In the twenty-first year of Kangxi, a great drought afflicted Shandong, lasting from spring through summer, leaving the earth scorched and barren of grass.

On the thirteenth day of the sixth month, a light rain fell, allowing some to finally sow millet; by the eighteenth, a heavy downpour soaked the ground sufficiently for them to plant beans.

One evening, an old man from Shimen Village witnessed two oxen fighting on the mountain. He told the villagers, "A great flood is coming!" Upon speaking, he gathered his family and moved to higher ground.

The villagers all laughed at him.

Before long, the rain poured down like a cataract, ceaseless through the night; the flatlands were submerged several feet deep, and houses vanished beneath the water.

A farmer abandoned his two young sons, helping his wife support his elderly mother as they fled toward a high ridge.

Looking down upon the village, it had become a vast marsh, leaving no time to think of his younger children.

When the waters receded and he returned home, he saw the entire village utterly ruined.

Upon entering his own dwelling, he found only one structure still standing, where his two sons sat on the edge of the bed, laughing and perfectly unharmed.

Everyone declared that the couple's consistent good deeds had finally brought their reward. This occurred on the twenty-second day of the sixth month.

In the twenty-fourth year of Kangxi, Pingyang was struck by an earthquake, killing seven or eight out of every ten people.

The city walls were completely reduced to rubble; the sole remaining house belonged to a certain filial son.

Amidst the vast catastrophe, only the filial son's family remained untouched. Who dares to say that Heaven is blind to right and wrong?