Original Text
Li Zhuming was generous by nature and delighted in giving alms. A fellow villager worked as a hired hand in his household. This man had roamed about since childhood, was inherently lazy, unwilling to take up farming as his livelihood, and his family was impoverished. However, he possessed some skills and often performed odd jobs, for which Li Zhuming would frequently reward him with extra money. Sometimes, when the man had no rice for his morning meal, he would beg Li Zhuming for a loan of some grain, and Li Zhuming always gave him a measure or two. One day, this man said to Li Zhuming, "Your humble servant daily receives your generous assistance, and thus my family of three or four has barely escaped starvation, but how can this be sustained for long? I beg you to lend me a picul of mung beans as capital." Li Zhuming gladly agreed and immediately ordered the beans to be given to him. The fellow villager carried the beans away, yet after more than a year, he had not repaid a single bit. When inquiries were made about the matter, it was learned that the capital of a picul of mung beans had already been completely squandered. Li Zhuming, pitying the man's poverty, set the matter aside and did not press for repayment.
Li Zhuming was studying in a temple. After more than three years, he suddenly dreamed that his fellow villager came to him, saying, "I owe you money for mung beans, and now I have come to repay it." Li Zhuming comforted him, saying, "If I were to demand repayment from you, how could the debts you have incurred in the past ever be settled?" The fellow villager, with a sorrowful expression, replied, "It is easy to say that. But generally, if a man has done something and received a thousand taels of silver from another, he may not need to repay; yet if he has accepted help without cause, not even a single peck or half a bushel should be left ambiguous, let alone such a large debt!" Having said this, he departed directly. Li Zhuming awoke, feeling even more perplexed. Soon after, a servant reported to Li Zhuming, saying, "Last night, the female donkey gave birth to a foal, quite large." Li Zhuming suddenly understood and said, "Could it be that the foal is that man?" A few days later, Li Zhuming returned home, saw the foal, and jokingly called out the man's name. The foal immediately ran to him, as if understanding his words. From then on, Li Zhuming addressed the foal by his fellow villager's name.
When Li Zhuming rode his small donkey to Qingzhou, a eunuch from the Prince of Heng's palace took a great liking to the donkey and offered a high price to buy it. Before the price was settled, urgent family matters compelled Li Zhuming to return home without delay. A year later, the donkey was tethered in the same stall with a stallion, which bit through its shinbone, leaving it incurably lame. A veterinarian came to Li's house, saw the donkey, and said, "Pray entrust the donkey to me; I will tend and treat it day and night for a time. If by chance it recovers, I will sell it and share the proceeds equally with you." Li agreed. Several months later, the veterinarian sold the donkey for one thousand eight hundred coins and gave half to Li. As Li took the money, he suddenly realized that this sum exactly matched the price of the mung beans he had once owed. Alas! Debts incurred in the mortal realm must be repaid even in the underworld—this is the best admonition for the world.
Commentary
In Ming Dynasty Zang Jinshu's "Selection of Yuan Dramas," there is a play titled "Scholar Pang Mistakenly Releases Debts of Past Lives," which contains this plot: "[Inside, donkeys, horses, and cows make sounds] [The lead actor says] Who is speaking like this? Let me listen carefully. [The donkey says] Brother Horse, why did you come here? [The horse says] I once owed Scholar Pang fifteen taels of silver and had no way to repay him. After my death, I was reborn as a horse to settle the debt. Brother Donkey, why did you come? [The donkey says] I once owed Scholar Pang ten taels of silver and had no money to repay him, so after death I became a donkey to pull his mill. Brother Cow, why did you come? [The cow says] You do not know. In my lifetime, I borrowed ten taels from Scholar Pang, which with interest came to twenty taels, and I never repaid him. Now I have become a cow to settle the debt." In Chinese folk tradition, when one owes a debt of gratitude, there is often a saying of "becoming an ox or a horse to repay it." "The Debt Repaid by Labor" likely emerged from this cultural foundation.
However, what distinguishes "The Repayment of a Debt" from earlier works of karmic retribution literature is twofold: first, it draws a clear line between earned income and borrowed debt. "If a man receives a thousand gold pieces for his labor, he need not repay it; but if he accepts unearned assistance, even a single peck of grain cannot be concealed, let alone a greater sum!" Second, the plot is deliberately intricate. After the villager is transformed into a small donkey, he is first noticed by a eunuch from the Heng mansion, but the transaction fails; then his shinbone is bitten by a horse, and he is taken away by an ox doctor; finally, he is sold by the ox doctor, "obtaining one thousand eight hundred coins, half of which he offered to the gentleman. The gentleman accepted the money and suddenly realized that the amount exactly matched the price of the beans."