One of the "Eight Devils of Yangzhou", Huang Shen, is a native of Ninghua County, Fujian Province. He loved drawing since he was a child, and learned respectfully from Shangguan Zhou, a famous painter in the same county. It didn't take long for him to learn the full set of skills from his teacher.

Once, a few painters from other places came to see the paintings. The family held out a few scrolls of figure paintings for the guests to observe. The guests unfolded and said in unison, "Isn't this the work of Mr. Shangguan Zhou? We want to see Huang Shen's paintings." The family quickly said, "This is Huang Shen's painting, not Mr. Shangguan Zhou's." Seeing that the guests didn't believe it, he went inside and dug out a few scrolls of paintings and said, "This is Mr. Shangguan Zhou's painting." The guests put the two's works together and compared them. They only felt that the character was similar. They couldn't tell which one was painted by Shangguan Zhou and which one was painted by Huang Shen, so they couldn't help but marvel. After seeing the painting, one of the painters said, "Huang Shen is smart and nimble, and he has really imitated the teacher's housekeeping skills! But what is this? Other people's things are always other people's, and no matter how realistic the imitation is, it is not their own. If you take Huang Shen's painting out, people will say that it is Shangguan Zhou's work when they see it, but who will say that it is his Huang Shen's painting?"

When Huang Shen heard these words, Huang Shen thought: Yes! Apart from the teacher's things, which of his paintings is his own? Huai Su's characters and Shangguan Zhou's paintings all have their own muscles and bones, but my Huang Shen's paintings, where are my muscles and bones? If you can't make your own way, won't you always be left behind by others and chew the buns chewed by others?

How can I create my own unique style? Huang Shen explored this problem day and night. He forgot to eat and sleep, thought blankly for a while, scrutinized the teacher's drawings for a while, and scribbled on the paper with a pen.

One day, while walking down the street, Huang Shen was suddenly inspired. He hurried to a nearby shop, borrowed pen, ink, paper, and inkstone from the shop owner, and began to draw on the counter. All the passersby gathered around him in unison, watching him draw. Huang Shen ignored them and focused only on holding the pen to draw. I saw him dab and dab on the white paper, and in the blink of an eye, he finished drawing. He put down the pen, patted the counter, and shouted, "I succeeded!"

The onlookers heard his words and felt puzzled. They craned their necks one by one and stared at the drawing paper with wide eyes. It was scratched and squiggled, with a few strokes, like cursive but not cursive, like a painting but not a painting, no one could understand what was drawn on it. Huang Shen happily pasted the painting on the wall inside the counter. Strange to say, it looked inexplicable just now, but now looking inside through the counter, a tracker appeared clearly in the picture, leaning forward and pulling the rope, profusely sweating on his head, his body was skinny, and his feet were difficult to walk. Everyone looked at it, and the more they looked at it, the more surprised they were, and they all said, "Weird people draw strange paintings. It's inexplicable when you look up close, but it's clear from a distance. This is really weird and good!"

Shangguan Zhou was very happy when he saw Huang Shen's rapid progress in his studies and his painting style was self-contained. He praised everyone and said, "The ancients said, 'Blue is better than blue.' Sure enough, Huang Shen has surpassed me."

After Huang Shen became one of the famous "Eight Devils of Yangzhou", his painting method was hailed as "wild grass".

The first of the thirty-two articles in "Xunzi" is called "Encouraging Learning". In this article, the author discusses the purpose, meaning, attitude and method of learning more comprehensively, which has a profound enlightening effect on people. There is a passage in the article: "Learning cannot be done. Green is taken from blue, and blue is blue; ice is made of water, but it is colder than water." Learning should not be stopped and abandoned. Cyan is extracted from blue dye, but it is greener than blue; ice is made of water, but it is cooler than water.

Later, these few words evolved into the proverb "green is better than blue", which is used as a metaphor for students being better than teachers, future generations being better than predecessors, and one generation being stronger than another.

Humans have evolved from the age of ignorance that drank blood and blood to the civilization that has conquered space today. Every century and every country has its heroes. Most of them have achieved success in their prime. They are young, childish, and have little experience. But with the spirit of a newborn calf who is not afraid of tigers, they have surpassed the sages and staged scenes of mighty and majestic dramas on the stage of history, which are famous in history and will last forever. And their students, like them, have surpassed them. In this way, the waves push forward, and the long river of history rolls forward, promoting the progress of mankind.

Einstein, the inventor of the general theory of relativity, read all the works of the famous physicist Newton as early as his school days and absorbed the essence of classical mechanics. He respected Newton very much, but never believed in his predecessors. He dared to doubt and explore, and finally pointed out the mistakes of Newton's mechanics. Yes, as some historians have said, "Einstein grew up drinking Newton's milk," and he came from blue; he dared to challenge Newton, for the progress of mankind, and overthrew Newton as an idol. He was better than blue.

Leonardo da Vinci was a famous painter and scientist in the Italian Renaissance. He studied with the famous painter Frozio in his early years. Under the guidance of his teacher, he started painting eggs and steadily climbed the peak of painting art. He humbly learned from his teacher, but also paid attention to discarding the teacher's wrong painting skills and methods. In less than four years, he surpassed the famous master Frozio. Once Frozio was invited to paint a mural for a church. After painting Christ and two angels, he asked Leonardo to paint the third angel. Leonardo took up the brush calmly, and in just half a day, a graceful, elegant and lifelike angel landed in the church. Frozio was greatly surprised and sighed. From then on, this master of Megatron painting never picked up the brush again and turned to studying sculpture. It can be seen that young people can completely surpass their predecessors, and the lives of countless great people have proved this point.