How many stars are there in the sky? The question is as abstract and broad as how many grains of sand there are in the desert and how many hairs a person has.
But when Confucius asked this question, a child who was only 7 years old gave an extraordinary answer, and after hearing the child's answer, Confucius admired the child as a teacher.
What kind of divine child can have such a heavy courtesy as Confucius?
When children on the road block the road, Confucius was willing to go around the "city"
Confucius set up an altar in the country of Lu for many years, and at the same time traveled around the world to preach Confucianism, and there were already 3,000 disciples and 72 sages under his disciples.
One day, Confucius heard that there was a place called Ji Barrier City on the southeast coast of Juguo, and the surrounding people were pure and thick, and they were all very knowledgeable.
He and his disciples planned to travel east to this place, to learn from their people's feelings and to understand their wisdom.
Therefore, a group of people took a carriage and dust servants to the current monument corridor.
The scenery is beautiful and the terrain is comfortable.
Confucius and his disciples enjoyed viewing this rich country, and along the way, they talked and laughed and enjoyed themselves.
Suddenly, the coachman let out a long cry, and the carriage slowed down.
Confucius saw that not far away, on the avenue, there were several children gathered and squatting on the ground to play.
When the children saw a carriage coming, they quickly hid on the side of the road to avoid it.
But only a small child stood in the middle of the road and did not move.
Confucius leaned over the car and asked, "Why is the ignorant boy blocking our way?" ”
When the child saw that the old man in front of him was not inferior, he was unhappy, so he secretly decided to tease these people.
The child replied: "Since ancient times, cars have to go around the city when they encounter it, so where is the reason for crashing into it?" The city is here, how can your chariots and horses pass from here? ”
Confucius looked around and wondered, "Oh? Where is the city? ”
The child pointed to the carriage and said, "The city was built at your feet to defend against the carriages, horses, and soldiers." ”
When Confucius saw that the child was not humble, he condescended to get out of the car, and only then did he see a fake city pool made of stones and sand on the road.
Confucius said with some disdain, "What if the chariots and horses pass through here?" ”
The child calmly said, "If the walls are firm and the doors are closed, how can you pass?" Is it difficult to avoid the carriages and horses in the city? ”
Confucius was speechless and willingly circled the "city".
Teased by this, Confucius's disciple Zilu was unhappy.
Coincidentally, Zilu saw a farmer on the side of the road hoeing the ground, and his face was somewhat similar to that of the child, and he decided that this should be the father of the child.
Zi Lu then stepped forward and deliberately asked, "Seeing that you are busy and busy, the hoe in your hand does not know how many times a day to lift?" ”
The farmer was momentarily confused by the stranger in front of him, and when he saw that the farmer could not answer, Zilu secretly rejoiced at the side.
Unexpectedly, when the child heard this, he rushed to say, "My father hoes the ground every year, and of course he has counted in his heart." I think that there must be a carriage when the gentleman travels, so I think I know how many times a day the hooves of the horse are lifted? ”
Zilu was dumbfounded.
Confucius, who was watching, saw that the child was clever and astute, and his heart was deeply impressed, so he decided to continue to explore deeply.
He consulted with the child: "I see that you are very intelligent, and now we each have a question to test each other, and the person who wins will worship the other party as a teacher, how about it?" Tong Sou is not deceived. ”
"Well, that's it!" Children are not afraid at all.
Confucius was repeatedly harassed and worshipped a seven-year-old child as a teacher
In the first game, the child asked Confucius:
"Ask Master where there are no fish in the water?" What fire has no smoke? What tree doesn't have leaves? What flower does not have branches? ”
Confucius pondered for a moment and suddenly realized that these questions were very unreasonable:
"There are fish in the rivers, lakes and seas in the water; firewood and grass lamps and candles, if it is fire, there is smoke; without leaves, it cannot grow into a tree, and where will there be flowers without branches?"
The child smiled slightly, shook his head, and said:
"The well water has no fish, the fireworks are smokeless, the dead trees have no leaves, and the snowflakes have no branches."
