Prevod

Wei Zhao was a commoner of Hongshou Pavilion in Ruyin, skilled in the Book of Changes. As he lay dying, he wrote on a wooden tablet and gave it to his wife. “After my death,” he said, “there will be a great famine. Even so, take care never to sell the house. In the spring five years from now, an imperial envoy named Gong will come to lodge at this pavilion. This man owes me gold. Take this tablet to him and demand repayment. Do not disregard my words.” After his death, she did indeed fall into desperate hardship. Several times she was on the point of selling the house, but whenever she remembered her husband’s words, she held back. At the appointed time, an envoy named Gong did indeed lodge at the pavilion, and his wife took the tablet to him and demanded repayment. Holding it, the envoy could make nothing of its message. “I have never owed anyone money in my life,” he said. “How can this be?” She replied, “Before my husband died, he wrote on this tablet with his own hand and gave me these instructions. I would not dare make it up.” The envoy pondered for a long while, then suddenly understood. He ordered yarrow stalks brought and cast a hexagram. When it was complete, he clapped his hands and exclaimed, “Wonderful, Master Wei! He kept his wisdom hidden and left no trace of his gifts, so that no one knew of them. Truly, he saw hardship and prosperity as clearly as in a mirror, and penetrated the mysteries of good fortune and ill.” Then he told the wife, “I owe no gold. Your worthy husband had gold of his own. He knew that after his death you would suffer hardship for a time, so he hid it to await more peaceful days. He did not tell his wife and children because he feared the gold would be spent and your distress would have no end. Knowing that I too was skilled in the Book of Changes, he wrote the tablet to convey his meaning to me. There are five hundred jin of gold in a blue-green earthenware jar, covered with a bronze platter. It is buried at the eastern end of the main hall, one zhang away and nine chi deep.” His wife went home and dug there. Sure enough, she found the gold, everything just as the divination had foretold.