The Lady of Yanzhou 延州妇人

The Taiping Anthologies is a collection of about 7000 stories compiled under the editorship of Li Fang of Song Dynasty, first published in 978. The stories were selected from over three hundred books and novels from the Han Dynasty to the early Song Dynasty, many of which have long been lost. Some stories are historical or naturalistic anecdotes, each is replete with historical elements, and qualifies as fiction, but the topics are mostly supernatural, about Buddhist and Daoist priests, immortals, ghosts, and various deities.

One of the most unexpected stories is about a lady of Yanzhou who is willing to have sex with any man she came across. She turned out to be an incarnation of Bodhisattva.

Once there was a lady in Yanzhou in eastern Shaanxi who was of fair complexion and quite beautiful, about 24 or 25 years of age. She wandered through the city alone, and the young lads would follow her around. She had sexual relations with them all, rejecting none of them.

Several years later she died, and the people of Yanzhou were all grieved at this and felt sorry for her. They collected a sum of money and paid her funeral expenses. Because she had no home, they buried her beside a road.

In the middle of the reign of Tang Daicong Dali (766-779 AD), a Central Asian monk came from the northwest. He saw the lady's grave, and immediately set up a prayer mat there, prostrating himself and burning incense while praising the virtue of the deceased for several days.

People saw this and said to him, "This was an immoral woman who treated every man like her husband, and we buried her here because she had no family. Why do you as a monk show such respect to her?"

The monk replied, "My benefactors, there is something you do not know. This lady was a holy being indeed, compassionate and generous in submitting to the desires of all worldly men. She is the Chained-bone Bodhisattva, and she has fulfilled her destiny and achieved enlightenment. If you do not believe me, you can open up the grave and see."

The people exhumed the grave, and sure enough all the bones were linked as in a chain. They were astonished and held a Buddhist feast for her, and also built a pagoda to honour her.

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宋代李昉编的《太平广记》大约收集了7000个故事，第一次出版于978年。故事选自汉朝至宋初超过300本书与小说，其中有不少已经失传了。这些故事有历史或自然奇闻逸话，充满了历史元素，创造素质，内容则都是一些有关超自然、佛教、道士、长生不老、鬼怪及各种神仙的事物。

其中一个令人意想不到的故事是有关一个延州妇女对所有男人来者不拒，而她原来是菩萨的化身。

昔，延州有妇人，白皙，颇有姿貌，年可二十四五，孤行城市，年少之子，悉与之游，押呢荐 枕，一无所却。

数年而殁，州人莫不悲惜，共醵丧具，为之葬焉。以其无家，瘗于道左。

（唐代宗）大历中（776－779），忽有胡僧自西域来，见墓，遂趺坐，具礼焚香，围绕赞叹数日。

人见，谓之日：此一淫纵女子，人尽夫也。以其无属，故瘗于此，和尚何敬耶？

僧曰：非檀越所知，斯乃大圣，慈悲喜舍，世所之 欲，无不徇焉。此即销骨菩萨，顺缘已尽。圣者云耳不信，即启以验之。

众人即开墓，视遍身之骨，钩结皆如锁状。果如僧言。州人异之，为设大斋起塔焉。

The Foolish Old Man Removed Mountains 愚公移山

The saying that “Where there’s a will, there’s a way” can be illustrated by a Chinese story about ‘The foolish old man removed mountains.’ It is actually a Chinese folktale about a foolish old man who removed a mountain that was blocking the path from his home. His children told him that he would be dead before he moved it. The old man instructed them to continue his work after he was gone, ‘My line will go on and on, but the mountain can never get taller or bigger, so what do I have to worry about?’

Why the old man didn’t just simply move his family to a more convenient location? It is said that the concept of home in Chinese culture is extremely important and one does not move his home unless lives are at stake. Another explanation is that the old man is foolish and that's why he didn't pick the easier task; but conveniently, his story told later generations to be persistent at doing anything.

The story became famous after Mao Zedong mentioned it in one of his speeches, ‘There are now two mountains on the heads of the Chinese people. One is called imperialism, and the other is called feudalism. The Communist Party of China must resolve to dig away at these two mountains. We must be absolutely firm, and continue to work away without stopping. Even the God will be moved. This god is not another person; it is the masses of the people of the entire nation. If the masses of the people of the entire nation were to rise up in unison, and help us to dig away at these two mountains, what is there that we could not flatten?’

Here is the original story as recorded in Liezi (Master Lie), an early philosophical Daoism text written during the 3rd century AD.

