Zhou Bidai was a native of Suzhou during the Southern Song Dynasty. He lost his father at a young age and his mother at the age of 11, and his uncle raised him to adulthood.
He saved his life by falsely staging a fire
Later, Zhou Bidai was admitted to the imperial examinations and entered the civil service. In the 24th year of Shaoxing of Song Dynasty, he became the supervisor of the Bureau of Harmonious Medicine and was responsible for managing the sales of prepared medicines. One day, the Wadong Bureau accidentally caught fire, and the fire destroyed dozens of private houses because of unfavorable fire-fighting. When the prosecutor headed by Feng Shunzhao investigated the case, Zhou Bida asked, “If the fire was caused by the custodian of the lower level, what should be the penalty according to the law?”
The prosecutor said, “The penalty should be death according to the law.” Zhou Bida asked again, “If the fire was caused by the supervisor of the bureau, what should be done according to the law?” Feng Shunzhao and others said, “According to the law it is only a dismissal from office.”
Generally, when people encounter difficult things, they try to push them out. Zhou Bidai took all the responsibility for the fire on himself in order to save the lives of his subordinates. He gave up his own career and took the guilt for others.
A strange dream of his father-in-law, sweeping snow to welcome the prime minister
Zhou Bidai lost his official position and returned to his hometown with his wife Wang and his newborn son, and went to his father-in-law Wang Bao’s house for a temporary stay. When he arrived at his father-in-law’s house, the servants of the Wang family were sweeping snow in the courtyard because a heavy snow had just fallen.
The night before Zhou Bida’s return, Wang Bao had a dream in which he saw himself sweeping snow to welcome a prime minister! When Zhou Bidai arrived at his father-in-law’s house, Wang Bao sighed and said, “I thought I would receive a chancellor when I swept the snow today, but it turns out that I received a disgraced commoner.”
Zhou Bidai stayed at his father-in-law’s house for three years, studied hard, and won the subject of erudition and words, and with his profound knowledge, he became a minister of the state.
Bida had great virtue and was reshaped by the Yin Yu
On the eve of taking the examination for the subject of erudition, he came to the netherworld in a dream and saw a magistrate reprimanding an underworld agent. He saw the magistrate reprimanding an underworld agent, who was responsible for reshaping the appearance of the reincarnated person. But he made a virtuous man ugly, with the appearance of a wild crane, and was reprimanded by the judge: “This man has great virtue in his heart and will be a prime minister in the future. But you have made his appearance so ugly, what do you say now?”
The magistrate begged him to grow a beard for the prime minister, and he did so. When he woke up from the dream, he still felt a vague pain in his cheek.
These two strange dreams prophesied that Zhou Bidai would become the prime minister. The magistrate said he had great virtue, as evidenced by the fact that Zhou Bidai cut himself off from his career and falsely accused himself to save others, and that it was his accumulation of Yin virtue that led to his new official position!
(The incident is according to “Deyugujian” and “Anshi Quanshu”)
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