During the Yuan Dynasty's Dashun era, a generous man named Shi Ji from Suzhou's Wuqu Alley was known for his charity. At over forty, his wife Yan finally bore him a son. On the child's third-day celebration, Shi Ji named him Shi Huan and took three hundred silver taels to the Guanyin Hall at Tiger Hill to burn incense and fulfill a vow.
Shi Ji was about to donate silver to the temple when he spotted a man sitting by Sword Pool, weeping bitterly and preparing to drown himself. Recognizing his childhood classmate Gui Fuwu, Shi Ji asked why he was crying. Gui Fuwu replied that he had abandoned farming for business, borrowing 300 taels from the official Li Pingzhang. But his venture failed, and with compounding interest, Li seized not only his fields and house but also his wife Sun and their two sons. Moved by his plight, Shi Ji gave Gui the 300 taels meant for the temple, later using other funds to fulfill his vow.
Gui Fuwu managed to redeem only his wife and son from the Li family with the silver, as all his fields and houses were seized. When the Gui family came to thank Shi Ji, Shi Ji asked about his plans. Gui Fuwu replied, "I have nothing left—no home, no food. Staying in Suzhou would only bring shame, so I must wander to another region and survive by working as a laborer." Unable to bear this, Shi Ji gave Gui Fuwu his mulberry and jujube orchard, a few thatched cottages, and ten acres of land, sparing the Gui family from a life of wandering.
After settling in the Shi family’s mulberry and jujube garden, Gui Fuwu unexpectedly dug up three jars of silver beneath a ginkgo tree—1,500 taels in total. This was wealth that Shi Ji’s father, Shi Pu, had buried there. Gui Fuwu kept this fortune secret, bought farmland in Shaoxing County, and grew rich on rent. When Shi Ji suddenly fell ill and died, Gui Fuwu’s family made an excuse to leave the garden and moved to Shaoxing to live as wealthy landowners.
After Shi Ji passed away, his family's fortunes declined day by day. Within five or six years, their land was gradually sold off, and the servants had all fled, leaving only Shi Ji's wife, Lady Yan, and their son, Shi Huan, to struggle through their days. Just then, Shi Ji's old close friend Zhi De happened to resign from his official post and return to his hometown. He often came to the aid of the mother and son, and even betrothed his own daughter to Shi Huan as his wife.
One day, Zhide learned that Gui Fuwu had struck it rich in Shaoxing and become a wealthy magnate, so he told his future son-in-law, "Back then, Gui Fuwu received countless favors from your family—not to mention the 300 taels of silver he used to pay off debts. Now that he's made it big, surely he won't treat you poorly if you visit him." Shi Huan, heeding his father-in-law's advice, traveled with his mother to Shaoxing to call on their relative. But Gui Fuwu, who had since changed his name to Gui Qian, lived by the motto "Once safe on shore, forget the drowning days" and treated his benefactor's son with icy disdain, denying ever receiving the 300-tael favor and offering only 20 taels for travel expenses to send the Shi family packing. Shi Huan naturally cursed Gui Qian out thoroughly.
Gui Qian later fell into a major trap while trying to purchase an official post with his money, ultimately ending up with his family ruined and his household destroyed.
"The idiom 'bu yi er zu' originally meant that a single thing or item cannot satisfy, and later came to describe an abundance of similar things, more than once or one."
Source: *Stories to Caution the World*, Chapter "Gui the Clerk Repents His Misdeeds"
Meaning of the Idiom: Later, the Chinese idiom "不一而足" came to describe an abundance of similar things, more than once or one.