Little Sophie is Ten Ping’s distant cousin. Sophie’s grandfather and Ten Ping’s grandfather were brothers. Little Sophie’s family moved to the United States as refugees during the time of the Korean War and had ever since grown up in the United States. It was not until the late 1980s when Ten Ping and Sophie got to meet each other in a belated family gathering.
It was not easy for Little Sophie to grow up in the United States especially when their parents were not native English speakers. Nonetheless, since early childhood, Sophie’s mother had made sure to instill upon her some traditional human values by telling her many Chinese children’s stories; most of them carried moral messages.
Below is a story of compassion; which Sophie recalled from her mother.
It was back in 1925, after another meaningless war between the local feudal warlords. And most of the vicinities in this northern China area were left in the wreckage with many people homeless and hungry.
Guo was a lonely widower farmer who had a modest house; with a few acres of farmland and fruit yards. Being located in a distant rural area, farmer Guo was fortunate enough that his land and house were not impacted by the fightings between the two armies of the warlords. And yet, due to the recent draughts; and the following pest attacks; farmer Guo, like his neighbors, could barely feed himself; even with possession of his farmland and fruit yards.
Worst yet, some war refugees had recently fled to Guo’s remote isolated village, and, hungry; many had been stealing fruits and crops from Guo’s field, and other fields nearby.
To combat the threats, the villagers tried to seek the local authority, the warlord for help; but to no avail. As a result, the villagers had to reluctantly take up arms themselves against the refugees in protection; leading to many tragic casualties on both sides.
Tensions mount.
Still, the local warlord authorities did little, but to post a few guides around the village during the daytime; and withdraw them at sunset.
Farmer Guo was aware of the situation but refused to arm himself nor seek any outside assistance to protect his fields and fruit yards. Instead, he decided to deal with the thieves compassionately.
When the thieves sneaked in, during nighttime, to steal apples from Guo’s trees, farmer Guo just greeted them, offered some kind words, and gave them bags of already harvested crops and fruits to leave.
Such kind deeds, unfortunately, did not stop the daily flow of hungry refugees. Again and again, the hungry thieves came raiding, in the nighttime, to steal fruits from the field. And again and again, farmer Guo confronted them; and sent the thieves away by giving them all his stocked fruits and stock grains; until there was none left.
Sensing this, the hungry refugees still came back insistently, at night time.
The fact that all the fruit trees were now picked barren; and there were no more grains for farmer Guo to give away; did not stop the hungry refugees from raiding, in the night, for any or everything still edible.
Then one night, a trio, a mother and two little kids, finding nothing edible; turned to chop down the unripe rice crops from his rice paddies. Farmer Guo standing nearby did nothing but decided instead to hide amongst the rice fields so as not to startle the mother or embarrass the trio.
The next morning, when the fellow villagers asked Guo why he would condone such criminal behaviors, Guo simply shrugged and said, “First of all, these refugees did not steal out of greed, they did it because they were very hungry. And these refugees had been so weary of wars and unrests, that they are unwilling to settle down and farm for themselves because they believed that their finished labored crops would most likely be later looted by some war renegades or by some bandits.
Lastly, I have more than enough for myself. There are plenty to share.” Farmer Guo lied.
A few days later, farmer Guo passed away peacefully, alone in bed, from a medical condition caused mostly by malnourishment.
News of his death and his last words, quicking passed on beyond his yards, and widespread throughout the area.
Upon hearing this, the refugees nearby, who had earlier stolen from the fields, were so touched by Guo’s compassion; burst out in tears.
Later the refugees collectively decided to settle down; offered themselves as cheap laborers; and finally started to farm and fend for themselves.
As a result, local crime decreased drastically.
In memory, the following villagers created a statue of farmer Guo to commemorate his compassion and contribution.
Farmer Guo may be gone, but his compassion lived on!
