In the Jin Dynasty, a filial eight-year-old boy named Wu Meng served his parents with devoted¹ compliance².

吴猛，晋朝濮阳人，八岁时就懂得孝敬父母。

His family was extremely poor and could not afford mosquito netting. On hot summer nights the mosquitoes would come swarming³ in as thick as smoke.

家里贫穷，没有蚊帐，蚊虫叮咬使父亲不能安睡。

The little boy would remove his shirt and let the insects land on his bare skin. He would watch then drink their fill of his blood, and fly away; he wouldn't raise a hand to shoo them off, no matter how painfully they stung him. Wu Meng wasn't a fool, so why didn't he brush the bugs⁴ away?

这个小男孩故意将衣服脱掉，让昆虫落在他裸露的皮肤上。他看着文字吃血吃饱后，就飞，它无论蚊子把他刺得多么痛苦，他不会用手打它。吴猛不傻，那为什么他不赶走蚊子呢？

He knew that his parents had no netting at their bedside. If he drove the mosquitoes away from his body, they would surely fly over and wake up his mother and father with their stinging.

因为他知道，父母床上没有蚊帐。如果他把蚊子赶走了，蚊子就会去咬他的父母。

So the devoted son simply let the mosquitoes drink his blood instead. So that his parents wouldn't know about his sacrifice and demand that he stop, the boy would wake up earlier than they, slip his shirt over his swollen⁵ torso, and return to his own bed.

孝顺的儿子只是让蚊子喝他的血，他的父母不知道这事。因为吴猛醒得比他们早，脱下衣服又回到了床上。

But one morning, being tired from loss of sleep, he forgot to wake up and pull on his shirt.

一天早上，因为太累了，他醒来时忘把衣服脱下了。

His father arose and found his son asleep by his bed. He looked at the boy' s pathetic, mosquito-bitten skin that was covered with red welts, and understood immediately what Wu Meng had done.

父亲在床上翻来覆去，他看着孩子的皮肤，到处都被蚊子咬了，立刻明白了孩子为什么要这样做。

Mr. Wu woke up his wife and told her the story. The two parents, deeply moved by their son's unselfish concern for them, began to cry. They were so touched, their sounds of sobbing⁶ could be heard by the neighbors. From all sides the neighbors gathered to investigate the matter, and learned about Wu Meng's sacrifice on behalf of hi s parents.

吴猛的父亲把这事告诉了他的母亲，父母都被孩子所做的深深感动，哭泣的声音邻居都听见了。四面八方的邻居聚集到这里，夸赞吴猛孝顺父母的行为。

Everyone thought that the boy's attitude of filial respect was most remarkable⁷, especially for one only eight years old. Someone reported the incident to the local magistrate⁸, who wrote a memorandum⁹ to the Dragon Throne, to inform the imperial court.

每个人都认为那个男孩的态度是最引人注目的子女对父母的尊重，特别是才8岁的小孩子。有人将这事告诉了当地官府，写了一份备忘录给朝廷政府。

The matter thus came to the attention of the Emperor, who rewarded Wu Meng with a scholarship to the academy. Further, he gave the family a set of mosquito nets and a stipend¹⁰, so that they never again lacked the necessities of life.

这事很快传到了皇帝耳朵里，立刻给了吴猛奖赏，赏赐了他许多蚊帐，从此以后，吴猛再也不用赤身睡觉了。