Young Min Ziqian 少年闵子骞

Description:

During the Spring and Autumn period, the three Huan clans of the State of Lu purged dissidents, forcing Min Zi-Qian's parents to flee to the State of Song. His long-ailing mother died in a foreign land during their wanderings. Later, Min Zi-Qian's father remarried Yao Shi, who bore him two sons. The father, frustrated in his ambitions, often drank, and Min Zi-Qian became the family's laborer: herding cattle, cutting rice, and looking after his younger brothers. One day, a fortune-teller told Yao Shi that her adopted son was destined to clash with her, so she began to see accidents befalling her own sons as deliberate harm by Zi-Qian. She abused Min Zi-Qian in every way, yet he instead showed even greater filial devotion to his stepmother. Thus unfolded the moving tale of the beating and the reed flowers. Min Zi-Qian's filial piety and virtue eventually moved the sage Confucius, who took him as a disciple.