During the Ming Dynasty, there was a potter in Qu County called Tian Fu. He was good at firing pottery figurines of people and animals. The pottery figurines made with superb skills are lifelike and eye-catching.
Later, he married Liu Yulan, a woman from a neighboring county. After marriage, the couple had a harmonious relationship with each other. They never thought that they would get married in less than half a year, and Tian Fu died of illness.
A few days after Tian Fu's funeral was completed, Liu Yulan's parents came to the door to ask her daughter to return to her parents' home to remarry, but she refused to agree even if she resisted her death, and even threatened that her parents would cut off their relationship with her parents' home if they remarry.
Liu Yulan was very filial to her parents-in-law after marrying into the Tian family. Her parents-in-law treated him as their daughter. Now her son Tian Fu is dead and has no children to raise. The old couple pity their daughter-in-law and advised her to remarry.
Liu Yulan refused to obey death. Her mother-in-law said, "You are young and beautiful and become a widow and will regret it in the future. You have not given birth to a child, so as to marry a good husband now, so as not to marry a joke in the future."
"Dad, I entered the Tian family and were a member of the Tian family. If I just left like this, how can I meet my husband in the future? He entrusted you to me to support him before he died. I will never break my promise, so I will never obey the remarriage." Liu Yulan said crying.
My father-in-law saw Liu Yulan insisting and followed her. He thought he had lost a son and got a daughter, and the family of three lived happily together.
The terracotta figurines made by Tian Fu are lifelike and famous. In order to practice this craft, he made himself into terracotta figurines with mud in front of the mirror. Later, these pottery figurines were buried with Tian Fu, and Liu Yulan left a pottery figurine of Tian Fu on the head of the bed.
Every day when the whole family eats, Liu Yulan will put the terracotta figurines in the seat where Tian Fu sat before, and add rice and vegetables to the terracotta figurines. When they are resting at night, they will wipe the terracotta figurines. In short, just like when Tian Fu was alive, she served the terracotta figurines every day.
Autumn goes and winter comes, and Liu Yulan is afraid that the terracotta figurines will fall asleep in a hurry. One night, the pottery figurine in my arms suddenly moved, and I saw the pottery figurine stretched and sat up.
Liu Yulan exclaimed and wanted to get out of bed and escape, but the pottery figurine grabbed the sleeves and could not break free no matter how hard she tried.
She turned around and saw that the pottery figurines became magically bigger and suddenly became a normal person, with the same appearance as her dead husband.
The pottery figurine spoke a little awkwardly for the first time, so that Liu Yulan would not be afraid to listen to it finish her words.
"My wife, don't be afraid, don't let people discover me. Thank you for taking care of my parents in every detail. judge was also moved by your character, which made me return to the Yang Realm to meet you again." It turned out that the pottery figurine was actually Tian Fu who returned to the Yang Realm.
Liu Yulan saw that she was her husband, so she cried with joy and came to the bed to sit down, asking, "What's going on?"
Tian Fu explained, "I have an ancestor who has done evil and has too much harm to her good deeds. The offspring will be cut off in my generation, so I died of a sudden illness in my youth. However, the judge saw that you were loyal and did not remarry, and was afraid that you would have no place to rely on in your old age, so he made an exception and let me go back to the Yang Realm to have a child with you for retirement and death."
Liu Yulan covered her face and cried when she heard this. Tian Fu hugged her in his arms like he was alive, and his love was deep, and his eyes slowly lowered his song against the curtain of the bed.
After dawn, the rooster crowed three times. Tian Fu sat up and said to Liu Yulan, "The judge told me not to tell others about the return. So, during the day, I will become a pottery figurine and then come back at night." After that, Tian Fu turned into a pottery figurine.
In this way, Liu Yulan still treats pottery figurines as usual, and she looks forward to meeting Tian Fu at night.
A month has passed in a blink of an eye. One night, Tian Fu said to Liu Yulan sadly: "My wife, the deadline for my visit to Yangjie has arrived. I will say goodbye to you tonight."
Liu Yulan loved Tian Fu deeply and was reluctant to leave when she saw him leaving. Tian Fu's eyes were full of sadness, and he sighed and turned back to the appearance of a pottery figurine, and never appeared again.
Liu Yulan never mentioned the incident of Tian Fu returning to the Yang Realm.But after a few months, the abdomen gradually bulged and became pregnant. She used the excuse that she had gained weight, but her mother-in-law was a veteran and obviously found something wrong.
The parents-in-law felt a little nervous, although after the son passed away, the daughter-in-law took care of the family alone. However, the old couple also advised their daughter-in-law to remarry, but they refused to obey when they died. But behind my back, my daughter-in-law got married with the man and became pregnant. When this incident was heard, the Tian family was dull.
