she remembered much of the past but could not say where Huang had gone. She summoned an old retainer, who said, "Jin'ao Temple"—he had passed there the year before and a coffin had already been laid to rest beside the temple. Convinced the account matched his dream, Xu walked on weeping. An ox knocked him into a ditch outside the home of Ma Changzhi, a sedan-chair bearer. Ma rushed out in alarm and asked where he had come from. Xu told him the whole story. Ma said, "I once carried a woman down to Cangling below Jinyun—that may be her. He took Xu there in his chair. Xu searched everywhere without success and wandered lost through back alleys. An old woman stood at a doorway. Probing her accent, he found she was from Yin and told her why he had come. The old woman, in turn, asked for news of the Qiu family—it was his mother. They embraced and wept until every neighbor was moved. The coffin beside the temple, it turned out, belonged to her sister-in-law. Her husband, Old Chen, was poor, childless, and heavily in debt. Xu went home for money to pay off the debts, brought Old Chen back with him, and cared for both his mother and her husband with every devotion. In Jiajing 14, Magistrate Zhao Minshun memorialized the throne during his audience at court, and Xu received an official commendation.

張鈞，石州人。父赦，國子生。以二親早亡，矢誌不仕，隱居城北村。鈞，正德末舉於鄉。以親老亦不仕，讀書養親，遠近皆稱其孝。嘉靖二十年，俺答犯石州。鈞慮父遭難，自城中馳一騎號泣赴救。寇射中其肩，裹瘡疾馳，至則父已被殺。鈞隕絕，盡餂父血，水漿不入口三日，不勝悲痛而卒。越二年，有司上其狀，獲旌。是時殺掠甚慘，石州為親死者十一人，而張承相、於博、張永安尤著。承相少孤，及長為諸生，養母二十余年，以孝聞。寇至，負母出逃，為所得，叩頭號泣，乞免其母。寇怒，並殺之，抱母首死。博二歲而孤，奉母盡孝。寇抵城下，博方讀書城中。母居村舍，亟下城號泣求母。母已被執，遇諸途，博取石奮擊寇。寇就剖其心，母得逸去，年止十有八。永安，石州吏也。父為寇所逐，永安持梃追擊之，傷二賊，趣父逸去，而身自後衛之，被數十創死。與鈞同被旌。有溫繼宗者，沁州諸生。父卒，不能葬，日守柩哀泣。嘉靖二十一年，寇入犯，或勸出城避難，以父殯不肯去。寇至，與叔父淵等力禦，擊傷一賊，中矢死柩旁，淵等皆死。亦與鈞同被旌。

Zhang Jun was a man of Shizhou. His father She was a student of the Imperial Academy. Both parents having died young, he vowed never to serve in office and lived in seclusion in a village north of the city. Jun passed the provincial examination near the end of the Zhengde reign. His parents now being old, he again declined office, devoting himself to study and their care; near and far, all praised his filial devotion. In Jiajing 20, Altan Khan raided Shizhou. Fearing for his father, Jun mounted a horse in the city and rode out weeping to save him. The raiders shot him in the shoulder; he bound the wound and rode on, but when he arrived his father was already dead. Jun collapsed senseless, licked his father's blood from the ground, took neither water nor food for three days, and died of grief. Two years later the authorities submitted his case, and he received an official commendation. The slaughter and looting were terrible; eleven men in Shizhou died defending their parents, but Zhang Chengxiang, Yu Bo, and Zhang Yong'an were especially remembered. Chengxiang lost his father young; as a grown licentiate he supported his mother for more than twenty years and was known for his filial devotion. When the raiders came he fled with his mother on his back; they were caught, and he kowtowed and wept, begging them to spare her. Enraged, the raiders killed them both; he died still holding his mother's severed head. Bo was orphaned at two and devoted himself entirely to his mother. When the raiders reached the city walls, Bo was studying inside the town. His mother lived in a village outside the walls; he rushed down from the city, weeping and searching for her. She had already been seized; he met them on the road, seized a stone, and struck at the raiders with all his strength. The raiders cut out his heart on the spot; his mother escaped. He was only eighteen. Yong'an was a clerk of Shizhou. When raiders pursued his father, Yong'an took a club and chased them, wounding two; he urged his father to flee, covered the retreat himself, and died of dozens of wounds. He received an official commendation together with Jun. There was Wen Jizong, a licentiate of Qinzhou. When his father died he could not afford a burial and kept daily vigil beside the coffin, weeping in grief. In Jiajing 21 raiders invaded; others urged him to flee the city, but with his father's coffin still unburied he would not leave. When the raiders came he fought beside his uncle Yuan and the others, wounding one bandit; struck by an arrow, he died beside the coffin, and Yuan and the rest perished as well. He too received an official commendation together with Jun.

