In ancient times, there was a man named Wang Sheng who lived in a county town, there were six older brothers, he was the seventh oldest, and someone in the family was an official in the imperial court, and he was a son of an official eunuch. The children of the eunuch family have some various hobbies, some like to visit the theater garden, some like to raise caged birds, personal hobbies are different, they all have fun, but Wang Sheng has liked Taoism since he was a child, often reading some books on practicing Taoism and making Friends with Taoists. One day, while chatting with a Taoist friend, he heard that there were many immortals in Laoshan Who had attained enlightenment, and Wang Sheng wanted to go and see it as soon as he heard it, and wanted to learn some Taoist techniques to make friends with some immortals, so the next day he set off with his luggage to Laoshan to find the Tao. Along the way, while walking and playing, the flowers and scenery unconsciously came to a top of a mountain, the green trees and pines on the top of the mountain surrounded by a golden and brilliant Taoist temple, and the surrounding environment except for the sound of birds and insects is very quiet. I saw a white-haired monk sitting on a futon under a towering pine tree, and the Daoist monk of the Fairy Wind Dao Bone was meditating with his eyes closed.
So Wang Sheng went up to the ceremony and talked to him, and between the words he felt that the Taoist priest's teachings were very mysterious and he had never heard of it, and he was very admired in his heart, so he asked the Daoist to accept him as an apprentice, and the Daoist priest covered his white beard with his hand and said: "You are a child of the official eunuch family, you have been pampered since childhood, and cultivation is not something that can be cultivated overnight, and I am afraid that you will not be able to eat this hardship." Wang Shengyi hurriedly said, "You just have to rest assured, as long as you can succeed in cultivating the Tao, I am not afraid of any kind of hard work." When the Daoist priest heard him say this, he felt that his belief in cultivation was relatively firm, so he agreed to accept him as an apprentice. There were many disciples of the Daoist priests, and they all gathered around the master in the evening. Wang Shengyi had met with them one by one and met with all the brothers and masters, and he stayed in the Taoist temple.
In the early morning of the next day, just after dawn, the Taoist priest called Wang Sheng up, handed him an axe, and asked him to go to the mountain with the brothers and sisters to cut firewood. Wang Sheng respectfully took the axe and went to chop wood with his brothers and brothers. After a month of such unconsciousness, the master told Wang Sheng and his brothers to chop firewood every day, and did not teach him Taoist techniques, Wang Sheng, who had never done rough work from childhood to adulthood, had grinded out thick calluses, and he felt too tired to learn anything, so he had the idea of going home.
One evening, when he returned to the temple by chopping wood, he saw two guests sitting with the master drinking and talking. It was late, the candles had not yet been lit, and the things around it were no longer clear. The master cut a piece of paper in the shape of a mirror and pasted it on the wall. In a moment, the paper turned into a bright moon illuminating the room, radiant. All the disciples were running around and waiting, and one of the guests said, "The beautiful scenery of the good night is endless, and you can't help but enjoy it together." So he took the wine jug from the table, distributed the wine among the disciples, and instructed everyone to drink freely. Wang Sheng thought in his heart, how can seven or eight people drink a pot of wine? This man is also too picky. Therefore, everyone found a wine glass and a wine bowl, and rushed to grab the wine to drink, all afraid that the wine in the wine pot would be drunk by others and they would not be able to drink it. You and I rushed to drink one by one, but the crowd poured wine and drank it like this, and there was not a lot of wine in the pot. I can't finish drinking it. Wang Sheng was very confused in his heart, and he summed it up in his heart, this is really God Ha, so many people pour wine and drink it is not finished. After a while, one of the guests said, "I have been blessed with moonlight to illuminate, but it is still a little lonely to drink like this, so why not call Chang'e to come?" So I threw the chopsticks into the moon. I saw a beautiful woman, floating out of the moonlight, at first less than a foot, and when it fell to the ground, it was just like an ordinary person. Gracefully danced the "Neon Dance". While dancing, he sang: "Immortals, you returned to the human world, and why did you imprison me in the Guanghan Palace?" The song is crisp and melodious, and it is as beautiful as playing a pipe. After singing, it hovered and floated up, jumped on the table, and everyone looked at it in amazement, which had been reduced to chopsticks. The master and the two guests laughed. Another guest said, "I'm so happy tonight, but I'm almost drunk, so how about the two of you accompany me to the Moon Palace for a drink?" So the three of them moved their seats and gradually floated into the Moon Palace. The disciples looked up at the three people, sitting in the bright moon palace drinking wine, and their beards and eyebrows were all clearly visible, like the shadow of a person in the mirror. After a while, the light of the moon gradually dimmed, and the disciple lit a candle, only to see the Taoist priest sitting there alone, and the guest was gone. The cores of the dishes on the table are still there. The moon on the wall was nothing more than a round piece of paper like a mirror. The Taoist priest asked the disciples, "Have you all drunk enough?" Everyone replied, "Enough." The Taoist priest said, "If you have drunk enough, go to bed early, and don't delay going up the mountain to collect firewood tomorrow." The disciples agreed and withdrew. Wang Sheng was surprised and envious in his heart, and said in his heart, I want to be able to learn such a spell, so the idea of going home was immediately dispelled.
