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The Taoist novice
There lived in our village a Mr. Wang, the seventh son in an
old family. This gentleman had a penchant for the Taoist religion
and, hearing that at Lao-shan there were plenty of Immortals,'
shouldered his knapsack and went off for a tour thither.
Ascending a peak of the mountain he reached a secluded monastery, where he found a priest sitting on a rush mat, with long
hair flowing over his neck, and a pleasant expression on his face.
Making a low bow, Wang addressed him thus: "Mysterious
indeed is the doctrine: I pray you, Sir, instruct me therein."
"Delicately nurtured and wanting in energy as you are,"
replied the priest, "I fear you could not support the fatigue."
"Try me," said Wang.
So when the disciples, who were very many in number, collected together at dusk, Wang joined them in making obeisance
to the priest, and remained with them in the monastery. Very
early next morning the priest summoned Wang, and giving him a hatchet sent him out with the others to cut firewood. Wang respectfully obeyed, continuing to work for over a month until his
hands and feet were so swollen and blistered that he secretly
meditated returning home.
One evening when he came back he found two strangers
sitting drinking with his master. It being already dark, and
no lamp or candles having been brought in, the old priest
took some scissors and cut out a circular piece of paper
like a mirror, which he proceeded to stick against the wall. Immediately it became a dazzling
moon, by the light of which you could have seen a hair or a beard
of corn. The disciples all came crowding round to wait upon
them, but one of the strangers said, "On a festive occasion like
this we ought all to enjoy ourselves together." Accordingly he
took a kettle of wine from the table and presented it to the disciples, bidding them drink each his fill; whereupon our friend
Wang began to wonder how seven or eight of them could all be
served out of a single kettle. The disciples, too, rushed about in
search of cups, each struggling to get the first drink for fear the
wine should be exhausted. Nevertheless, all the candidates failed
to empty the kettle, at which they were very much astonished.
Then one of the strangers said, "You have given us a fine
bright moon; but it's dull work drinking by ourselves. Why not
call Chang-ngo to join us ?" He seized a chopstick and threw it
into the moon, whereupon a lovely girl stepped forth from its
beams. At first she was only a foot high, but on reaching the
ground lengthened to the ordinary size of woman. She had a
slender waist and a beautiful neck, and went most gracefully
through the Red Garment figure. When this was finished she
sang the following words : -
Ye fairies ! ye fairies! I'm coming back soon,
Too lonely and cold is my home in the moon.
Her voice was clear and well sustained, ringing like the notes of a
flageolet, and when she had concluded her song she pirouetted
round and jumped up on the table, where, with every eye fixed in
astonishment upon her, she once more became a chopstick.
The three friends laughed loudly, and one of them said, "We
are very jolly tonight, but I have hardly room for any more wine.
Will you drink a parting glass with me in the palace of the
moon ?" They then took up the table and walked into the moon,
where they could be seen drinking so plainly that their eyebrows
and beards appeared like reflections in a looking-glass. By-and-
by the moon became obscured; and when the disciples brought a
lighted candle they found the priest sitting in the dark alone. The
viands, however, were still upon the table and the mirror-like
piece of paper on the wall. "Have you all had enough to drink ?"
asked the priest; to which they answered that they had. "In that
case," said he, "you had better get to bed, so as not to be behind-hand with your wood-cutting in the morning." So they all went
off, and among them Wang, who was delighted at what he had
seen, and thought no more of returning home.
But after a time he could not stand it any longer; and as the
priest taught him no magical arts he determined not to wait, but
went to him and said, "Sir, I have traveled many long miles for
the benefit of your instruction. If you will not teach me the secret
of Immortality, let me at any rate learn some trifling trick, and
thus soothe my cravings for a knowledge of your art. I have now
been here two or three months, doing nothing but chop firewood,
out in the morning and back at night, work to which I was never
accustomed in my own home."
"Did I not tell you," replied the priest, "that you would never
support the fatigue ? Tomorrow I will start you on your way
home."
"Sir," said Wang, "I have worked for you a long time. Teach
me some small art, that my coming here may not have been
wholly in vain."
"What art ?" asked the priest
"Well," answered Wang, "I have noticed that whenever you
walk about anywhere, walls and so on are no obstacle to you.
Teach me this, and I'll be satisfied." The priest laughingly assented, and taught Wang a formula which he bade him recite.
When he had done so he told him to walk through the wall; but
Wang, seeing the wall in front of him, didn't like to walk at it.
As, however, the priest bade him try, he walked quietly up to it
and was there stopped. The priest here called out, "Don't go so
slowly. Put your head down and rush at it." So Wang stepped
back a few paces and went at it full speed; and the wall yielding to
him as he passed, in a moment he found himself outside. Delighted at this, he went in to thank the priest, who told him to be
careful in the use of his power, or otherwise there would be no
response, handing him at the same time some money for his
expenses on the way.
When Wang got home, he went about bragging of his Taoist
friends and his contempt for walls in general; but as his wife disbelieved his story, he set about going through the performance as
before. Stepping back from the wall, he rushed at it full speed
with his head down; but coming in contact with the hard bricks,
finished up in a heap on the floor. His wife picked him up and
found he had a bump on his forehead as big as a large egg, at
which she roared with laughter; but Wang was overwhelmed with
rage and shame, and cursed the old priest for his base ingratitude.
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