At the end of the Qing Dynasty, there was a story about a “silver hidden in a plum tree” in Huating County (now Songjiang District, Shanghai). The main character of the story was a man from a poor and humble background, people called him Han Weng. Because his Family had been poor for many generations, Han opened a small store in Xiuyangqiao, which was a small business, but he could support his family. He was so good-natured that he did not take the bitterness and happiness of Life to heart, and was so devoted to goodness that he never tired of it.
One year near New Year’s Eve, heavy rain and snow fell from the sky, Han Weng finished his work and was ready to sleep. Suddenly he heard the sound of the door ring ringing, as if someone was leaning there, and heard a sigh of relief. Han Weng lit a candle and opened the door to see a man sitting by the door shivering with his bag. Han Weng asked him, “Who are you?” The other person said, “I am a fellow of a merchant company in Shanghai. Since I came back late from collecting the bill, I couldn’t catch a boat to stay overnight, so I had to sleep under the eaves for one night, waiting for the dawn.”
Han said in surprise, “Guest, since you have returned from collecting your accounts, your bag must not be empty, how can you sleep out in the open outside the street? Even if it is peaceful now, how can you stand the wind and cold of the night? Although my house is simple, but it can still shelter the wind and rain.” So Han invited the guest inside, and seeing that his clothes and shoes were all wet, he took out the new clothes he had prepared for the New Year and gave them to the guest to change, and warmed him up with a table of wine and Food.
Han and the guest had never met before, but seeing that the other party was hungry and cold, he offered him hospitality and made a bed for him. When the guest saw Han’s hospitality, he was very grateful and thankful. After dawn, the guest looked at the wind and snow than yesterday, no one to drive the boat, Han Weng left the guest wait for the snow to stop before leaving. Now it is close to the New Year, he prepared good wine and good food for the guest, still warmly entertained him.
That night, the guest said to Han Weng, “Thank you for your kindness, I can’t repay you. I heard that the price of rice in Huating County is very cheap, and I can make a good profit by shipping it to Shanghai. I have a surplus of silver money in my hand after collecting my accounts, so I will lend you 300 taels for business. Han Weng refused to accept the offer, so the customer nodded reluctantly.
The next day the wind and snow stopped, Han Weng hired a boat for the guest and personally sent him on board. When the crew untied the cable, the guest said to Han Weng, “The three hundred taels I said yesterday have been put under your bed, so go back and put it away. Han Weng was so surprised that he wanted to take it back and return it to him, but the boat had already sailed away.
Han Weng had no choice but to use the money to buy rice and ship it to Shanghai the next year, just as the customer had said. When Han Weng found the merchant house, the customer came out of it. When he saw Han Weng, he clapped his hands and laughed, “Oh, you are a man of your word!” Han Weng told him that the rice had been shipped to Shanghai.
The guest took Han to the owner and told him, “This is Mr. Han, whom I met in Huating County last year, and now he has shipped the rice!” The owner thanked him and said, “My man was sleeping outside the street with heavy money, and if you hadn’t helped him, he would have been in danger. Now you are here as expected, and you don’t want to see the profit. Han Weng humbly thanked him and said, “I am not worthy of it.”
The master ordered to open the main hall and hosted a feast for Han Weng as if he were a distinguished guest. After the meal, the master asked his guest to accompany Han to walk around and explore Shanghai. When they returned, the owner had taken out all of Han Weng’s luggage and implored him to stay a few more days. The next morning, Han Weng handed the guest the bill for the rice he had bought and urged him to hurry up and take it ashore, as he was going back to Huating County. The guest smiled and said, “The rice is simple, it has already been arranged, you just stay a few days to see Shanghai, don’t rush back to your hometown.” The guest accompanied Han Weng to tour every day, and he did not feel bored and lonely.
When a few days passed, the owner again hosted a banquet for Han Weng and invited him to sit down. The owner said, “We have sold all the rice you brought in and made a very good profit. Now I would like to lend you more silver, and ask you to go out of your way to help me with the traffic, and share half of the profits with you.” With that, he gave Han Weng a huge ingot of silver, saying, “This is the profit you should get from this rice sale.” Han Weng excused himself, but the owner told him to take it, so he couldn’t resist and had to accept it. He said to the owner, “I am grateful to the owner for his trust, and I will certainly serve you in the future. The master said, “I would like to listen to you.”
Han Weng said, “I have heard that good deeds will bring prosperity. I would like to give a portion of my profits to the poor. But Han I come from a poor background, and this silver comes from you, so I must ask the owner’s permission before I dare to do it.” The owner was deeply touched by the fact that this ordinary countryman was very broad-minded and always had others in mind, so he agreed on the spot. He immediately offered two thousand taels of silver to Han Weng.
From then on, Han Weng was more diligent in trafficking goods and more committed to doing good deeds. And the wonderful thing is that his business did not suffer because he often contributed to help others, but he always made a good profit from the goods he trafficked.
After a few years, Han’s family became rich in business. One day, when he was cleaning his house and preparing to move in, he saw many scraps of paper in a table and was ready to burn them. As he was reading and burning, he suddenly picked up a book from the pile of scrap paper, which said, “If you need money to use, go under the plum tree.” Han Weng was very surprised, he walked around the courtyard, did not see the plum tree, thinking: this is a joke, right, and did not pay attention in. Because this is an old house, the escalators upstairs are rotten, and now tear down to prepare for the conversion of new escalators.
When Han Weng was cleaning under the escalator, he suddenly saw a plum blossom tree painted on the side of the wall, and then looked at the posture and color of the plum blossoms as if they were swaying in the wind. He suddenly remembered the words in the booklet and thought: There must be a cellar down here. After dark, he and his family came under the plum tree with lamps and candles and pried open the stone slab to see that there were four vats side-by-side underneath, which were filled with Gold and silver.
After the Han family became very rich, Han became more diligent in helping the villagers. Later, Han Sousan inherited his father’s business and also devoted himself to doing good deeds in accordance with the family motto, and because of his kindness and charity, people in the village called him “the Great Goodman”. Later, Han Sosan’s son, Han Luoqing, won the imperial examination, and the rest of his children and grandchildren also had many achievements. Because the Han family had valued virtue and good deeds for many generations, they had enjoyed endless blessings for several generations.
Wang Daoding, the owner of Sitting Flower in the Qing Dynasty, said.
“When I traveled to Songjiang, I heard about Han Weng’s deeds in detail. He did not read a lot of books, but he acted in a righteous manner, and his words were always sincere, and he did not pretend to do anything. He carried a weather with him, seeing others starving and drowning as he himself was starving and drowning, so Han Weng was able to achieve great wealth despite his humble origins. People only know that it was easy for the Han family to become rich, but they do not know how much good fortune the Han family has accumulated and how many good deeds they have done to get these inexhaustible blessings. There is a reason for everything, and it is not an accident.”
(According to “The Record of the Fruitfulness of Sitting Flowers”, Volume 25, “The Plum Tree Hiding Silver”)
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