王在復，太倉人。年二十一，從父讀書城外。倭寇入犯，父子亟奔入城。父體肥不能速行，中道遇賊，遂相失。在復走二里許，展轉尋父。聞父被執，急趨賊所，叩頭求免。賊不聽，拔刃擬其父，在復以身蔽之，痛哭哀求。賊怒，並殺之，兩首墜地，而手猶抱父不釋。時嘉靖三十三年五月也。當是時，倭亂東南，孝子以衛父母見殺者甚眾，其得旌於朝者，在復及黃巖王蒐、慈谿向敘、無錫蔡元銳、丹徒殷士望。蒐隨父顯避賊。顯被執，將殺之。蒐亟趨前請代，賊遂殺蒐而釋顯。敘為慈谿諸生。倭入寇，以縣無城，掖母出避。遇賊，踣敘而斫其母，敘急起抱母頸，大呼曰：「寧殺我，毋殺我母！」賊如其言，母獲全。俱嘉靖三十五年旌表。元銳，無錫人，與弟元鐸並孝友。倭犯無錫，入元銳家，兄弟急扶父升屋避匿。而元銳為賊執，令言父所在，堅不從，遂見殺。元鐸不知兄死，明日持重貲往贖，並見殺。嘉靖三十八年旌表。士望，丹徒人，事親孝。倭犯京口，父被掠，士望請代死。賊笑而試之，火炙刀刺，受之怡然，賊兩釋之。嘉靖四十三年旌表。其他未及旌表者，又有陳經孚、龔可正、伍民憲。經孚，平陽人。倭至，負母出逃，遇賊索母珥環，欲殺之。經孚以身翼蔽，賊怒，揮刃截耳及肩而死，手猶抱母頸不解。可正，嘉定諸生。負祖母避賊，天雨泥濘，猝遇賊。賊惡見婦人，欲殺其祖母，叱可正去。可正跪泣請代，賊不從。可正以身覆祖母，賊並殺之。民憲，晉江人。扶父避難，遇賊，長跪哀告曰：「勿驚我父，他物任取之。」賊不聽，竟殺其父。民憲憤，挺身殺二賊，傷數賊。賊至益多，斷民憲右手。臥草中，猶一手執戈，呼其父三日而絕。

