Episode 214: Wish Regret
There is a saying in English called be careful what you wish for. I really like it and think it has some eastern philosophy in it. It is hard to tell a thing is good or bad. When you gain something, you might sacrifice something else even you can’t tell from the moment.
Today we will tell a story of be careful what you wish for especially when you in a temple. The story is from the book In Search of the Sacred 搜神记from the Jin dynasty 晋代 around the year 350.
In the book, it says during the reign of Emperor Cheng of Jin 晋成帝, between the year 335 ~ 342, three young men from the powerful families visited JiangShan temple 蒋山庙, where the statue of Jiang Ziwen 蒋子文 is worshiped. Jiang Ziwen was an official from the Easter Han dynasty 东汉 and the worshiping him after his death was popular before the 6th century. We will talk more about him in the future.
There are a few statues of women in the temple , beautifully made. These three rich young men were a little bit drunk and pointed the statues making comments like they are their maids and math themselves with the women.
That night, three of them all had a dream that Jiang Ziwen sent people to inform them saying, “my children are pretty ugly (this is a humble and polite way to speak in Chinese culture), but I am flattered you don’t mind and requested the match. The marriage date is chosen. We will welcome you at XX date for the ceremony. ” Waking up, the three young men felt weird and asked each other and found out they had the exact same dream. They freaked out and prepared sacrifice to beg for forgiveness in the temple.
After they went back, they had another dream. Jiang Ziwen came to them and said, “sir you already came to us and asked for the match. I don’t want to ruin the marriages and the date is settled. How can you regret?” Not too long, three young men all died.
Mentioned:
搜神记 In Search of the Sacred
