Ancient Chinese Stories: A Miracle After 100 Acts of Tolerance

A traditional marriage ceremony in China as depicted in a detail from “Prosperous Suzhou” by Xu Yang, 1759. Public Domain

In the Tang Dynasty, there was a man named Zhang Gongyi. In his lifetime, he could bear anything that ordinary people found unbearable. He swore that he would endure 100 extraordinary acts of tolerance in his lifetime, and every day he made that his oath.

Thus, people called him Zhang Bairen, meaning literally “100 Tolerances” or “100 Acts of Tolerance.”