Wang Zaifu was a man of Taicang. At twenty-one he was studying with his father outside the city walls. When wokou raiders struck, father and son rushed toward the city. His father was heavyset and could not keep pace; they met bandits on the road and were separated. Zaifu ran nearly two li, doubling back again and again in search of his father. Learning his father had been seized, he rushed to the bandits and kowtowed, begging for his life. They would not listen. When they drew their blades against his father, Zaifu threw himself between them, weeping and pleading. Enraged, the bandits killed them both. Both heads fell to the ground, yet Zaifu's arms still clung to his father. It was the fifth month of Jiajing 33. In those years wokou ravaged the southeast, and many filial sons died defending their parents; those officially commended at court included Zaifu, Wang Sou of Huangyan, Xiang Xu of Cixi, Cai Yuanrui of Wuxi, and Yin Shiwang of Dantu. Sou fled with his father Xian to escape the raiders. Xian was seized and about to be killed. Sou rushed forward and offered himself in his father's place; the bandits killed Sou and let Xian go. Xu was a licentiate of Cixi. When wokou raiders came, the county had no walls; he supported his mother under the arm and fled. They met bandits, who knocked Xu down and hacked at his mother. He sprang up, threw his arms around her neck, and cried, "Kill me instead—spare my mother! The bandits did as he asked, and his mother was spared. All were officially commended in Jiajing 35. Yuanrui was from Wuxi; he and his younger brother Yuanduo were known for filial devotion and brotherly love. When wokou raiders struck Wuxi and entered their home, the brothers hurried their father onto the roof to hide. Yuanrui was seized and ordered to reveal his father's hiding place; he refused and was killed. Yuanduo, not knowing his brother was dead, came the next day with a heavy ransom and was killed as well. They received an official commendation in Jiajing 38. Shiwang was from Dantu and served his parents with filial devotion. When wokou raiders struck Jingkou and seized his father, Shiwang offered to die in his place. The bandits laughed and tested him with fire and blade; he bore it without flinching, and they released them both. They received official commendation in Jiajing 43. Others not yet officially commended included Chen Jingfu, Gong Kezheng, and Wu Minxian. Jingfu was from Pingyang. When raiders came, he fled carrying his mother on his back. Bandits intercepted them, demanding his mother's earrings and threatening to kill her. Jingfu spread his body to shield her. Enraged, the bandits slashed him, cutting off his ear and deep into his shoulder. He died with his arms still locked around his mother's neck. Kezheng, a student of Jiading, held licentiate status. He was carrying his grandmother to escape the raiders when rain turned the roads to mud. Suddenly bandits appeared. The bandits hated encountering women and meant to kill his grandmother. They ordered Kezheng away. Kezheng knelt and wept, begging to die in her place. The bandits refused. Kezheng threw himself over his grandmother. The bandits killed them both. Minxian was from Jinjiang. He was helping his father flee when they met bandits. He dropped to his knees and pleaded, "Please don't frighten my father. Take whatever else you want. The bandits paid no heed and killed his father. Furious, Minxian sprang up and killed two raiders, wounding several more. More raiders arrived and cut off Minxian's right hand. He lay in the grass, still gripping a halberd in his remaining hand, calling to his father for three days until he died.

夏子孝，字以忠，桐城人。六歲失母，哀哭如成人。九歲父得危疾，禱天地，刲股六寸許，調羹以進，父食之頓愈。翌日，子孝痛創，父詰其故，始知之。裏老以聞於官，知府胡麟先夢王祥來謁，詰旦而縣牒至，詫曰：「孺子其祥後身耶？」召見，易其舊名「恩」曰「子孝」。督學御史胡植即令入學為諸生，月廩之。麟復屬貢士趙簡授之經。嘉靖末，父卒，廬墓，獨居荒山，身無完衣，形容槁瘁。後歷事王畿、羅汝芳、史桂芳、耿定向，獲聞聖賢之學。定向為督學御史，將疏聞於朝，固辭曰：「不肖不忍以亡親賈名。」乃止。將死，命其子曰：「葬我父墓側。」

Xia Zixiao, styled Yizhong, was from Tongcheng. He lost his mother at six and wept in grief like a grown man. At nine, when his father fell gravely ill, he prayed to Heaven and Earth, cut six inches of flesh from his thigh, made broth and fed it to him. His father recovered immediately. The next day, when the wound pained him, his father pressed him for an explanation and only then learned what he had done. The village elder reported the matter to the authorities. Prefect Hu Linxian dreamed that Wang Xiang came to visit him; at dawn a county report arrived. Astonished, he said, "Could this boy be Wang Xiang reborn? He summoned the boy and changed his name from En to Zixiao—"Filial Son." Education Censor Hu Zhi immediately enrolled him as a licentiate and awarded him a monthly stipend. Hu Linxian also entrusted a tribute student, Zhao Jian, to instruct him in the classics. Near the end of the Jiajing reign his father died. He mourned at the grave in a hut on a desolate hillside, alone, in ragged clothes, his body wasted and gaunt. Later he studied under Wang Ji, Luo Rufang, Shi Guifang, and Geng Dingxiang, and came to know the teachings of the sages. When Geng Dingxiang, as education censor, was about to memorialize the throne on his behalf, he firmly refused: "I cannot bear to gain renown at the price of my dead father's grief. The memorial was dropped. On his deathbed he told his son, "Bury me beside my father's grave."