After another month, Wang Sheng still went up the mountain to cut firewood with his brothers and masters every day, and the Daoist priest still did not even teach him a spell, it was too bitter and tired, he really couldn't hold back in his heart, so he resigned to the Daoist and said: "Disciples are not far away from hundreds of miles to learn from the immortal master, even if you can't get the immortal spell, you can teach me a little spell, you can also comfort my mood of asking for advice." Now two or three months have passed, but I go out in the morning to collect firewood and come back to sleep at night. At home, the disciple had never suffered such a hardship. The Daoist priest laughed and said, "I originally said you can't suffer hardships, but now it is true." Since then I will send you back tomorrow morning. Wang Sheng said, "That disciple has been chopping wood here for such a long time, please ask the master to teach me a little bit of magic, I didn't come here in vain." The Daoist priest asked him, "Then what spell do you want to learn?" Wang Sheng said, "Usually, when I see my master going through the wall and entering the house, the walls can't stop you, if I learn this spell, I will be satisfied." The Taoist priest smiled and agreed. So he taught him the secret and let him finish it himself, and the Taoist priest shouted, "Go into the wall!" Wang Sheng looked at the thick and hard wall and did not dare to enter. The Taoist priest said, "Try to go inside." Wang Sheng walked forward with a hard scalp, and when he reached the wall, he was blocked by the wall. The Taoist priest said, "Bow your head and advance, don't hesitate!" So Wang Sheng left the wall for a few steps, ran and rushed over, and when he crossed the wall, like nothing, he reached the outside of the wall without any obstacles. Wang Sheng was very happy and went back to thank the master. The Taoist priest said, "When you go back, you must keep your self-love and don't show off, otherwise the spell will not work." So I gave him some money for the trip and sent him back.
Wang Sheng returned home, proud of himself boasting that he had met the Immortal Dao, and no matter how thick the walls could not stop him. His wife didn't believe it and said he was net bragging. Wang Sheng imitated his every move that day, a few feet away from the wall, and rushed over when he ran, feeling his head hit the hard wall and suddenly sat on the ground. His wife hurriedly helped him up to take a look, bumped a large bag of eggs on his forehead, his wife covered her mouth and laughed at him, Wang Sheng was ashamed and angry, scolded the old Taoist for not being at ease, tricked him into chopping wood for so long, and did not teach him anything.
Pu Songling said: None of the people who have heard the story of Wang Sheng are not laughing, and they do not know that there are still many "Wang Sheng" in the world. Now there are those who always like others to flatter and do not like advice and advice, so those little people who are flattered by them present those tricks that can be used to intimidate and tyranny, and deceive him: By virtue of this skill, you can run amok. At the beginning, the experiments were all small, so I said that the world is big, you can run amok like this, really a person who does not touch the south wall and does not turn back!
This story has a profound moral, telling people that no matter what they do, they must be able to sink their hearts and be humble and studious in order to achieve something.