17: Never Tiring of Feeding Her Mother-in-law Milk: Lady Tang 乳姑不怠:崔山南
In the Tang Dynasty, an official named Cui Shannan, had in his family the Grand Dame Zhang Sun, Mr. Cui's great-grandmother.
崔山南,名,唐代博陵(今屬河北)人,官至山南西道節(jié)度使,人稱“山南”
She was quite elderly, and had lost all her teeth, thus she could not chew even soft rice.
年事已高,牙齒脫落,遂不能吃大米。
Eating was a big problem. Mr. Tswei's grandmother, the Lady Tang, realized the difficulty her mother-in law had in chewing food, and thus hit upon a solution to keep the Grand Dame alive and in good health.
吃成了大問題。她意識到崔山南的曾祖母長孫夫人不能吃東西了,因此,她在尋找方法讓她身體依然健康。
The Lady Tang would wake up each morning, perform her daily toilet of washing her face and combing her hair, then she would enter her mother-in-law's chambers and proceed to feed her breast-milk from her own body.
祖母唐夫人,每天盥洗后,都上堂用自己的乳汁喂養(yǎng)婆婆
The elderly matron had no trouble digesting this nutriment, and thus thanks to her daughter-in-law, even though she could not eat normal food, her body stayed strong and healthy.
如此數(shù)年,長孫夫人不再吃其他飯食,身體依然健康。
One day she fell ill, and knowing that her life was about to reach its natural end, she summoned all her generations of descendants into her room and told them
一天,她生病了,知道自己即將死去,將全家大小召集在一起,告訴他們
"All these years I have been looked after by my daughter-in-law. She has treated me most kindly, and I am deeply grateful to her. I only hope that the wives of all my children and grandchildren will be as considerate and proper in their filial devotion as she has been towards me."
“我無以報答新婦之恩,但愿新婦的子孫媳婦也像她孝敬我一樣孝敬她。”
When the family heard her final words, they were deeply impressed, and ever after, used the Grand Dame Jang Sun's advice as the motto of the household. The teaching was passed down and cherished through the many generations of the Tswei family.
聽到這些話后,他們非常感動。此后,他們把長孫夫人的遺言當(dāng)成了家里的名言,教導(dǎo)下一代。