阿寄者，淳安徐氏仆也。徐氏昆弟析產而居，伯得一馬，仲得一牛，季寡婦得阿寄，時年五十余矣。寡婦泣曰：「馬則乘，牛則耕，老仆何益。」寄嘆曰：「主謂我不若牛馬耶！」乃畫策營生，示可用狀。寡婦盡脫簪珥，得白金十二兩，畀寄。寄入山販漆，期年而三倍其息，謂寡婦曰：「主無憂，富可致矣。」歷二十年，積資巨萬，為寡婦嫁三女，婚二子，賫聘皆千金。又延師教二子，輸粟為太學生。自是，寡婦財雄一邑。及寄病且死，謂寡婦曰：「老奴牛馬之報盡矣。」出枕中二籍，則家鉅細悉均分之，曰：「以此遺兩郎君，可世守也。」既歿，或疑其有私，竊啟其篋，無一金蓄。所遺一嫗一兒，僅敝缊掩體而已。

A Ji was a servant in the Xu household of Chun'an. The Xu brothers divided the estate: the eldest took a horse, the second an ox, and the youngest brother's widow was left with A Ji, then past fifty. The widow wept and said, "A horse you ride, an ox you plow with—what good is an old servant? Ji sighed and said, "Does my mistress think I'm worth less than cattle?" So he made plans to earn their keep and proved his worth. The widow sold every hairpin and earring she had, raised twelve taels of silver, and gave them to Ji. Ji went into the hills to trade lacquer. Within a year he had tripled the capital. "Don't worry, mistress," he said. "We can be rich. Over twenty years he amassed a fortune, married off three daughters and found wives for two sons, each match sealed with betrothal gifts worth a thousand gold. He hired tutors for the two sons and paid tribute grain to enroll them in the Imperial Academy. From then on the widow was the wealthiest person in the county. When Ji fell mortally ill, he told the widow, "I have repaid my debt to you, like an ox or a horse, down to the last. He drew two ledgers from under his pillow, dividing every asset equally, and said, "Leave these to the two young masters. They can preserve the family for generations." After his death some suspected he had hoarded a private store. They opened his chest in secret and found not a single coin. All he left behind was an old woman and a child, barely clothed in patched rags.

趙重華，雲南太和人。七歲時，父廷瑞遊江湖間，久不返。重華長，謁郡守請路引，榜其背曰：「萬里尋親。」別書父年貌、邑里數千紙，所歷都會州縣遍張之。西禱武當山，經太子巖，巖陰有字曰：「嘉靖四十四年十二月十二日，趙廷瑞朝山至此。」重華讀之，慟曰：「吾父果過此，今吾之來月日正同，可卜相逢矣。」遂書其後曰：「萬歷六年十二月十二日，趙廷瑞之子重華，尋父至此。」久之竟無所遇。過丹陽，盜攫其資，所遺獨路引。且行且乞，遇一老僧呼問其故，笑曰：「汝父客無錫南禪寺中。」語訖忽不見。重華急趨至寺，果其父，出路引示之，相與慟哭。留數日，乃還雲南。

