Filial Piety

True filial conduct can move the heaven. Here are three most notable paragons of filial virtue in Chinese history. T'an Hsiang's father and mother were sick and wanted some sweet melon to eat. It was winter and the snow was heavy on the ground, so how could there be any melon? T'an Hsiang planted a melon seed on the frozen earth, stretch out on top of it to warm the ground, and began to cry. "How can I get this melon to grow quickly so that I can harvest it for my parents?" he lamented. It was not certain whether it was a response evoked from a Bodhisattva or from a Buddha, but right there and then a melon grew, blossomed, and bore fruit for T'an Hsiang to harvest and carry home to his parents, a miraculous response to his one true thought of sincere filial regard.
Meng Chung's parent wanted some bamboo shoots to eat, and unable to find any, he began to weep. He wept until he suddenly saw tender bamboo shoot sprouting in the spots where his tears had fallen.
In a dead winter, Wang Hsiang's parents both fell ill and wanted some carp to eat. Wang Hsiang didn't have any money to buy fish, and all the waters were frozen over, so he opened his clothing and lay down on the ice. In Northern China the ice gets very thick in the winter, but his warm skin melted the ice through. It was his plan to fish for the carp through a hole, but suddenly a carp jumped out of the hole all by itself. Wang Hsiang hurried home with it and told his parents what happened. "We won't eat the carp," his parents decided, "because it is probably the son or the grandson of the Dragon King who sent it to us." Although they didn't eat the carp, their illness was cured nevertheless. Such strange events are incomprehensible. It is said that;

Of all the kinds of good practices,
Filial piety is the first.
Of all the myriad evils,
Licentiousness is the worst.

(Extracted from the Shurangama Sutra with Commentary)