Du Tinh Y Meets the Kitchen God

Preface

This story is told and written about in many books about Buddhism. The story is a part of the perspective on why it is difficult to distinguish between good and bad deeds of a person. Why unwanted things always follow a person. Why does a person who seems to be a good person encounter many incidents? We would like to quote from many sources about this story so that readers can read and evaluate this story.

Introduction

During the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty (China), there was a man named Du in Jiangxi Province, whose given name was Du and courtesy name was Liang Shen. He was knowledgeable and had many talents. He passed the imperial examinations at the age of 18, and each time he passed the exams, he had a high ranking.

During his youth, his family was poor, so Du Du opened a class to accept students, and with about ten classmates, he founded the Wenchang Society, [encouraging each other] to practice things like preserving and respecting [paper with] writing, releasing animals and saving animals, and preventing lust, killing, and lying… He practiced like this for many years. He participated in 7 provincial examinations before and after, but failed to pass [the bachelor’s degree].

Du Du had 5 sons, 4 of whom died of illness. The third son was very intelligent and handsome, and had 2 moles on the sole of his left foot, which he and his wife loved very much. When he was 8 years old, the son went out to play in the village and suddenly disappeared, not knowing where he went. He had 4 daughters, but only one remained. His wife mourned for her son so much that she became blind.

Mr. Du Do worked hard all year round but became increasingly poor. He often reflected that he had not committed any great sins, not knowing why he was punished so severely and tragically by heaven.

Since Mr. Du Do was over 40 years old, every year at the end of December, he personally wrote a petition on yellow paper [complaining about his family situation], praying to the Kitchen God to convey it to [the Jade Emperor]. For many years like that, there was no result.

The Kitchen God teaches Mr. Du Do about good and bad things.

Until the age of 47, on the last night of the year, Mr. Du Do was sitting in the house with his daughter and blind wife, [because the family was poor, so] the whole family was sad, desolate and quiet, the atmosphere was filled with sorrow and bitterness. Suddenly he heard a knock on the door, he immediately took a torch and went out to see, saw a person wearing black clothes, a square headdress like a Taoist priest, beard and hair looked to be about fifty or sixty years old. That person clasped his hands and bowed very politely, [followed into the house] sat down, introduced himself as a man from the Zhang family, came from far away, heard that his family had sad news so specially came to comfort him. Mr. Du Do saw that the guest seemed unusual, so he bowed very respectfully. While chatting, he told Mr. Truong that he had spent his whole life reading the books of the sages, doing good deeds and accumulating virtues, but until now his career path had not gone as he wished, his wife and children were not complete, he did not have enough food and clothing, and he had written many petitions asking the Kitchen God to present to [the Jade Emperor] but had not seen any results.

Mr. Truong said: “I have known about your family’s affairs for a long time. Your evil intentions are too heavy. You only know how to pursue false fame. The petition you wrote and presented is full of words of resentment and contempt for God, I am afraid that the punishment will not stop at the current level.”

Mr. Du Do was extremely frightened, and said: “I heard that in the underworld, even a small good deed is recorded. I have vowed to do good deeds, respectfully keeping myself according to the rules [set forth by the Van Xuong Society] for a long time, could it be that all of these things are just for false fame?”

Mr. Zhang said: “Okay, then let’s take one of the rules [set forth by your Wenchang Society] and examine it, which is the respectful care of [paper with] writing on it. Your group of scholars and the people you associate with, most of them use paper from old books to paste over windows, wrap things, and even wipe dust off tables and chairs, but they always say not to dirty the paper, just burn it all. You see such things every day, but you don’t say a word of warning or admonition, only occasionally picking up a few pieces of paper on the street and burning them. Is that of any use? “Furthermore, in your Wenchang Society, every month they do the work of releasing animals, but you just do it perfunctorily, relying on others to accomplish the work. For example, if others don’t initiate it, you are also confused and don’t do it. In fact, in your heart, you don’t have the slightest thought of compassion. Moreover, in his house, shrimps and crabs are often used in the kitchen for cooking, so how could they not be living beings?

