Shunzi tilling brick

[Shunzi tilling brick]

Shunzi tilling brick is 19.5 cm high, 26 cm wide and 3 cm thick in the Northern Song Dynasty
The brick is rectangular, the brick surface is concave and chiseled into a pot door shape, and the word “Shunzi” is carved on the front. In the picture, birds are flying in the sky, two elephants and three baby elephants are plowing, and Shunzi is waving his whip and sowing seeds behind
Shunzi’s farming is one of the twenty-four filial piety stories. The son of Shun, Emperor Shun, was named Chonghua and his father was blind. The blind old man married his wife after the death of Shun’s mother. The blind old man liked elephants and hated Shun. He often wanted to kill them. Once, the blind old man and the elephant ordered Shun to dig a well. The blind old man and the elephant saw that Shun was buried in the deep well and filled it with earth. In order to kill Shun, Shun had to escape from the side. Nevertheless, Shun was still filial to his father and cared for his brothers. Yao appreciated Shun’s filial piety, and later passed on the throne to him. After Shun became the emperor, he carried the flag of the Son of Heaven and went to court to see the blind and the old, still respectful and filial, and also made the elephant a vassal
At first, the image of Shun’s filial piety was the scene of the blind and the elephant burying the earth and filling the well. There was also the title of “When Shun went out from the east well” in Ningmao Stone Room. But later, for some unknown reason, it turned into a scene where Shun cultivated the fields, elephants plowed for them, and hundreds of birds sowed grain for them. According to the Biography of Filial Piety, after Shun escaped from the well, he plowed and planted the grain in Lishan. There was a severe drought in the world, and the people had no harvest. Only Shun planted the grain and got a good harvest. Shun sold the rice to the hungry people, enabling many victims to overcome the difficulties
The filial piety of Shun Zi is great, because he can be filial to his relatives, friends and brothers at home, and take the life of the world as his own responsibility when he goes abroad. Therefore, he firmly occupies the top position of the Twenty-four Filial Piety without changing his position.