Confucius was stunned and stunned, and this answer made him unable to find anything wrong with it.
The child asked again:
"What mountain is there without stones?" What car doesn't have wheels? What calfless calf? What horse has no foals? What man doesn't have a wife? What woman doesn't have a husband? "What is a gentleman?" What is a villain? What is a deficiency? What is surplus? What city has no city? Who is wordless? ”
Confucius frowned and said, "I really don't know." ”
Once again, the child replied triumphantly:
"There is no stone in the earth mountain, no wheel in the car, no calf in the mud cow, no colt on the wooden horse, no wife for the gods, no wife for the fairies, no husbands for the fairies, no gentlemen for the wise, no fools for the little people, not enough in winter, more than enough in summer, no city in the imperial city, no words for the little people."
Confucius suddenly realized and was convinced.
At the same time, he was also ready to counterattack and embarrass the little prodigy in front of him.
"Do you know the Heaven and Earth Gangji, Yin and Yang are always, what is left?" What is Right? What is a table? What is Li? What is a parent? What is a mother? What is a husband? What is a woman? Where does the wind come from? Where does the rain come from? Where does the cloud come from? Where does the fog come from? How many tens of millions of miles away from heaven and earth? ”
After listening to Confucius's words, the children opened their mouths and came:
"Ninety-nine eighty-one is the outline of heaven and earth; eighty-nine seventy-two is the constant of yin and yang; heaven is the father, the earth is the mother; the sun is the husband, the moon is the wife; the east is the left, the west is the right; the outside is the surface, and the inside is the inside; the wind is from the cangwu, the rain is from the suburban city; the clouds come out of the mountains, and the fog rises from the earth; the heavens and the earth go apart, there are thousands of miles, east, west, south, north, and north, all have directions."
Confucius saw that this was difficult for children, so he took out a killer skill.
He threw out a question:
"In the world, people must rely on the light of the stars and the earth to produce grains, so that they can nourish many beings." And ask the child, how many stars are there in the sky, and how many grains are there on the earth? ”
Teacher Kong came up with a tricky question, who knew that the child blurted out:
"The sky is immeasurable, the earth is wide and cannot be scaled, the stars are one day and one night, and the grain is stubble every year."
After a moment's pause, the child made a ruse:
"People's bodies are smaller than the ground, the eyebrows on the eyes are lower than the sky, the eyebrows are on the eyes, you can see every day, dare to ask the master, can you know how many eyebrows you have?"
Confucius was embarrassed to answer, and even immersed himself in the wonderful "one day and one night of stars, one stubble a year and five grains".
This child secretly changed the unit of measurement, replaced the hidden "grain and grain" unit in the original question with "night, stubble", and took the days and years as the statistical time, made an unmistakable answer, and the future life was terrible.
Just as Confucius was about to respectfully ask the child how to worship the teacher, the child had jumped into the nearby pond.
Only to see this child spit out a few bubbles, a head emerging from the surface of the water, and said to Confucius mischievously: "After bathing, you can perform the ritual of worshiping the master, and the master also came to bathe." ”
Confucius couldn't do anything with him, but Confucius hadn't learned to swim and was afraid of sinking himself.
When the child saw that Confucius was worried, he still did not give up, and took the opportunity to ask: "The duck has never learned to swim, but it is floating but not sinking, and why can't the master do it?" ”
"The duck has the hair of the water, so it does not sink", Confucius finally answered a question.
But the reversal came too quickly, and the child immediately gave the example of 'the gourd has no hair from the water, and it floats without sinking'.
"The gourd is round and empty inside, so it doesn't sink," Confucius explained.
"The bell is round and empty inside, why is it sinking and not floating", the child replied.
After two more rounds of fighting, Confucius was red in the face and completely impressed.
When the child had finished bathing, Confucius came forward and greeted him very sincerely, formally worshipping the seven-year-old prodigy as his teacher.
When the disciples around them saw Confucius, such a learned old man, he willingly and humbly worshiped the children, and the respect for Confucius in their hearts became even deeper.