“Whenever there is a mistake in his words, he uses clever and clever eloquence, causing the listener to be confused and think that bad is good [and admire him]. When he opens his mouth to speak, he knows in his heart that he is harming his virtue, but because of his old habits, when he gathers with friends to gossip, he continues to criticize and ridicule [others], unable to stop. His tongue makes the gods and demons angry; the evil deeds in the underworld have been recorded so many that they are too numerous to count. Yet he still claims to be a person of deep virtue, and thinks that he does not deceive or despise anyone? To think like that is not to despise the heavens?

“As for the matter of adultery, although the actual act did not occur, when he saw a beautiful woman, he stared at her intently, his mind was restless and he could no longer control himself, it was just that he did not have the right opportunity to do so. He should examine himself in those moments, was he like Lu Nanzi? Yet he dared to say that he “would never be involved in adultery or lust in his entire life, and could face heaven, earth, and ghosts and gods” [like Lu Nanzi in the past], it was a lie.

“Those were the rules that he himself voluntarily followed, [recorded in the rules and regulations of the Wenchang Society], and yet he was still like that, let alone other matters?

“For many years he burned memorials and presented them to the Emperor, recounting the situation. God ordered the messenger Nhat Du to carefully examine his good and evil deeds. After many years, there was no record of any good deeds. He only saw that when he was alone in a secluded and deserted place, all the thoughts of greed, lust, jealousy, narrow-mindedness, anger, complacency, contempt for others, remembering past events, looking forward to future events, revenge… all arose in his heart, [so many that] it was impossible to record them all. All kinds of evils arising from such thoughts had accumulated and solidified for a long time. The gods had recorded many, and the punishments from heaven were increasingly severe. Even if he wanted to avoid disaster, he could not, so what could he rely on to receive blessings? “

When Du Do [heard this], he was extremely terrified and extremely afraid. He knelt down on the ground, crying and said: “You clearly know all the events in the underworld, it must be related to the gods. I beg you to help save him.”

The guest surnamed Zhang immediately said: “You are a learned person, understand the rites, and also admire good things, and take joy in them, but when you hear [others say] a good word, you cannot encourage them, when you see [others do] a good deed, you cannot encourage them, you only [commit] mistakes and empty things, [all because] the root of your faith is not yet deeply established, and your mind has long been accustomed to it, so you never examine yourself, so that throughout your whole life, when you say a good word, do a good deed, [it is] all just an empty show, not a single word or action has ever been true. Moreover, evil thoughts are filled in your heart, continuously arising one after another, so hoping for good blessings from heaven is like planting a field full of thorns, and blindly hoping to harvest good rice, isn’t that a big mistake?

“From now on, whenever you have distracting thoughts such as greed, lust, deceit, etc., you must use all your strength and determination to eliminate them all, purify [your mind so that it is always] pure and peaceful, and have every single thought be filled with kindness. When you encounter a good deed, if you see that you are able to do it, you must do it with all your strength, without expecting anything in return, without seeking fame, regardless of whether the [good deed] is big or small, difficult or easy, you must do it with a sincere, eager, and patient heart. If you see that you are not able to do it, you must still pay close attention, be attentive, and earnest, so that that good heart is fully nourished.

“The first essential thing is to have a patient and tolerant heart, the second is to have a persistent and unwavering heart, absolutely must not be lazy, absolutely must be sincere and not deceive yourself. Just like that, if you practice for a long time, there will naturally be miraculous and unpredictable results.

“I see that your family has respected me for a long time and is very sincere, so I specially came here to say a few words, as a way to repay you. You must do it quickly and not delay, maybe you can change the will of heaven.”

The guest surnamed Truong finished speaking and went straight into the house. Du Cong immediately stood up and followed, just as he reached the altar of the Kitchen God, he suddenly disappeared, only then did he realize that the person he had just met was him, so he respectfully burned incense and bowed in thanks.

Changed name Tinh Y, changed pure intention according to the teachings of the kitchen god

The next day, the Lunar New Year, Du Du performed a ceremony to pay homage to heaven and earth, vowing to correct all his past mistakes, practice all good deeds, and change his name to Tinh Y Dao Nhan, expressing his wish to eliminate all wrongdoings and nonsense, and purify his mind.

