Episode 21 - Treasure Basin

Treasure Basin
- Zhou Zhuang (2)

Zhou Zhuang is said to be the home town of Shen Wanshen, a man of wealth living at the time of the Ming Dynasty.

According to a popular folklore, Shen once met a hawker selling frogs in the town. He took pity on the frogs, so he bought the frogs from the hawker and released them back to nature. One night, Shen was woken up by sound of croaks outside his house. He walked outside and saw some frogs holding up a ceramic basin in the pond in front of the house. The frogs were all croaking loudly. He took the basin and the frogs dispersed.

At first, Shen only used the basin to keep water. One day, Shen's wife dropped a piece of jewel in the basin. Before she picked it up, the piece of jewel suddenly transformed itself into a full basin of jewels. The basin was in fact a treasure duplicator. Without doubt, Shen soon became the richest man in the country.

The Emperior learned about this and was envious of Shen's fortune. So he ordered Shen to hand over the treasure basin. To the Emperior's great surprise, the basin lost its magic power once it was changed hands. The Emperior was so angry that he destroyed the treasure basin and buried the broken pieces under the city gate.

The lost basin has been subject of fantasy novels.   The original story was one about rewards resulting from good deed.  Most of the subsequent novels, however, speculated on how to revive the broken basin.    This fits well with the greedy human nature - no / little work but great return!


(Go to Part 1)