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Min Sun, with another name of Ziqian, was a famous man in the State of Lu during the Spring and Autumn Period. He was a student of Confucius. Among all students of Confucius, he was compared with Yan Yuan.
Min Sun's mother died very early. Later his father took another wife,who gave birth to two sons. The stepmothermistreatedMin Sun—in winter,while two younger brothers wore warm clothes made of cotton, Min Sun only wore clothes made of reed catkins（芦花）.
One day, he followed his father to go out. When pulling the chariot（马车）, Min Sun felt so cold that he dropped the rope onto the ground. Then his father beat him. Just then the reed catkins flew out from the broken clothes and his father knew that Min Sun was mistreated. He was very angry.
After the father returned home, he wanted to divorce（休掉） his wife. Min Sun fell on his knees and begged his father to forgive his stepmother. He said, “If Mother stays at home, only I myself have to stand cold.But if you divorce Mother, all three children have to suffer from cold.”
His father was deeply moved and took Min Sun's advice. The stepmother heard of this, felt sorry and knew her mistakes. From then on, she treated Min Sun as her own son.