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Grand Secretary Mao Ji in the Ming Dynasty was born of a poor family. His father often tended cattle for others. Living in the same county was Zhang and his family, who were rich and influential. They had recently built a grave site on the southern slope of East Mountain.
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Strange Tales from Liaozhai (a Chinese Studio): Gong Mengbi explores enduring friendship, gratitude, and karmic justice through the bond between wealthy Liu Fanghua of Baoding, Hebei, and his steadfast friend Gong Mengbi from Shaanxi.
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Mei Ouchang, a juren from south of the Yangtse River, once told me of a strange case which his friend Sun from the same hometown had handled, while he was an official at Dezhou, in Shandong Province.
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There was in Huaiyang County a scholar surnamed Ye. His given name I do not know. Although he was the most outstanding literary talent in the county, his luck always proved fickle and he failed the imperial civil service examination repeatedly.
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Liu, a juren, remembered things from his former lives (Note: Juren is the title conferred on those successful candidates at the provincial level in the imperial examination) and confided in my deceased cousin, Pu Wenfen, as they both became juren in the same year.