Zhao Chonghua was from Taihe in Yunnan. When he was seven, his father Tingrui went wandering and did not return for many years. When he came of age, he petitioned the prefect for a travel permit. A placard on his back read, "Searching for my father across ten thousand li. He wrote his father's age, appearance, and hometown on thousands of notices and posted them in every city and county he passed through. He traveled west to pray at Wudang Mountain. At Taizi Cliff he found an inscription in the shade: "On the twelfth day of the twelfth month of Jiajing 44, Zhao Tingrui came here on pilgrimage. Reading it, Chonghua wept and said, "My father did pass this way—and today is the same month and day he came. Surely we will meet." He added beneath it: "On the twelfth day of the twelfth month of Wanli 6, Zhao Tingrui's son Chonghua came here searching for his father." In the end, after long searching, he found no trace of his father. At Danyang, robbers took everything he had. Only his travel permit was left. He went on begging as he traveled. An old monk called to him, asked his story, and smiled: "Your father is lodging at Nanchan Temple in Wuxi. The words had barely left his lips when the monk vanished. Chonghua ran to the temple and found his father. He showed him the travel permit, and they wept in each other's arms. After a few days together, they returned to Yunnan.

是時，有謝廣者，祁門人。父求仙不返，廣娶婦七日即別母求父，遇於開封逆旅中。父乘間復脫去。廣跋涉四方者垂二十年，終不得父，聞者哀之。

About the same time there was Xie Guang of Qimen. His father had gone in search of immortals and never returned. Guang married, and seven days later left his mother to find his father. They met at an inn in Kaifeng. His father seized a moment and slipped away again. For nearly twenty years he wandered the country, never finding his father again. All who heard his story grieved for him.

王世名，字時望，武義人。父良，與族子俊同居爭屋，為俊毆死。世名年十七，恐殘父屍，不忍就理，乃佯聽其輸田議和。凡田所入，輒易價封識。俊有所饋，亦佯受之。而潛繪父像懸密室，繪己像於旁，帶刀侍，朝夕泣拜，且購一刃，銘「報仇」二字，母妻不知也。服闋，為諸生。及生子數月，謂母妻曰：「吾已有後，可以死矣。」一日，俊自外醉歸，世名挺刃迎擊之，立斃。出號於眾，入白母，即取前封識者詣吏請死。時萬歷九年二月，去父死六年矣。知縣陳某曰：「此孝子也，不可置獄。」別館之，而上其事於府。府檄金華知縣汪大受來訊。世名請死，大受曰：「檢屍有傷，爾可無死。」曰：「吾惟不忍殘父屍，以至今日。不然，何待六年。乞放歸辭母乃就死。」許之。歸，母迎而泣。世名曰：「身者，父之遺也。以父之遺為父死，雖離母，得從父矣，何憾。」頃之，大受至，縣人奔走直世名者以千計。大受乃令人舁致父棺，將開視之。世名大慟，以頭觸階石，血流殷地。大受及旁觀者鹹為隕涕，乃令舁柩去，將白上官免檢屍，以全孝子。世名曰：「此非法也，非法無君，何以生為。」遂不食而死。妻俞氏，撫孤三載，自縊以殉，旌其門曰孝烈。

