hurried him over the side into a small boat and set him adrift; but when Sun Pi-chên looked back, lo! the vessel itself had disappeared.[1]
CHANG PU-LIANG.
A certain trader who was travelling in the province of Chih-li, being overtaken by a storm of rain and hail, took shelter among some standing crops by the wayside. There he heard a voice from the sky, saying, “These are Chang Pu-liang's fields; do not injure his crops!” The trader began to wonder who this Chang Pu-liang could be, and how, if he was pu liang (no virtue), he came to be under divine protection; so when the storm was over and he had reached the neighbouring village, he made inquiries on the subject and told the people there what he had heard. The villagers then informed him that Chang Pu-liang was a very wealthy farmer, who was accustomed every spring to make loans of grain to the poor of the district, and who was not too particular about getting back the exact amount he had lent,―taking in fact whatever they brought him without discussion; hence the sobriquet of pu liang “no measure” (i.e., the man who doesn't measure the repayments of his loans).[2] After that, they all proceeded in a body to the fields, where it was discovered that vast damage had been done to the crops generally, with the exception of Chang Pu-liang's, which had escaped uninjured.
- ↑ The point of this story is lost in translation. Pi-chên may mean to the ear either “must be struck” or “must be saved,” though in writing two different characters are used. That the other passengers misread chên “to be saved” for chên “to be struck”―Sun must be struck―is evident from the catastrophe which overtook their vessel, while Sun's little boat rode safely through the storm.
- ↑ The two phrases, “no virtue” and “no measure,” are pronounced alike.