Looking at Liu Yulan's belly getting bigger and bigger, the rumors in the village are getting worse and worse. Some people say that Liu Yulan's husband is a greedy daughter-in-law and will get pregnant only after she dies.
The mother-in-law always treats Liu Yulan as her daughter. Hearing that outsiders slander her like this, he found Liu Yulan and asked, "Son, tell me the truth, who is this child? Don't be afraid, I want to find this man to convince him to marry you so that the villagers will not gossip and say bad things. When you get married, we will send you to marry like a daughter and not let you suffer grievances."
Liu Yulan was very moved after hearing this. She didn't expect that her mother-in-law's family was so kind to her. Not only did she not blame her for her pregnancy, but she also wanted to cover it up for her. After thinking about it, she told her the story of Tian Fu attaching to the terracotta figurine.
This incident was too incredible. My mother-in-law thought that Liu Yulan was unwilling to say the name of the child's biological father, so she lied. She asked several times, but Liu Yulan said so, so she had to stop asking. Ten months have arrived in the blink of an eye. Liu Yulan gave birth to a son. The scandal about her husband who had died for a long time and having a son became more and more intense. Everyone was very curious about who his biological father was.
At this time, Liu Yulan gave birth to a child also spread to neighboring counties. There was a scholar named Li Sheng. He heard about this and wrote a letter to slander Liu Yulan for being a greedy daughter-in-law, saying that she was unfaithful and morally corrupt and was a bad woman.
It turns out that Liu Yulan's parents advised their daughter to remarry Li Sheng. Li Sheng had long coveted Liu Yulan's beauty and didn't care about her betrothal.
However, Liu's parents tried every means to say good things about Li Sheng in front of Liu Yulan, but Liu Yulan was not only unmoved, but also ran to Li Sheng's house and told him that he would not enter the Li family even if he died. This incident made Li Sheng embarrassed in front of his neighbors. He had always held a grudge. Now, when Liu Yulan died, her husband was still pregnant, she slandered her as a greedy daughter-in-law.
The county magistrate received the paper and immediately passed Liu Yulan and Li Sheng to the county government. He asked, "Liu Yulan, who is your child's biological father?"
Liu Yulan was a weak woman, and she was already scared at this moment. She said weakly, "The child's biological father is the pottery figurine in the family!"
Under the forced question of the county magistrate, he had to tell Tian Fu Huiyang about it. Everyone thought it was a joke when they heard this, and they only made up a lie that Liu Yulan was afraid of being punished.
When the county magistrate was about to ask the yamen runners to beat Liu Yulan, a white-bearded Taoist shouted in the crowd, "Sir, I have a way to prove whether Liu Yulan is lying."
County magistrate asked hurriedly, "What do you have?"
Taoist said, "Since Liu Yulan said that the pottery figurine is the child's biological father, please pierce the child's index finger and touch the blood on the body of the pottery figurine. The blood completely penetrated without leaving any trace, it means that the pottery figurine and the child are biological father and son. On the contrary, if the child's blood does not penetrate, it means that Liu Yulan is lying."
So, the county magistrate followed the Taoist's words and found a few pottery figurines in the Tian family like Tian Fu, and found several pottery figurines. Then Liu Yulan's mother-in-law was asked to carry the child to the lobby and pierce his fingers, and apply blood to the pottery figurines one by one.
A moment later, only the pottery figurine that looked like Tian Fu was gone, and the blood stains on the other pottery figurines were still there. In this way, Liu Yulan was acquitted.
Li Sheng was dissatisfied with this as a result of making a noise in the lobby and was beaten by the county magistrate. The county magistrate had long known that Li Sheng was a man who was tired of the new and had married several wives because he was a scholar.
When he saw the beautiful woman, he would find a reason to marry his current wife He Li. The woman returned to her parents' home because of rumors. She died with hatred at such a young age. After Li Sheng learned a lesson, he never dared to provoke Liu Yulan again.
The parents-in-law were very happy when they knew that the child was the biological grandson and apologized to Liu Yulan, saying that they had blamed their daughter-in-law for wrongly.
When the child was seven or eight years old, he looked like Tian Fu was carved out in the same mold when he was a child. Only then did the villagers completely believe that the pottery figurine was Tian Fu.
Liu Yulan always wanted to thank the Taoist who spoke in person for helping him, but she searched everywhere but couldn't find it as if she had disappeared out of thin air.
One day, she took her son to the City God Temple and suddenly found that the judge's stone statue sitting on the right looked very familiar but couldn't remember where he had seen it. After Liu Yulan left, laughter came from the hall.
So who is this Taoist? Where did he go?
(Story End)
Folk stories are about understanding the truth and distinguishing right from wrong, and advising people to be clear and good, and never take part in the same role as feudal superstitions.