Wang Shiming, styled Shiwang, was from Wuyi. His father Liang shared a house with a clansman named Jun. They quarreled over the property, and Jun beat him to death. Shiming was seventeen. Fearing his father's body would be desecrated, he could not bring himself to press his case in court. Instead he pretended to accept Jun's offer of land as settlement. Every penny from the fields he exchanged for cash, sealed and marked for safekeeping. Whatever Jun offered him, he pretended to accept graciously. In secret he painted his father's portrait and hung it in a hidden room, with his own likeness beside it, sword in hand, standing watch. Morning and evening he wept and bowed before it. He bought a blade engraved with the word "Vengeance." His mother and wife knew nothing. When his mourning period ended, he enrolled as a licentiate. When his son was a few months old, he told his mother and wife, "I have an heir now. I can die. One day Jun came home drunk. Shiming met him with his blade and killed him on the spot. He cried out to the crowd, told his mother, then took the sealed cash to the magistrate and offered himself for execution. It was the second month of Wanli 9—six years after his father's murder. Magistrate Chen said, "This is a filial son. He must not be jailed. He housed him separately and reported the case to the prefectural office. The prefecture ordered Jinhua Magistrate Wang Dashou to investigate. Shiming asked to die. Dashou said, "If the autopsy confirms the wounds, you won't have to die. Shiming replied, "It was only because I could not bear to have my father's body desecrated that I waited until today. Otherwise, why would I have waited six years? He asked to go home first to bid his mother farewell before dying." The request was granted. When he returned, his mother met him in tears. Shiming said, "My body is my father's legacy. To use my father's gift to die for my father—even if I must leave my mother, I go to my father. What regret could I have? Soon Wang Dashou arrived. Thousands of county residents converged on Shiming's home. Dashou ordered Shiming's father's coffin brought forth and opened for examination. Shiming was overcome with grief. He dashed his head against the stone steps until blood pooled on the ground. Dashou and all who watched wept. He ordered the coffin taken away and planned to petition his superiors to waive the autopsy, to preserve the filial son's honor. Shiming said, "That would violate the law. Without law there is no sovereign. What point would there be in living? He refused food and starved himself to death. His wife, Lady Yu, raised their child for three years, then hanged herself to join him. Their household was commended with the title "Filial and Resolute."

李文詠，昆山諸生。父大經，沂水知縣。萬歷二十七年，父寢室被火。文詠突入，將父抱出，而榱棟盡覆，父子俱焚死。火息，入視，屍猶覆其父，父存全體，文詠但余一股。

Li Wenyong was a student of Kunshan who held licentiate status. His father Dajing was magistrate of Yishui County. In Wanli 27, fire broke out in his father's bedchamber. Wenyong rushed in to carry his father out, but the roof collapsed. Father and son were burned alive. When the fire died down, they found Wenyong's body still shielding his father. His father was intact; of Wenyong, only one leg remained.

王應元，武隆人。力農養父。父醉臥，家失火。應元自外趨烈焰中，竟不能出，抱父死。

Wang Yuanyuan was from Wulong. He worked the fields to support his father. His father was drunk and asleep when fire broke out in the house. Yuanyuan ran from outside into the blaze. He never came out—he died holding his father.

唐治，黃岡人。父柩在堂，鄰居火，治盡出資財募人舁柩，人各自顧，無應者。或挽之出，泣曰：「父柩在此，我死不出。」火息，後堂巋然獨存，柩亦無恙，而治竟熏灼伏柩死。萬歷中旌表。

Tang Zhi was from Huanggang. His father's coffin lay in the hall when a neighbor's house caught fire. Tang Zhi offered all he had to hire men to move the coffin, but everyone looked to their own safety and no one came. Some tried to drag him out. Weeping, he said, "My father's coffin is here. I will not leave, even if I die. When the fire subsided, the rear hall alone stood intact and the coffin was unharmed—but Zhi had burned to death shielding it. During the Wanli reign he received official commendation.

許恩，蘄水人。夜半鄰家失火，恩驚出，遍尋母不得，復突入，遂與母俱焚。

Xu En was from Qishui. At midnight a neighbor's house caught fire. En rushed out in alarm and searched everywhere but could not find his mother. He burst back in and perished with her in the flames.

馮象臨，慈谿諸生。家被火，遍覓父母，煙焰彌空，迷失庭戶。象臨大呼，初得母，即從火中負出。再入負父，並挾一弟以出，半體已焦爛。聞妹尚留臥內，母號呼，將自入，亟止之，觸烈焰攜妹出，竟灼爛而死。事聞，賜旌。

Feng Xianglin was a student of Cixi who held licentiate status. When fire broke out in his home, he searched everywhere for his parents. Smoke and flames filled the sky and he lost his way among the rooms. Xianglin shouted loudly. Once he found his mother, he carried her out through the flames. He went back in, carried out his father, and brought out a younger brother as well. Half his body was already charred. Hearing his sister was still inside, his mother wailed and tried to go back in. He stopped her, plunged through the flames, and brought his sister out—but was burned to death. When the story became known, the court granted official commendation.

