When Zhuge Liang was eight or nine years old, he could not speak, and his family was poor, so his father asked him to herd sheep in the nearby mountains.
There was a Taoist temple on this mountain, and there lived a white-haired old Taoist. The old Taoist walked out of the temple every day and wandered around. When he saw Zhuge Liang, he teased him and asked him questions one by one. Zhuge Liang always answered happily one by one with gestures.
The old Taoist saw that Zhuge Liang was smart and cute, so he treated him, and soon cured Zhuge Liang's inability to speak.
Zhuge Liang could talk. He was very happy and ran to the Taoist temple to thank the old Taoist. The old Taoist said, "Go home and tell your parents that I want to accept you as an apprentice and teach you how to memorize and read, learn astronomy and geography, and gossip about using soldiers. If your parents agree, come to study every day, and don't miss school for a day!"
From then on, Zhuge Liang worshiped this old Taoist as his teacher, rain or shine, the sun was good, and he went up the mountain every day to seek advice. He was smart and studious, dedicated, and never forgot his studies. He remembered it after listening to it. The old Taoist loved him even more.
In the blink of an eye, seven or eight years have passed.
Besides, at the waist of this mountain, there is a "nunnery." Zhuge Liang goes up and down the mountain every day, and passes in front of this nunnery. One day, when he comes down to this place, suddenly there is a strong wind, and it rains all over the place. Zhuge Liang hurried to the nunnery to take shelter from the rain. A woman he had never seen before welcomed him into the house. I saw this woman with thin eyebrows and big eyes, oily and white, and a delicate and fairy appearance, like a fairy coming to earth. He couldn't help but think: There is such a beautiful woman in the nunnery! Before leaving, the woman sent Zhuge Liang out the door and said with a smile, "We know each other today. We will go up and down the mountains. If you are thirsty and tired, come and rest and have tea."
After that, every time Zhuge Liang came to the nunnery, the woman not only received him attentively, but also graciously invited him to stay and prepare the meals. After dinner, they either joked or played chess for fun. Compared to the Taoist temple, this place is really another world. Zhuge Liang was fascinated by the woman's sweet words!
Zhuge Liang's thoughts went wrong, and he became tired of studying. He came out of the nunnery with a smile, and walked into the monastery to worry. He was really "happy when he went out and worried when he entered the door, and his smiling face was thrown outside the door." Master said that he went in this ear and came out of that ear, but it couldn't be printed on his brain; what was written in the book, I didn't know what to say after reading it again, but I couldn't remember it after reading it again.
The old Taoist saw the problem, called Zhuge Liang to the front, sighed and said, "Destroying trees is easy, but planting trees is difficult! I have wasted all these years of effort!"
Zhuge Liang heard something in his master's words, lowered his head and said, "Master, I will not let down your painstaking efforts!"
"I don't believe this now." The old Taoist looked at Zhuge Liang and said, "I think you are a smart child. I want to teach you to become a talent, so I can cure your dumb disease and accept you as an apprentice. A few years ago, you were smart and diligent, and Master I painstakingly taught you not to feel bitter; now you have changed from diligent to lazy, even if you are smart, it is in vain! Can I believe you if you say you live up to my painstaking efforts?"
"Master, every time I sleep well these days, my mind is dizzy." Zhuge Liang was afraid to tell the truth, so he was reprimanded by his master and told a lie.
The old Taoist said, "If the wind doesn't come, the tree won't move; if the boat does not shake, the water will not be muddy." With that said, he pointed to a tree in the courtyard that was entangled with kudzu vines for Zhuge Liang to see: "Do you think that tree is dead or not, and it doesn't grow?"
"Let the kudzu wrap too tightly!"
"Yes! Trees grow on mountains, with more stones and less soil, which is bitter enough. But it sticks down and its branches grow up, not afraid of heat or cold, and always grows bigger and bigger. But when kudzu vines are tightly entangled, it can't grow. This is called'trees are afraid of soft vines entangled '!"
A smart person is a little smart. Zhuge Liang couldn't fool his master and asked, "Master, do you know all this?"
