Why did he relent and let the condemned man go? Many years later, the condemned man made a fortune and secretly murdered him to repay his kindness?

There is a story in Supplement to Tang Shi, which is puzzling at first reading. Only when you have a certain age and experience, and then touch the reality of life, can you understand the profound story.

This story is Old Prisoner reported to Li Mian, and Feng Menglong has a more detailed version in Awakening the World, which is called Li Xun Gong Qiongfu meets a chivalrous man.

The story is simple: Li Mian was the prime minister of the Tang Dynasty. When he was the governor of Kaifeng, he was responsible for catching thieves and executing prisoners. One day, Li Mian went to work as usual, but he met an extraordinary prisoner. According to the version of Wake Up, the prisoner was threatened by robbers, and Li Mian happened to be a kind-hearted person who didn't like torture. When he saw it, he asked the man if he was wronged.

When the prisoner finished his story, he begged Li Mian to let him live. Li Mian felt that this man really didn't look like an evil villain, so he relented and let him go quietly. A few years later, Li Mian lost his job and went to Hebei to enjoy the scenery. He happened to meet the prisoner he had saved. At this time, the prisoners have made a fortune, and they are not what they used to be. They married a beautiful wife and lived a rich life.

If it weren't for Li Mian, I'm afraid he would have been killed by Yan. Li Mian is equivalent to his second-generation parents, and such kindness can never be spent. So the prisoner also invited Li Mian home for dinner in the spirit of gratitude. During this period, the prisoner and his wife discussed what to repay Li Mian's kindness. After a long discussion, both of them felt that gold, silver and jewels were not enough to repay this kindness and decided to kill Li Mian.

Hearing this, the servant in the prison room quickly told Li Mian that Li Mian fled overnight and went to a hotel hundreds of miles away to tell the shopkeeper what had happened to him. Just after that, a man jumped off the beam. The prisoner sent him to kill Li Mian. He sighed. I killed the elder by mistake! ? Then the man turned and left. Soon, he gave the head of the prisoner and his wife to Li Mian.

The first time I saw The Old Prisoner Reporting to Li Mian, I only felt that the plot direction of this story was very problematic both emotionally and logically. How can anyone simply take the life of a benefactor because they feel unable to repay it? This is not gratitude, this is ingratitude.

However, if I think of one more thing, I think such a plot is the universal reality. Human nature is very complex, and ideal morality can't restrain human behavior at all; We have known since childhood that we should repay kindness with kindness. However, to some extent, repaying kindness is the same as paying off debts. If we can't repay it, we will feel psychological pressure from the depths of our hearts and the eyes of people around us.

When faced with choices, people are in a dilemma between conscience cost and economic cost. Conscience can't always compete with the economy, abandon the economic cost and choose to pay a simpler and more affordable conscience price. Similar examples abound in literary works and real life.

In A Dream of Red Mansions, Jia Yucun, who was poor at first, was able to take the exam in Beijing because of the support of squire Zhen and became a magistrate. But when he was in Jinling House, he realized that the poor girl taken away by the Xue family was Zhen's daughter, but she was caught in a pit of fire because she was afraid of the influence of the four big families.