(Clearwisdom.net) In his collection of stories, Xu Huashan of the Qing Dynasty included the tale of a person from Nanfeng, Jiangxi Province. The person's name was omitted to protect his identity, since he was Xu's contemporary.

The story has it that this person had done many bad things for two lifetimes in a row. Surprisingly, he passed the national exam and became a jinshi (a nationally recognized high level of learnedness). When he was awaiting the assignment of a government position, he thought about the things he did in his life and began to regret. He promised himself that he would change his behavior and do good from then on.

The next year, this person became blind. He was enraged and said, "I can do bad things and get promoted, or do good things and become blind. Heaven does not want me to be good." He began doing evil as he did before, and found a doctor who cured his blindness so he could see again.

This person had always been proud of his literary talent. Since he turned blind, he had to give up writing. Now that he could see again, he resumed writing. Shortly after that, he wrote a slanderous article and was sentenced to death on April 11, 1794 during Emperor Qianlong's reign (1735-1796 A.D.)

A person commented, "When he received the literacy recognition, that was the beginning of his misfortune. When he turned blind, it was for his own good. Heavens punished him for the bad things he did in the past by making him blind, yet he did not enlighten to it. Eventually he paid for it with his life."

When some people do bad things and do not receive immediate retribution, they think retribution does not exist. When some people do some good things but do not receive a reward right away, they think that the heavens are unjust. Those who are as short-sighted as the person from Jiangxi only know to blame heaven and hurt others, and eventually they will harm themselves.

Heavenly principles are absolutely just. Good deeds will be rewarded with good things, and evilness with retributions. One has to have some enlightenment quality and faith in heaven to understand heavenly principles. A person just needs to remember to do good and not worry about the future, and heaven will naturally bestow good things on him.