The two mountains Taihang and Wangwu, which cover an area of 700 square li (about 0.5 km), and rise to an enormous altitude, originally stood in the south of Jizhou and north of Heyang. The Simpleton of the North Mountain, an old man of ninety, dwelt opposite these mountains, and was vexed in spirit because their northern flanks blocked the way to travellers, who had to go all the way round. So he called his family together, and broached a plan.

'Let us,' he said, 'put forth our utmost strength to clear away this obstacle, and cut right through the mountains until we come to Hanyin. What say you?' They all assented except his wife, who made objections and said: 'My good man has not the strength to remove a spoonful of dirt from your father's burial mound, let alone two such mountains as Taixing and Wangwu. Besides, where will you put all the earth and stones that you dig up?' The others replied that they would throw them on the promontory of Bohai.

So the old man, followed by his son and grandson, sallied forth with their pickaxes, and the three of them began hewing away at the rocks, and cutting up the soil, and carting it away in baskets to the promontory of Bohai. A widowed woman who lived near had a little boy who, though he was only just shedding his milk teeth, came skipping along to give them what help he could. Engrossed in their toil, they never went home except once at the turn of the season.

The Wise Old Man of the River-bend burst out laughing and urged them to stop. 'Great indeed is your witlessness!' he said. 'With the poor remaining strength of your declining years you will not succeed in removing a hair's breadth of the mountain, much less the whole vast mass of rock and soil.' With a sigh, the Simpleton of the North Mountain replied: 'Surely it is you who are narrow-minded and unreasonable. You are not to be compared with the widow's son, despite his puny strength. Though I myself must die, I shall leave a son behind me and through him a grandson. That grandson will beget sons in his turn, and those soils will also have sons and grandsons. With all this posterity, my line will not die out, while on the other hand the mountain will receive no increment or addition. Why then should I despair of levelling it to the ground at last?' The Wise Old Man of the River-bend had nothing to say in reply.

One of the serpent-brandishing deities heard of the undertaking and, fearing that it might never be finished, went and told God Almighty, who was touched by the old man's simple faith, and commanded the two sons of Kua-e to transport the mountains, one to the extreme north-east, the other to the southern corner of Yong. Ever since then, the region lying between Jizhou in the north and Hanyin in the south has been an unbroken plain.
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Mao's Speech as read by a Canadian Lady 加拿大女士念毛泽东的谈话
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英语‘有志者事竟成’可以用‘愚公移山’的故事来加以说明。它其实有关一个老人把当在他家门口的大山的故事。老人告示他打孩子如果他过世时山还没有移掉，他们应该继续移山的工作。他说，‘我的子孙会一代一代转下去，而山却不会长高或变大，所以我有什么值得担心的？’

为什么老人不搬到另一个更方便的地点？据说华人文化重安土，没有特殊情况决不搬家。另一个解释是老人就是愚蠢，这就是为什么他不取容易的办法，而他的故事告诉子子孙孙坚持他们的所作所为。

毛泽东在一次演讲中提到了这个故事后，它就变成家喻户晓了：‘现在也有两座压在中国人民头上的大山，一座叫做帝国主义，一座叫做封建主义。中国共产党早就下了决心，要挖掉这两座山。我们一定要坚持下去，一定要不断工作。我们也会感动上帝的。这个上帝不是别人，就是全中国的人民大众。’

以下是公元前三世纪所写的道家哲学经典《列子》的记载:

太行、王屋二山，方七百里，高万仞。本在冀州之南，河阳之北。

北山愚公者，年且九十，面山而居。惩山北之塞，出入之迂也，聚室而谋曰：‘吾与汝毕力平险，指通豫南，达于汉阴，可乎？’杂然相许。其妻献疑曰：‘以君之力，曾不能损魁父之丘。如太行、王屋何?且焉置土石?’杂曰：‘投诸渤海之尾，隐土之北。’遂率子孙荷担者三夫，叩石垦壤，箕畚运于渤海之尾。邻人京城氏之孀妻有遗男，始龀，跳往助之。寒暑易节，始一反焉。

河曲智叟笑而止之曰：‘甚矣，汝之不惠。以残年余力，曾不能毁山之一毛，其如土石何?’北山愚公长息曰：‘汝心之固，固不可彻，曾不若孀妻弱子。虽我之死，有子存焉；子又生孙，孙又生子；子又有子，子又有孙；子子孙孙无穷匮也，而山不加增，何苦而不平？’河曲智叟亡以应。

操蛇之神闻之，惧其不已也，告之于帝。帝感其诚，命夸娥氏二子负二山，一厝朔东，一厝雍南。自此，冀之南，汉之阴，无陇断焉。