The old Taoist said, "Near the water knows the nature of fish, and near the mountain knows the sound of birds. Looking at your expression and watching your actions, how can you not know what's on your mind?" After a pause, the old Taoist solemnly said in a low voice, "To tell you the truth, the woman you love is not human. She was originally a crane in the Heavenly Palace, but because she was greedy and stole the peaches of the Queen Mother, she was beaten down to the Heavenly Palace to suffer. When she came to the world, she turned into a beautiful woman, who was ignorant of learning and no skills, did not work hard, and only knew how to have fun. You only look at her beauty, but you don't know that it is just sleeping and eating. You love her, eat, drink and have fun, but you are also happy, but if you continue to be so stiff, you will achieve nothing for life! If you don't follow her wishes, you will still hurt you."
When Zhuge Liang heard this, he hurriedly asked, "Master, could this be true?"
The old Taoist said, "If you don't believe me, do as you please. Don't go here again in the future!"
"Master, I believe I will never communicate with her again in the future!"
"That's not enough. You have to burn her skin so that you can allay your doubts and never miss it."
"How to burn her painted skin, please teach me."
"That crane has a habit of showing up every night and flying to the Tianhe River to take a bath. At this time, you enter her room and burn the clothes she wears. The clothes were stolen from the palace, and once burned, you can't turn into a beautiful woman."
Zhuge Liang agreed to do as his master ordered. Before leaving, the old Taoist handed Zhuge Liang a dragon head crutch and said, "When the crane finds a fire in the nunnery, it will immediately fly down from the Tianhe River. When you burn her clothes, you will not rest with you. If you hurt you, use this crutch to fight, remember!"
That night Zhuge Liang quietly came to the nunnery, opened the door, and indeed saw that there were only clothes on the bed, and no one was there. She and he lit the fire and went to burn the clothes.
The crane was taking a bath in the Tianhe River, and suddenly felt a tremor in her heart, so she hurriedly looked down and found a fire in the nunnery and flew down "whoosh." Seeing that Zhuge Liang was burning her clothes, she pounced and pecked Zhuge Liang's eyes. Zhuge Liang was quick to see, picked up his crutches, and suddenly knocked the crane to the ground. He reached out and grabbed the tail of the crane. The crane desperately broke free, fluttered its wings, and flew again into the air. As a result, the feathers on the tail of the crane were grabbed by Zhuge Liang.
Since the crane had a bald tail, it was different from the cranes in the Heavenly Palace. He also knew that he would lose face and no longer bathe in the Heavenly River, nor did he dare to sneak into the Heavenly Palace to steal clothes that could be turned into beautiful women, so he stayed in the world forever and mixed into the white crane group.
Zhuge Liang took the crane feather to his master. The old Taoist said, "Remember this lesson! If you want to learn good skills and do a good job, you must not be obsessed with this erotic thing!" Zhuge Liang did not forget this lesson and saved the feathers on the crane's tail as a warning.
After this, Zhuge Liang became more diligent. Everything his master said and wrote in the book was learned and memorized, and he understood it in his heart, and it became his own. After another year, it was the day Zhuge Liang burned the beautiful woman's skin. The old Taoist smiled and said to Zhuge Liang, "Apprentice, you have been with me for nine years. You have read all the books that should be read, and you have heard everything I want to teach. As the saying goes, Master leads the door, and the practice is personal. You are eighteen years old, it is time to go out of the house and do something big!"
As soon as Zhuge Liang heard his master say that he was "full of teachers", he hurriedly pleaded, "Master, the more my apprentice learns, the more shallow my knowledge becomes, and I need to learn more skills from you!"
"The real skill can only be obtained through hard work. It is learned from books. It depends on the changes in the world and things, and it is only useful to change at any time and adapt to changes! For example, the lesson you learned from the crane is that you will no longer be fascinated by pornography in the future. This is a direct lesson. By extension, everything in the world should not be deceived by its appearance. You must be careful and understand its essence. This is my parting order! I am leaving today."
"Master, where are you going?" Zhuge Liang asked in surprise, "Where will I visit you in the future?"
"Traveling around the world, there is no orientation."
Immediately, Zhuge Liang burst into tears and said, "Master must leave, please accept the bow of your apprentice to thank you for cultivating great kindness!"
Zhuge Liang bowed, looked up and saw his master, and could no longer find him.
Before the old Taoist left, he left Zhuge Liang with one thing, the gossip clothes he often wore later.
Zhuge Liang missed his master and wore his master's gossip clothes on his body, treating him as if he were always by his side.
Zhuge Liang did not forget his master's teachings, and as a parting instruction, he deliberately made a fan of the feathers he carried around, held it in his hand, and warned himself to be cautious.