Flowing Water Goddess of Mercy
故事全文
There is a legend of the famous Flowing Water Goddess of Mercy of Song-zhu Temple in Beitun District of Taichung City. The story took place in July in the tenth year of Daoguang in the Qing Dynasty. Taichung was hit by a great flood. After the flood, a group of children playing in Sanfenpu Village found a piece of wood that resembled the Goddess of Mercy. So, they placed the wood at the base of a large pine tree and bowed to it respectfully.
A few days later, a cloth merchant who had sold all his goods passed by the tree on his way home. As it was very hot, he stopped to rest under the tree and fell asleep shortly after. When he woke up, he found that someone had stolen his wallet. When he saw the statue, he kneeled in front of it and prayed, “Dear Goodess of Mercy, please tell me who stole my money.”Just as he finished speaking, a gust of wind caused many pine needles to fall to the ground which formed two Chinese characters “A-niu”. The cloth merchant hurriedly went to find the village chief and asked if there was a person called A-niu.
It turned out that A-niu was a lazy person who did not like to work. The village chief got someone to fetch A-niu. When A-niu arrived, he said angrily, “You have no evidence to prove I was the thief. Don’t slander me. I did not take your money!”The village chief said, “The Goddess of Mercy said that you did. Why not go to the base of the pine tree and swear in front of the Goddess of Mercy that you did not take the money, to prove your innocence?”
A-niu thought nothing of the piece of wood and was sure that nothing would happen to him, so he agreed to go to the pine tree. When he saw the pine needles, he said, “Anyone could form these words; the cloth merchant wants to frame me.”A-niu knelt in front of the Goddess of Mercy and swore, “If I stole money from the cloth merchant, may I never stand and walk again.”After hearing A-niu’s words, everyone felt convinced that he wasn’t the thief.
But as they prepared to return to the village, they discovered that A-niu was still kneeling on the ground. The village chief asked him to stand up and go home, but A-niu could not stand and began to cry tears of remorse and said, “Dear Goddess of Mercy, I have done wrong. I admit I stole the money, which I will return. Please forgive me!”As the wooden statue arrived with the floodwaters, the villagers named the statue the “Flowing Water Goddess of Mercy.”
