细柳教子

This is a story from Strange Tales from Make-Do Studio.

As a child, Xiliu was smart and liked to read biographies of ancient sages. She decided to follow the examples of previous worthies and leave behind a reputation that would be noted for generations to come. At the age of nineteen she married Gao Sheng, who had just olst his wife and had a son named Changfu. A year later Xiliu gave birth to a boy and named him Changhu.

Before long, Gao Sheng, still young, died of an illness, leaving Xiliu to care for her sons. Seeing Changfu was often truant（偷懒的） in his studies, Xiliu sent him to work with the shepherd boys as punishment. Changfu could not stand this and asked his mother to allow him to return to school. Xiliu refused, and Changfu, like a beggar, huddled himself up with cold. A grandmother in the village interceded（调解，求情） and took care of the boy. Xiliu told her, "If Changfu is ready to take a beating of 100 strokes, I'll take him back." Changfu decided that he would take the beating. Aware of Changfu's genuine repentance（悔改） for his errors, Xiliu did not beat him and asked him to continue his studies.

Changhu was a slow-minded child, so Xiliu asked him to quit school and work in the fields. But Changhu was so lazy that he often neglected work. Xiliu then asked him to engage in trade, but he used up all his money in gambling. At last, Xiliu sent him to Luoyang to sell goods, where he was put into jail for using fake silver in a whorehouse. In jail he suffered a lot. One day Xiliu called Changfu in and said："I gave the fake silver to your brother on purpose, intending to make him suffer. Now you go and get him out." Back home, Changhu knelt before his mother, bitterly remorseful. He finally gave up evil and returned to good.

Fellow villagers then began to understand Xiliu. She loved her children by tempering them in sufferings.