The Thirty-Six Filial Children

Just the day before Chinese New Year Eve, I was in the class of 4T for the English lesson. I was thinking of doing some revisions with the students regarding the English Test, which will be held after the Chinese New Year holiday. But, it seemed that they were not in the mood of study as their minds are already in holiday mood.
So, instead of telling something that nobody was going to absorb, I decided to tell them one of the stories in the book extolling the virtues of filial children and young adults, “The Thirty-Six Filial Children”.

I had told a story regarding a boy named Min Zhen who lost his parents when he was twelve. After he reached adulthood, he began to wonder why was that on every New Year others would hang up posthumous portraits of their parents and perform rites in front of them. He realized how he did not have such portraits of his own parents. It pained his heart terribly that he couldn't likewise pay respects to his parents. So he decided to do something. He plunged into the study of portrait painting.He then set about to paint portraits of his parents. His memory of their appearance was fading, but he tried his best to paint them as they had looked. The initial paintings weren't very satisfactory, but he kept painting. It took several years before he was able to paint any portrait, in his estimation, that was able to resemble to any degree of his parents. As his skill deepened, his portraits took on a more and more lifelike quality.Min Zhen later gathered all these portraits together in an album and thus mourned his parents and kept their memories alive as he reviewed these pictures. In time he became a renowned painter, and others seeking to develop the craft of filial posthumous paintings would seek him out as a teacher.He was very well known for doing his utmost to help other bereaved children who were too poor to pay for the accouterments needed to perform filial rites, painting for them posthumous portraits and helping them with burial fees. Eventually, the filial son Min Zhen became well known to the whole nation.

Unexpectedly, the students kept silent quite a while. Then suddenly, one of them put up his hand and told me that he wanted to learn portrait painting so that he could paint his parents well. Another student told me that he would take as many photos of his parents as he could in order to keep their memories alive when they are not around. And the most touching part was about a girl who said that she wanted to be as helpful as Min Zhen so her parents would feel happy and gratify even in heaven.

Much as I anticipated, it is indeed a blessing after learning that many of them will ask their parents to buy this book for them. They might have missed the revision for test but I felt they had gained something more worthwhile as they had learnt to be filial and at the same time instilling them with the good habit of reading.