My Mother

This is a documentary biographical novel that describes the true story of a great mother. In the early years of the Republic of China, Hou Ronghua, who grew up in a family of poems and books, fell in love with an army officer. Unexpectedly, there was no news after his lover left. After Hou Ronghua waited ten years to no avail, she married Shang Genyou, a farmer in Mazhuang and an orphan. Because she couldn't get the love she expected, Hou Ronghua pinned her life ideals on her son Shang Lianfu. But because he was looked down upon by others when he was poor since he was a child, Shang Lianfu developed a strong rebellious mentality and caused a lot of trouble. Hou Ronghua carefully guided her son onto the right path. She thought that good days would come from then on, but her son suffered a high-level paraplegia due to an accident. She took her son to the caves and abandoned temples deep in Songshan Mountain, living on charity from others, and changed seven places in seven years. After seven years of arduous practice in a cave, Shang Lianfu built the Lotus Temple, a small temple that had been abandoned for many years in Songshan Mountain, into a famous temple with three main halls, hundreds of houses, and strong incense. Later, Shang Lianfu was invited by the 29th generation abbot of the Shaolin Temple, the great monk Xingzheng, to go to the Shaolin Temple to become a monk, with the Buddhist name Shi Yanfo. In 1987, Shi Yanfo led several disciples to rebuild Fawang Temple in Songshan, one of the earliest Buddhist temples in China, and became the abbot of Fawang Temple. Although Hou Ronghua could not see this, she gave her son Shang Lianfu two lives.