In the late Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), the Qingzhou and Yanzhou areas of Shandong Province were infested with swarms of locusts. The locusts gradually moved to Yixian County. The county magistrate was very worried about the matter.
One day, after work, he dozed off in the inner room of the county yamen (government office in feudal China). In his dream, he saw a scholar who had come to be received by him. The scholar, wearing a high hat and green gown, was big and tall. He claimed that he was capable of coping with the locust plague. When the magistrate asked him for advice, he replied: “A woman on a big-bellied donkey will come along the road, southeast of the county seat. She is none other than the Locust Deity. You must entreat her for a blessing and the plague will be gone.” The magistrate wondered very much at his dream after waking up.
The next day, the magistrate took food and wine to the south of the county town. He waited there for a long time. Finally, he spotted a woman on an old black donkey slowly making her way towards the north. She wore a high bun atop her hood and had a brownish mantle draped over her shoulders. Having hastily ordered the candles lit, the magistrate, with a wine cup in his hands, knelt down by the roadside and stopped the woman’s donkey. The woman asked: “What are you up to, sire?” The magistrate implored: “Ours is a humble and small county. Please show your leniency and free it from the locusts.” The woman said: “It’s hateful of that gossipy and meddlesome Scholar Liu (the same character as “willow” in Chinese) to reveal my secret. I’ll have his own body sustain the plague if the crops are freed from damage.” After drinking three cups of wine, she was gone without a trace.
Later, swarms of locusts flew over, blotting out the sky and the sun. But, instead of devouring the crops, the locusts landed on willow trees. All the willow leaves were eaten by the locusts. It was only then that the magistrate understood that Scholar Liu was the Willow(pronounced as “liu”in Chinese) Deity. People only said: “This has all happened because the magistrate cares for his people enough to move the Heavens.” Indeed, it was so.
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