In the bingshen year of the Chunxi era, no rain fell at Guilin for months on end. As autumn turned to winter the market gardens were failing.
Zhang Shi, the prefect, sent a mounted courier with an official dispatch to the Temple of the Thunder King at Leizhou, to ask when rain would come. The courier arrived, presented the dispatch, and lodged that night in the house of the temple officiant.
That night the courier and the officiant dreamed the same dream: the god ordered that a full reply be prepared — it will not be until three days before the first full moon of next year, and then there will be only a slight rain. He also gave two thousand cash to the messenger, and commanded that this be written into the dispatch too. And he instructed the courier: the money must be seen by the vice-director.
The courier bowed his thanks. In the morning he went to take his leave, and found the dispatch and the money lying on the table.
On the road home he ran short of funds, and so spent the gratuity. When he came back to report, Zhang read the dispatch and asked where the money was. Only a hundred cash remained; the courier felt in his breast and produced them — still copper coin. Zhang passed them to the staff around him to examine — and they had turned to paper ash.
On the twelfth day of the first month, sure enough, a little rain fell. It was enough only to settle the dust, and did nothing whatever for the fields.
