During the Han dynasty lived Tung Yung, whose family was so very poor that when his father died, he was obliged to sell himself in order to procure money to bury his remains. After this he went to another place to gain the means of redeeming himself; and on his way he met a lady who desired to become his wife, and go with him to his master’s house. She went with Tung, and wove three hundred pieces of silk, which being completed in two months, they returned home; and on the way, having reached the shade of the cassia-tree where they met before, the lady bid him adieu and vanished from his sight. Tung could not endure to behold his father’s bones lying exposed, but had not sufficient means to bury them. He saw that his household goods were not sufficient, and he said: “This little body of mine, what is the use of it? If I sell it, I can redeem it again, and thus bury my father, who will be saved from dishonour.” His filial piety moved Heaven to direct a female spirit in human form to come and help him in fulfilling his engagement; she wove three hundred pieces of silk, and thus procured the redemption of a man of truly filial heart. No. IX _He hired himself out as a Labourer to support his Mother_ In the time of the Han dynasty lived Chiang Ko, who, when young, lost his father, and afterwards lived alone with his mother. Times of trouble arising, which caused them much distress, he took his mother on his back, and fled. On the way he many times met with companies of robbers, who would have compelled him to go with them and become a bandit, but Chiang entreated them with tears to spare him, saying that he had his aged mother with him; and the robbers could not bear to kill him. Altering his course, he came into the district of Hsia-p‘ei, extremely impoverished and reduced, where he hired himself out and supported his mother; and such was his diligence that he was able to supply her with whatever she personally required.