A NOTICE OF THE SANON DISTRICT
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people. He afterwards rose to high honours, and the people erected temples to show their gratitude to him.
The chief merits for which the men whose names are mentioned in these tablets are praised, are thus specified. They were polite towards the literati, strict with their inferiors, improved the prisons, properly regulated the taxes, abolished all illegal imposts, and publicly explained the Four Books; they established schools and other benevolent institutions, and took with them but little pelf when they left office.
In the hall for the commemoration of the sages, there are five tablets containing the names of those who have been recognised as worthy of the honour by the emperors, and also some others with the names of those to whom the people thought this honour due.
The following is the history of one of the first class: In the time of the Sung dynasty, there lived in the present Sanon an inferior mandarin, who had a very diligent son; as regards filial piety, he was a model for the whole region. During the greatest heats, he would wait upon his parents at table in full dress. He was never guilty of disobedience, and when he was told to go a distance of a thousand miles, he would start immediately. When his father died, he became half mad from grief, and built a hut at the tomb, whence the sound of his weeping was heard at night at a far distance. This man occupies the first place among the sages of Sanon. Another of these heroes had the misfortune to have his father fall into the hands of robbers. Not having sufficient money to ransom his father, he followed the pirates, and offered himself to be their prisoner as his father's substitute. The pirates accepted his offer, and on taking leave he begged his father to forget him, as he had other sons remaining to him. He then cast himself into the sea.
Another of these worthies was a mandarin in another district. A change in the dynasty having been effected, he returned home, as he was unwilling to serve two masters. He was able to earn but a scanty livelihood. A high officer once visited him, and found him sitting on a dirty mat, and in very poor circumstances. He applied to him for instruction. "A pure heart is all in all," was the answer of the sage.