Chinese Traditional Story: The Carp King Pleads With the Fisherman to Remove His Net

In the time of the Jiajing Emperor during the Ming dynasty, there was a fisherman named Deyan Zhang. He worked day and night fishing at the carp beach. He lived on his boat, and although he managed to catch a lot of fish, the local government taxed him for each catch to such an extent that he only had enough money to fill his stomach. This year, on April 15, Deyan constructed a bamboo fence, which would serve as a net, and he placed it in the water off carp beach. He prepared to catch more carp in the evening when more schools of carp would travel. He got everything ready very early, and then he decided to lie down and rest for a while. Not long after he closed his eyes, he saw an old man standing in the water, with two long, cone-shaped beards hanging on the corners of his mouth.