The Red Bud Tree

Here is my summarized and translated version of the story contained in the Chinese Text Book of Virtues, Book one, Chapter on Fraternal Love and Respect. Please pardon my translation errors and let me know if you spot any errors.

During the Sui dynasty, there was a family of three brothers who lived together. Tian Zhen was the eldest, followed by Tian Qing and Tian Guang. They had decided to go separate ways and agreed to split the money and property in the house evenly among them. However, there was this blooming red bud tree which grew in front of the house. Who should it belong to? Finally it was decided that the tree would also be splitted evenly to three parts. Before they were going to chop the tree, they were surprised to discover that it had suddenly withered. The eldest brother, Tian Zhen, sighed and said, "The branches of the tree actually arose from the same trunk and roots. The moment it heard that it was going to be splitted, it became wan and withered. Looks like we humans can't even be compared to the trees." He was very much saddened by this. Eventually, the three brothers gave up the idea of going separate ways and continued living together, taking even greater care of one another. Strangely the red bud tree started to thrive and bloom again like in the past.

Li Wen Geng commented that before they had the idea of going separate ways, the three brothers had lived in harmony for quite some time and the red bud tree thrived in the harmonious environment. The action of splitting the family property hurt the harmonious environment in the house and the tree withered although it did not hear about the brothers' decision to split the tree. After the brothers returned to living in harmony, the tree again thrived, showing that it thrived under harmonious environment.

Original Chinese story available HERE 《德育课本》,初集卷二,《二十四悌》, 编号 : dykb1-02, story number 10).