Wuyi

Wuyi

Wuyi is a short story written in classical Chinese by Pu Songling, a novelist in Qing Dynasty. It mainly tells the stories of the immortals in Wuyi Mountain, showing the ancient people's strong curiosity and thirst for knowledge about nature and the ancient people's hard work under the oppression of officials.

original text

Wuyi Mountain has thousands of walls, people pick up pieces of aloes jade. When the prefect heard about it, he supervised hundreds of people to build a cloud ladder and built the top to catch the difference. It was only three years before it was completed. When the prefect reached the top of the mountain, he saw that his big foot was stretched down and his thumb was thicker than his pestle. He said loudly, "if you don't go down, you will fall!" He was shocked and fell ill. When they arrive at the ground, the wood will decay and fall.

notes

Wuyishan Mountain: in the southwest of Wuyishan City, Fujian Province, it is said that there was a Wuyi King living in this mountain in the Han Dynasty, so it was named. Aquilaria: the name of fragrant wood. Its wood and resin can be used as perfume. Because it can sink into water, it is also called chenshuixiang. cloud ladder: a kind of movable high ladder placed on the underframe; it was often used as a tool to ride the city in ancient times.

translation

There is a cliff in Wuyi Mountain, which is 1000 feet high. People often pick up pieces of agaric jade under the cliff. After hearing this, the prefect ordered hundreds of people to build a cloud ladder to climb to the top of the cliff to see what was strange. It took three years to build the ladder. As soon as he got to the top of the mountain, he suddenly saw a big foot stretching down. His thumb was thicker than the stick. A big shout way: "don't go down, kick you down!" The prefect was so surprised that he got down quickly. As soon as he stepped on the ground, the ladder was broken like rotten wood, and there was no trace of it.

About the author

Pu Songling (1640-1715) was an outstanding writer in the Qing Dynasty. He was named Liuxian, Jianchen and Liuquan Jushi. He was born in Zichuan, Shandong Province. Pu Songling was keen on fame all his life and devoted himself to the imperial examination. However, except that he was 19 years old and took the first place in the county, the government and the Taoism examinations in succession, and was a supplement to his doctoral students, he suffered many setbacks and failed to succeed. He had been teaching and taking exams for 40 years. At the age of 71, he was able to give tribute to a year-old student. Four years later, he died. The bumpy experience in his life made Pu Songling have a certain understanding of the political darkness and the drawbacks of the imperial examination at that time. The poverty of life made him have a certain understanding of the life and thoughts of the working people. Therefore, he wrote a lot of works with his own personal feelings. In addition to Liaozhaizhiyi, there are also liaozhaiwenji and Shiji.