後有龔作梅者，陳州人。年十七，父母俱亡，殯於舍。闖賊火民居，作梅跪柩前焚死。

Later there was Gong Zuomei of Chenzhou. At seventeen, both his parents had died. Their coffins lay in the house. Bandits torched a house. Zuomei knelt before the coffins and burned to death.

孔金，山陽人。父早亡，母謝氏，遺腹三月而生金。母為大賈杜言逼娶，投河死。金長，屢訟於官，不勝。言行賄欲斃金，金乃乞食走闕下，擊登聞鼓訴冤，不得達。還墓所，晝夜號泣。裏人劉清等陳其事於府，知府張守約異之，召閭族媒氏質實，坐言大辟。未幾守約卒，言夤緣免。金復號訴不已，被箠無完膚。已而撫按理舊牘，仍坐言大辟，迄死獄中。金子良亦有孝行，父病，刲股為羹以進，旋愈。比卒，廬墓哀毀。萬歷四十三年，父子並得旌。

Kong Jin was from Shanyang. His father died young. His mother, Lady Xie, was three months pregnant when he died and bore Jin thereafter. The great merchant Du Yan forced his mother to marry him. She drowned herself in the river. When Jin came of age, he sued again and again in court but never won. Yan bribed officials to have Jin killed. Jin begged his way to the capital and beat the appeal drum at the palace gate, but his petition never reached the throne. He returned to his mother's grave and wailed day and night. Villagers including Liu Qing reported the case to the prefecture. Prefect Zhang Shouyue was struck by it. He summoned neighbors, clansmen, and the matchmaker to verify the facts and sentenced Yan to death. Before long Shouyue died, and Yan used connections to escape the sentence. Jin kept crying out and petitioning without cease. He was beaten until his body was a mass of wounds. Eventually the grand coordinator reviewed the old files, again sentenced Yan to death, and Yan died in prison. Jin's son Liang was also filial. When his father fell ill, he cut flesh from his thigh, made broth, and fed it to him. His father soon recovered. When his father died, he mourned at the grave in a hut, wasting away in grief. In Wanli 43, father and son both received official commendation.

楊通照、通傑，銅仁人。母周氏有疾，兄弟爭拜禱，求以身代。閱三年，不入內室。萬歷三十六年，群苗流劫，至其家，母被執去。二人追鬥數十里，被傷不顧。至鬼空溪，見賊縶母，大罵，聲震山谷，橫擊萬眾中，為賊所磔死。通照年二十五，通傑年二十二。泰昌元年，巡撫李枟、巡按史永安上其事，旌曰雙孝之門。

Yang Tongzhao and Tongjie were from Tongren. Their mother, Lady Zhou, fell ill. The brothers competed in prayer, each begging to suffer in her place. For three years they did not enter the inner chambers of the house. In Wanli 36, Miao raiders swept through the region. They reached the brothers' home and seized their mother. The two brothers pursued them for dozens of li, ignoring their wounds. At Guikong Stream they found the bandits holding their mother captive. They cursed until their voices shook the valleys and charged into the midst of the enemy host. The bandits dismembered and killed them both. Tongzhao was twenty-five; Tongjie was twenty-two. In Taichang 1, Grand Coordinator Li Yin and Regional Inspector Shi Yong'an reported the case. Their household was commended with the title "Gate of Twin Filial Piety."

時無錫民浦邵，賊縛其父虞，將殺之。邵以首迎刃而死，父得免。寧化民林上元，賊掠其繼母李氏出城，上元從城上持槍一躍而下，直奔賊壘，刺死二人。賊避其鋒，立出李氏，因引去，城賴以全。皆萬歷四十三年旌。

At that time Pu Shao, a commoner of Wuxi, had bandits bind his father Yu and prepare to kill him. Shao put his neck to the blade and died. His father was spared. Lin Shangyuan, a commoner of Ninghua, had bandits carry off his stepmother, Lady Li, outside the city walls. He leaped from the wall with a spear, charged straight into the bandit camp, and killed two men. The bandits fell back before his assault, released Lady Li, and withdrew. The city was saved. All received official commendation in Wanli 43.

