The Awakening Bell

Each volume of this book comprises four chapters and recounts four stories centered on the themes of benevolence, loyalty, filial piety, and chastity. "Ordinary parents gave me life, yet I alone am bald and bare. I have endured every humiliation of baldness and tasted every insult of the bare. By day I see no meat, by night I often sleep alone. Before others I must be over-courteous, and first I must bow my head. If I make the slightest slip, fists and knuckles rain upon this bald bare head." The first chapter, in which a bald slave endures hardship, invites deep reflection. The second chapter tells of suffering loss at the hands of a matchmaker's greedy old woman; the third, of a maidservant's vain longing for a beauty; the fourth, of a ghostwriter who gains a degree; the fifth, of one who draws his blade in chivalrous spirit and returns an imperial edict... How can flesh and blood deceive the heart? The bald-headed younger brother endures hardship, and benevolence and righteousness are at last repaid. The lord believes slander, and the old general is wrongly accused; loyalty and righteousness are passed down through the ages... Every word strikes the heart, every sentence rings in the ear, provoking thought and serving as a warning.