Dou, the grandmother of Empress Zhang of Tang Dynasty, was the aunt of Emperor Xuanzong. Xuanzong’s mother died early, and Dou was kind to Xuanzong in raising him. During the reign of Jing Yun, Dou was made the Lady of Deng and The Emperor respected her. Her sons went to confuse, surplus, extravagant, and escape, relying on the emperor’s favor and living in luxury.
One day, the brothers were hunting together in the Wei River. Suddenly, a two-foot-long snake was walking through the grass as fast as it could fly. In a moment, the Wei River was filled with fog, and it was hard to see anything within a stone’s throw. When he came across a temple, he abandoned his horse and hid inside, but thunder and lightning also gathered at the temple. While the thunder and lightning were gathering, he suddenly heard the air saying, “Don’t frighten the servant.” The thunder and lightning then dispersed and came back in a moment. Again, I heard the air say, “Don’t frighten the servant.” Immediately the thunder and lightning stopped, then they gathered again, and again the air was heard to say, “Do not frighten the lieutenant.” The clouds and thunderbolts all dispersed, and Go Yi was not hurt in any way, but the giant snake and the horses that had been shot to death were gone.
After a few years, Go Yi fell ill and died, and the official he had at the Time of his death was the Secretary of the Imperial Household. In the middle of Tianbao’s Life, his daughter was chosen to be a beauty in the Eastern Palace. Later, when Su Zong recovered the two capitals, Liang Yuan had the merit to assist the emperor, and in the second year of Zhide, she was crowned as Shu Fei. In the first year of the Qian Dynasty, the emperor issued an edict to the Chinese official Cui Yuan to hold the festival to enthrone Shu Fei as the Empress. And Go Yi was posthumously named as the father of the Empress three times, and his titles were all consistent with what was said in the sky that day.
(from “Ji Wen”)
Li Quyun
When Li Quyun, a Tang Dynasty dafu, was not yet developed, he had to go to the capital to participate in the election of officials. At that time, there was a man from Tianshan in Yangzhou who was a hermit and had the ability to foretell the future.
Li Quyun went to visit him and asked him what official position he would get in the future. Tian Shanren answered him, “I can be a lieutenant of Liyang County, Xuanzhou.” Li Quyun said, “I have friends and relatives in the court, and the official position I will get should not be smaller than this one.” Tian Shanren said after a long time, “It is not appropriate for you to have too big an official. But I did not carefully examine the thought, I wrote a letter to the white crane in Chuzhou, Zhang Zun Shi, the master can know.”
Li Quyun arrived in Chuzhou and found the White Crane View, but there artemisia and hazel wood blocked the road, as if uninhabited, knocking on the door for a long time, before someone agreed. The person who opened the door led Li Quyun into the viewpoint, and he saw that Zhang Zun Shi was a very old man. Zhang Zun Shi said, “Tian Shan Ren is not right, don’t you want to know what kind of official you will be in the future? What did he say?” Li Quyun said, “He said I would be a county officer of Liyang in Xuanzhou in the future.” The old man said, “That’s not true. You will be the chief official of Guantao in Wei Prefecture, but in the future you will be a big official with a great reputation, don’t mind the small official now.”
When he arrived at the capital, Li Quyun was awarded the county lieutenant of Liyang. Li Quyun was quite amazed and thought that Zhang Zunshui was not right. After a few days, the emperor issued a royal decree to abolish the previous endorsement and change it to the chief book of Pavilion Tao. Now he understood that both Tian and Zhang were justified. Later both of these two were unknown. Tian Shanren’s younger brother was the secretary of Jiangzhou at that time, named Shi Grand.
(From “Chronicle”)
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