崇禎七年，流賊陷竹谿，執知縣余霄將殺之。子諸生伯麟請代，乃免。

In Chongzhen 7, rebel bandits captured Zhuxi, seized Magistrate Yu Xiao, and prepared to execute him. His son Bolin, a licentiate, offered to die in his place, and the magistrate was spared.

張清雅，潛山人。家貧，力學養親。崇禎十年，張獻忠來犯。清雅以父年老臥病，守之不去。無何，父卒。斂甫畢，賊入其家，疑棺內藏金銀，欲剖視之。清雅據棺哀泣，賊斷其手，仆地。幼子超藝年十六，號哭求代。賊復砍之，父子俱死，而棺得不剖。仆雲滿，具兩棺斂之，亦不食死。

Zhang Qingya was from Qianshan. His family was poor. He studied hard to support his parents. In Chongzhen 10, Zhang Xianzhong's forces attacked. Qingya's father was old and bedridden. He stayed to guard him and would not leave. Before long his father died. Just as the encoffining was finished, bandits entered the house. Suspecting gold and silver in the coffin, they meant to open it. Qingya clung to the coffin and wept. The bandits cut off his hand and he collapsed. His younger son Chaoyi, sixteen, wailed and begged to die in his father's place. The bandits hacked at him too. Father and son both died, but the coffin was never opened. The servant Yunman prepared two coffins for them and starved himself to death.

時有白精忠者，潁州人。五歲而孤，母袁氏撫之。家貧，母食糠核，而以精者哺兒。精忠知之，每餐必先啖其惡者。天啟中，舉於鄉。崇禎八年，流賊陷潁州，家人勸逃匿。精忠以母年老，不忍獨去，遂遇害。

At that time there was Bai Jingzhong of Yingzhou. Orphaned at five, he was raised by his mother, Lady Yuan. The family was poor. His mother ate chaff and husks and saved the better food for her son. Jingzhong knew this. At every meal he ate the worst portion first. During the Tianqi reign he passed the provincial examination. In Chongzhen 8, rebel bandits captured Yingzhou. His family urged him to flee. Jingzhong's mother was old; he could not bear to flee alone and was killed.

州有檀之槐者，護母柩下去。與賊格鬥，殺數人，被磔死。

In the prefecture was Tan Zhihuai, who fled while guarding his mother's coffin. He fought the bandits, killed several men, and was dismembered and killed.

又有李心唯，素敦孝行。賊至，泣守母喪。賊掠其室，將縛之，不出，被殺。子果，見父死，厲聲罵賊，賊又殺之。

There was also Li Xinwei, known for his filial devotion. When bandits arrived, he wept as he kept vigil over his mother's funeral. Bandits looted his house and tried to bind him. He refused to come out and was killed. His son Guo saw his father dead and cursed the bandits at the top of his lungs. They killed him too.

有余承德者，無為人。崇禎十五年，流賊突至，掖其祖母劉氏、母魏氏及妻楊氏、妹玉女出避。祖母、母行遲，為盜所獲，欲刃之。承德號呼救護，並遇害。楊氏見之，急投河死。賊將犯玉女，玉女大罵，堅不從，寸磔而死。

There was Yu Chengde of Wuwei. In Chongzhen 15, rebel bandits suddenly arrived. He helped his grandmother Lady Liu, his mother Lady Wei, his wife Lady Yang, and his sister Yunu flee. His grandmother and mother could not keep up. Robbers seized them and raised their blades. Chengde cried out and rushed to protect them. He was killed along with them. Lady Yang saw it and threw herself into the river. The bandits meant to violate Yunu. She cursed them and firmly refused. They dismembered her inch by inch.

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