On the first day of starting to do good deeds, mixed thoughts raced to arise, if he did not have doubts, he would have fallen into laziness and lethargy. After a few days like that, he found himself falling into the same confusion as before. In his house, there was a statue of Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara, Du Tinh Y immediately bowed before the statue of Bodhisattva and prayed for repentance, kowtowing until blood flowed from his forehead, respectfully making a great vow: “I vow to keep my mind and thoughts pure with only good thoughts, diligently striving to do good deeds, if I have the slightest bit of slackness or discouragement, I vow to forever fall into hell.”

Every day, early in the morning, he persistently chanted the name of Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara, Great Compassion, Great Mercy, to pray for his blessing [in doing good deeds]. After that, every word, every action, every thought throughout the day seemed as if there were ghosts and gods watching over him, absolutely not daring to lie, cheat, or indulge.

Anything that could help others, that could benefit people and life, regardless of whether it was a big or small matter, regardless of whether he was busy or idle, regardless of whether others knew about it or not, without hesitating to consider whether he could do it himself or not, Du Jingyi happily tried his best to do it, until he achieved success.

He also, depending on the conditions and means, widely did things to accumulate good karma, and also tried to advise people to follow the principles of morality, diligently read books and learn, maintain humility, be patient and respectful, and often used the principles of cause and effect to widely explain to everyone. He tried diligently to do good deeds all day long, but still did not think it was enough.

At the end of each month, Du Jingyi wrote down all the words and actions he had done during that month and burned them in front of the Kitchen God’s altar to respectfully inform him.

He practiced like this until he became proficient, [reaching the point where] as soon as his body moved, all good things would follow, and as soon as his mind was calm, not even the slightest distracting thought would arise.

Changes in life but disasters are resolved, happiness and goodness come.

After three years, he was just 50 years old, in the second year of the Wanli era, the imperial court held the imperial examination in the year of Jia Tu (1574). The Prime Minister, Zhang Jiangling, after the examination ended, immediately asked his fellow villagers to find someone to teach his son. Someone recommended Du Jingyi, and the Prime Minister immediately sent someone to invite him to the capital to teach his son.

When he heard Du Jingyi tell him about what he had done, the Prime Minister greatly respected his virtue and character, and immediately followed the regulations to help him enter the Imperial Academy.

In the fourth year of the Wanli era, that is, the year Bing Ty (1576), he took the provincial examination in the capital, passed the bachelor’s exam, and the following year passed the doctoral exam.

One day, he went to meet the eunuch surnamed Yang, who called out his five adopted children to greet him. These boys were adopted by the Duong family from all over, treated as their own children, and took joy in their old age. Du Jingyi suddenly saw among them a boy about 16 years old, whose appearance seemed very familiar, so he asked where he was from. The child replied: “I am from Jiangxi province, when I was young I went out to play and got on the wrong rice merchant ship [so I couldn’t return home], as for my family name at that time and the village name, I can only vaguely remember it.”

Hearing this, Du Jingyi was extremely suspicious, so he asked him to take off his shoes to see the sole of his left foot. Sure enough, there were two very clear moles. He was so happy that he shouted loudly: “Oh! My child is here.”

The eunuch surnamed Yang was also very surprised, and immediately let the child follow Du Jingyi back to his residence. He hurriedly told his wife the good news. His wife was so happy that she hugged her child and cried so loudly that blood flowed from her eyes. The child also cried, and then tenderly held her mother’s face and stuck out his tongue to lick the blood from her eyes. Unexpectedly, at that moment, her eyes suddenly brightened and she could see clearly. Du Jingyi was both happy and sad, and no longer wanted to be an official, so he bid farewell to Zhang Jiangling and returned to his hometown.

The Prime Minister of Zhang Jiangling valued Du Jingyi’s righteousness, and sent him many gifts and a large sum of money, sending him back to his hometown.

Upon returning home, he worked even harder to do good deeds. His son later got married and had seven children, all of whom were successful in their studies.

Du Jingyi recorded his encounter with the Kitchen God and the process of repentance and correction, using it to teach and educate his descendants.

He lived a peaceful and healthy life until he was 88 years old. Everyone believed that this was because he sincerely did many good deeds, transforming his retribution into something good.

His later disciple, La Trinh, who lived in the same village as Du Jingyi, respectfully recorded this story.