Unfilial and Murder-Plotting Mayor Struck by Lightning
 
Luo Mingxiang was a well-known mathematician and astronomer of the Qing Dynasty (1636-1912 AD). One day in the ninth year of Emperor Daoguang's reign (1829 AD), he was reading the capital report in Beijing. There was a record about a government official with the surname Zhuo who was struck by lightning and died while passing by Gaoyou (currently a city in Jiangsu Province), after he was examined by various government departments and picked as the mayor of Leizhou. Zhuo was from Manchuria with a family background of the Ministry of Rites. Luo Mingxiang thereupon inquired about this matter to Chancellor Liu Shenfu of the Ministry of Rites.
 
Liu Shenfu said that Zhuo was his colleague, and that a person like Zhuo could not be tolerated by the heavens. Liu Shenfu said, "In the beginning when he was appointed as mayor, he only brought his wife with him. He left his blind mother in the national capital with the excuse that he didn't have enough money to cover the travel expenses. He said he would send a person to take his mother to Leizhou after he arrived there. Zhuo told his mother he had already paid three years' rent on the house, and that each month she could get money from a store for her living. His blind mother had no alternative but to obey his arrangement. One month after Zhuo left, the landlord came to ask for the rent and the store would not give her money. It turned out Zhuo had only paid one month's rent on the house and only deposited a small portion of money at the store. His mother suffered hunger and cold, and cried day and night.”
 
One day, Zhuo was passing by Gaoyou in a boat. He had once owed some money to a person from Shanxi Province and this person also happened to be on this boat. When the boat arrived at Gaoyou Lake, Zhuo ordered his servant to go and discuss with the boatman a way to murder the man from Shanxi by pushing him into the lake. Zhuo promised that he would give the boatman money afterwards, but the boatman insisted that he would not do it. So Zhuo asked the sailor to do it and the sailor agreed for the money.
 
On that same evening, right as they began their plot to murder the man from Shanxi, an enormously loud thunderbolt came from the sky, blasting Zhuo outside of the cabin and killing him. Zhuo's wife was also critically injured by it.
 
By now, all the people on the boat were extremely panic-stricken and the boatman had no choice but to tell the story about Zhuo's plot to secretly kill the person from Shanxi. Everyone at last understood that Zhuo had received heavenly punishment, and with that they all calmed down. The person from Shanxi immediately burned the record of debt Zhuo owed him, and politely thank the god of thunder for three days in the temple for the god of thunder in the Huai'an government building before leaving.
 
不孝并害人　知府遭雷诛
 
罗茗香是清朝知名的数学家和天文学家。道光九年时，他有一天在京师看京报，上面记载有一位姓卓的官吏经各部考选被任为雷州知府，但路过高邮时却遭雷击而死。此人是满洲人，礼部司员出身。罗茗香于是向礼部主事刘申甫打听这件事。
 
刘申甫说被雷击而死的那雷州知府是他的同僚，并说这种人天理难容。刘申甫说：“一开始他被选为知府时，只带着妻子出京去了，而把瞎眼的母亲留在京城，托辞说是路费不够用，等到任后再派人来接她去赡养，并告诉母亲所住的房屋已经租了三年，并且可以向钱店每月取数千作为养赡之资。瞎眼的母亲无可奈何，只有听从安排。此人走后刚一月，房东就来催房租，钱店也并不给钱。原来房租只给了一个月的，钱店也只存了数千而已。其母亲饥寒交迫，昼夜哭泣。”
 
有一天，这雷州知府乘船路过高邮，他曾经欠过一山西人的钱，而这山西人正好也在这艘船上。在到达高邮湖时，知府命令仆人去同船夫商量，让他想办法将那山西人挤到湖中害死，许诺事后会给他些钱，可船夫执意不同意。于是又去找水手商量，水手为了钱便答应了。
 
就在当天晚上，他们准备下手谋害山西人时，忽然凌空一声震雷，将那知府提出舱外击死，其妻子也被烧的只剩一口气。
 
这时，一船人都惊恐万分，船夫只有将知府曾准备暗害山西客的事说了出来。大家这才明白原来他是受到了天谴，随即便都安静了下来。那山西人马上对天将债券焚毁，并且在淮安府的雷神庙中拜谢神明三天方才离去。