二十四孝圖故事:吳猛恣蚊飽血

中國二十四孝經典民間故事:Attracting Mosquitoes To Drink His Blood: Wu Meng 恣蚊飽血:吳猛

In the Jin Dynasty, a filial eight-year-old boy named Wu Meng served his parents with devoted compliance. His family was extremely poor and could not afford mosquito netting. On hot summer nights the mosquitoes would come swarming in as thick as smoke.

The little boy would remove his shirt and let the insects land on his bare skin. He would watch then drink their fill of his blood, and fly away; he wouldn't raise a hand to shoo them off, no matter how painfully they stung him. Wu Meng wasn't a fool, so why didn't he brush the bugs away?

吳猛，晉朝濮陽人，八歲時就懂得孝敬父母。家裏貧窮，沒有蚊帳，蚊蟲叮咬使父親不能安睡。

這個小男孩故意將衣服脫掉，讓昆蟲落在他裸露的皮膚上。他看着文字吃血吃飽後，就飛，它無論蚊子把他刺得多麼痛苦，他不會用手打它。吳猛不傻，那爲什麼他不趕走蚊子呢?

He knew that his parents had no netting at their bedside. If he drove the mosquitoes away from his body, they would surely fly over and wake up his mother and father with their stinging.

So the devoted son simply let the mosquitoes drink his blood instead. So that his parents wouldn't know about his sacrifice and demand that he stop, the boy would wake up earlier than they, slip his shirt over his swollen torso, and return to his own bed.

因爲他知道，父母牀上沒有蚊帳。如果他把蚊子趕走了，蚊子就會去咬他的父母。

孝順的兒子只是讓蚊子喝他的血，他的父母不知道這事。因爲吳猛醒得比他們早，脫下衣服又回到了牀上。

But one morning, being tired from loss of sleep, he forgot to wake up and pull on his shirt.

His father arose and found his son asleep by his bed. He looked at the boy' s pathetic, mosquito-bitten skin that was covered with red welts, and understood immediately what Wu Meng had done.

一天早上，因爲太累了，他醒來時忘把衣服脫下了。

父親在牀上翻來覆去，他看着孩子的皮膚，到處都被蚊子咬了，立刻明白了孩子爲什麼要這樣做。

Mr. Wu woke up his wife and told her the story. The two parents, deeply moved by their son's unselfish concern for them, began to cry. They were so touched, their sounds of sobbing could be heard by the neighbors. From all sides the neighbors gathered to investigate the matter, and learned about Wu Meng's sacrifice on behalf of hi s parents.

Everyone thought that the boy's attitude of filial respect was most remarkable, especially for one only eight years old. Someone reported the incident to the local magistrate, who wrote a memorandum to the Dragon Throne, to inform the imperial court.

The matter thus came to the attention of the Emperor, who rewarded Wu Meng with a scholarship to the academy. Further, he gave the family a set of mosquito nets and a stipend, so that they never again lacked the necessities of life.

吳猛的父親把這事告訴了他的母親，父母都被孩子所做的深深感動，哭泣的聲音鄰居都聽見了。四面八方的鄰居聚集到這裏，誇讚吳猛孝順父母的行爲。

每個人都認爲那個男孩的態度是最引人注目的子女對父母的尊重，特別是才8歲的小孩子。有人將這事告訴了當地官府，寫了一份備忘錄給朝廷政府。

這事很快傳到了皇帝耳朵裏，立刻給了吳猛獎賞，賞賜了他許多蚊帳，從此以後，吳猛再也不用赤身睡覺了。