After this, Confucius returned to Qufu and did not travel east after that.
Who are the children? Gifted from an early age
A seven-year-old child, faced with a knowledgeable and knowledgeable university scholar, Confucius, and the questions posed by Confucius, can calmly answer the questions like a stream, without leaking.
This child is destined not to be idle, but he is the prodigy Xiangqiao.
Xiang Qiao was born in the wilderness in the northwest corner of the You'ergu Peak, and when he was born, his cries resounded throughout the valley.
When his father saw his long square circle and full of space, he blurted out: "Like a small bridge (pocket), just call him a bridge!" ”
And Xiang Qi's intelligence is also innate, he likes to observe things since he was a child.
When he encounters difficulties, he can break the casserole and ask the end.
Xiang Qi's father was also often overwhelmed by his son's curiosity.
One summer afternoon, the sky was suddenly cloudy, lightning and thunder intertwined, and torrential rain followed.
Xiang Qiao observed the change of weather under the eaves, and he asked his father, "Why is there lightning and thunder?" ”
The father replied that this was God using a trick, thunder and thunder to split bad people and monsters.
Ordinary children would be attracted by this magical answer, but Xiang Qiao asked his father, "However, why is it that only in the summer there is lightning and thunder, and do bad people and monsters only exist in the summer, and disappear in the winter?" ”
The father opened his mouth and gagged for a moment.
Such a dialogue has happened between father and son more than once, but each time, the father is defeated by Xiao Xiangqiao.
Another time, an official messenger passed by the gate of the Xiang family, and the official messenger heard a little about Xiang Qi's wisdom and wanted to see it for himself.
On the grounds that everyone was hungry, the official messenger went to the Xiang family to rub rice.
Xiang's parents are hospitable on weekdays and often receive helpers.
This time, he saw that it was an official messenger, and without saying a word, he found hay to feed the horses, and then asked the messenger what he wanted to eat, and the official messenger said: "Rice and noodles are OK, but I want twenty dishes."
Xiang Qi's parents looked embarrassed, and the only grain in the family could not spell out twenty dishes.
Xiang Qi, who had returned from play, thought about the situation a little and said to his mother, "Easy to do! A pancake is just a two-plate dish of leeks mixed with garlic and sauce. ”
The mother was puzzled, and Xiang Xi explained: "Raw leeks and cooked leeks, two leeks (nine) and eighteen, plus garlic and sauce, exactly twenty." ＂
His mother could only nervously follow the meaning of Xiang Qiao and simply bake the flatbread.
When the meal was put on the table, the official not only did not get angry, but would smile and secretly admire Xiang Qi's superior intelligence.
Xiang Qiao's talent is outstanding, and he is even more uncontrollable on the road of growth.
Under the overlap of time and space, Confucius, the equally intelligent and brilliant sage, met with Xiang Qi by chance, and after the debate, he wonderfully formed a friendship with Xiang Qi.
Confucianism without shame
The story of Xiang Qiao stopping the car, the three difficulties of Confucius, and finally making Confucius worship the master, is left in the "Three Character Classic": "Xi Zhongni, Shi Xiangqiao, Ancient Sage, Shang Qinxue" twelve words.
As a great thinker, politician, and educator in ancient China, Confucius preached to his disciples to solve their problems and traveled around the world to immerse themselves in learning;
On the other hand, when facing children of lower status than themselves, they can also worship children as teachers who are not ashamed to ask questions.
The spirit of doing so is worthy of the respect of future generations.
In fact, worshiping Master Xiangqi is only a microcosm of Confucius's sensitive and studious, shameless questioning.
The Analects of "Three-person conduct, we must have our own teacher, choose what is good and follow it, and change what is not good" is also a statement that Confucius has been practicing throughout his life.
And such a great sage as Confucius has not forgotten to study diligently, let alone us ordinary people?
Resources:
1. Xiangqi Three Difficulties Confucius_Baidu Encyclopedia
2. Xiangqiao_Baidu Encyclopedia
3. Confucius Worship_Baidu Encyclopedia