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126 STRANGE STORIES FROM

north together; and by the end of the year their capital had increased five-fold. Hsiu then purchased the status of chien-sheng,^ and by further careful investment of his money ultimately became the richest man in that part of the country.

XXVL THE LOST BROTHER

In Honan there lived a man named Chang, who originally belonged to Shantung. His wife had been seized and carried off by the soldiery during the period when Ching Nan's troops were overrunning the latter province; ^ and as he was frequently in Honan on business, he finally settled there and married a Honan wife, by whom he had a son named Na. By-and-by this wife died, and he took another, who bore him a son named Ch'eng. The last- mentioned lady was from the Niu family, and a very malicious woman. So jealous was she of Na, that she treated him like a slave or a beast of the field, giving him only the coarsest food, and making him cut a large bundle of wood every day, in default of which she would beat and abuse him in a most shameful manner. On the other hand, she secretly reserved all the tit-bits for Ch'eng, and also sent him to school. As Ch'eng grew up, and began to understand the meaning of filial piety and fraternal love,^ he could not bear to see this treatment of his elder brother, and spoke privately to his mother about it; but she would pay no heed to what he said.

One day, when Na was on the hills performing his task, a violent storm came on, and he took shelter under a cliff. However, by the time it was over the sun had set, and he began to feel very hungry. So, shouldering his bundle, he wended his way home, where his stepmother, displeased with the small quantity of wood he had brought, refused

® An intermediate step between the first and second degrees, to which certain privileges are attached. * a.d. 1400.

2 The first of the sixteen maxims which form the so-called Sacred Edict, embodies these two all-important family ties. The doctrine of primogeniture is carried so far in China as to put every younger brother in a subordinate position to every elder brother. All property, however, of whatever kind, is equally divided among the sons. [The Sacred Edict was delivered by the great Emperor K'ang Hsi, and should be publicly read and explained in every city of the Empire on the first and fifteenth of each month.]