Pu Songling repeatedly failed exams and returned to his hometown, Pujiazhuang. In addition to teaching, he poured all his worries and anger into "Strange Tales from Liaozhai" and never interacted with officialdom.
One day, he suddenly received an invitation from the Prime Minister, which read: "Please eat Banlu." Pu Songling hated such invitations, the common people could not even eat, and the officials only cared about eating, drinking, and having fun. So he said to the person who sent the invitation: "I am not in good health and cannot go, please forgive me." His wife heard that her husband was not going to the banquet, and thought it was inappropriate, so she said to Pu Songling: "This is not good. First, he is the prime minister; second, you and the prime minister used to read together, and you didn't forget your old friends when you became an official. No matter what, you should go." Pu Songling thought for a long time, and finally decided to go to the banquet.
When he arrived at the Prime Minister's house, the banquet began, and he saw two maids carrying a pot of fish soup to the table. The Prime Minister said, "Please bear with me, since my younger brother entered the government, he has always been honest and clean, and has not been involved in smoke and dust. This is not a banquet, but I want to ask my elder brother to try how to fish in troubled waters. Only by understanding this mystery can he enter the world." Hearing this, Pu Songling was very displeased and thought that life should be dirty and not stained. So he thought of a way to pay tribute to the Prime Minister one day.
A few days later, as expected, Pu Songling used the same method to entertain the prime minister. After the Prime Minister received the invitation to "please eat Banlu," he happily went. Seeing the broken thatched house, he couldn't help but feel a sense of pity in his heart. Back then, when my classmates were reading together, my brother's knowledge was far more than his own. Just because of his upright temperament, he was dissatisfied with the cold world, and he had no money to manage examiners at all levels, he fell to such a point. Wanting to get silver taels for rescue, Pu Songling resolutely refused to accept it. Only catching up with the Prime Minister, but not to mention the banquet.
The Prime Minister felt hungry in his stomach, and from time to time he went outside to look at Tai, but until Tai was too far west, there was still no movement to sit at the table. The Prime Minister was so hungry that he couldn't hold back and asked Pu Songling: "When will your senior brother set up a banquet?" Pu Songling casually replied: "The three meals a day are over, and you have eaten enough 'half Lu ', why do you still hold a banquet?" The Prime Minister suddenly realized that the word "day" is clearly below Lu. I told him to eat the top, but he told me to eat the bottom. This meaning is different. Isn't that a full stomach when I eat the bottom? Isn't this clearly advising me to be a bright official who embraces too much? Although the Prime Minister was hungry for a day, he understood the truth of being an official.
Invitation "Please eat half Lu", the prime minister used the above "half Lu" to invite Pu Songling to "try how to fish in troubled waters, only by understanding this mystery can you enter the world." However, Pu Songling still "dirty mud without staining", cleverly used the following "half Lu" to exhort old friends to "be a bright official who embraces too much", so that the prime minister understood the truth of being an official. "Out of the mud without staining, clean the ripples without demons" is easy to say, but it is difficult to really do it. People like Pu Songling who are upright deserve our admiration.
We can maintain the nobility and integrity of our inner world, even if we don't have a lot of wealth, we are rich people because our hearts are calm and rich, calm and happy. We can sleep in peace, we can live happily, and we don't have to worry about it all the time.
Because of our integrity, we earn respect, trust, and inner satisfaction.