One day a man met Socrates and said, "Do you know what I just heard about your friend?" "1a minute," Socrates replied. "Before you talk to me about2friend, it might be a good idea to take a moment to filter (过滤) what you're going to3. I call it Three Filter Test. The first filter is Truth. Have you made absolutely4that what you are about to tell me is true?" "Well, no," the man said. "5I just heard about it and…" "All right," said Socrates. "So you don't really know whether it's true or not. Now, let's try the second filter, the filter of 6. Is what you are about to tell me about my friend7good?" "No, on the contrary…" "So," Socrates continued, "you want to tell me something bad about my friend, but you're not certain it's true. You may8pass the test though, because there's one filter left—the filter of Usefulness. Is what you want to tell me about my friend going to be9to me?" "No, not really." "well," concluded Socrates, " if what you want to tell me10true, nor good, nor even useful, why tell it to me at all?"
At the age of nineteen, Xiliu married Gao Sheng, who had just lost his wife and had a son named Changfu. A year later Xiliu gave birth to a boy Changhu. Before long, Gao Sheng died of illness.
Seeing Changfu didn't often go to school, Xiliu sent him to work with the poor boys as punishment. Changfu could not stand and wanted to return to school, Xiliu refused, and Changfu, like a beggar (乞丐), huddled (蜷缩) himself up with cold. Xiliu said to Changfu, "If you are ready to take a beating of 100 strokes, I'll take you back." Changfu decided that he would take the beating. Aware of Changfu's regrets for his mistakes, Xiliu did not beat him and asked him to continue his studies.
Changhu was a slow-minded child, so Xiliu asked him to quit school and work in the fields.
But Changhu was so lazy that' he often ran away from work. Xiliu then asked him to do business, but he used up all his money in gambling (赌博). At last, Xiliu sent him to luoyang to sell goods, where he was put into prison for using fake (假的) silver. In prison he suffered a lot. Xiliu told Changfu, "I gave the fake silver to your brother on purpose, intending to make him suffer. Now you go and get him out."Back home, Changhu knelt before his mother and finally gave up bad and returned to good.
