Tao Kan is a lonely child with a poor family. Tao Mu also lost her husband in his early years. She bears hardships and stands hard work, making a living by spinning hemp and weaving, and subsidizing Tao Kan to study.
As a godson, Tao Mu has been educating her son to make friends, and she must make friends with people who are more proficient and educated than herself.
On one occasion, Xiao Lian of the same county (that is, a juren) Fan Kui visited Xian in the snow and stayed at Tao Kan's house.
When it was freezing, the horse had no feed, so Tao Mu took the straw mat off her bed and chopped it up for the horse. Because the family was poor and had no customers, Tao Mu secretly cut off her long hair and sold it to her neighbors for money to buy food and drink.
In the concept of China people, "parents dare not damage their skin, and filial piety begins", so hair can't be cut easily. Tao Mu's behavior shows her sincerity in hospitality.
Therefore, Fan Kui was greatly moved and recommended that Tao Kan be awarded a doctor by the county magistrate. Since then, Tao Kan has embarked on a developed official career.
This is the allusion of the idiom "childlessness", which means sincere hospitality.
There is also a widely celebrated story of Tao Mu: "Closing the altar and retiring?" ? zhǎ.
Tao Kan used to be a county magistrate in Haiyang, Zhejiang Province, supervising the fishing industry, and often had subordinates give him things.
Once, a subordinate sent an altar of fish? (Pickled fish) For Tao Kan. Tao Kan, who was filial, immediately remembered his loving mother who had lived in poverty all her life in the countryside, and asked the villagers to bring it to her mother.
Who knows that my mother left this jar of fish intact? After he came back, he wrote in the letter: "As an official, you left me official things, not only because you couldn't benefit me, but because you increased my worries."
Tao Kan received the fish returned by his mother? And reply, greatly shocked and more guilty. He made up his mind to follow his mother's teaching all his life: to be innocent and honest.
Later generations praised: "If the mother of the world is as talented as Zhan, why is the country suffering from talent?" And ignore the use of evil in the world? "
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