Pu Songling attended the banquet
Pu Songling repeatedly failed the exam and returned to his hometown of Pujiazhuang. In addition to teaching, he devoted all his worries and anger to "Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio" and never interacted with officialdom.
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One day, he suddenly received an invitation from the prime minister, which said: "Please eat half a meal." 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, Prime Minister." His wife heard that her husband did not go to the banquet and thought it was inappropriate. She said to Pu Songling: "This is not right. Well, firstly, he is the prime minister; secondly, you and the prime minister once studied together as classmates, and you have not forgotten your old friends when you became an official. No matter from which aspect, you should go." Pu Songling thought for a long time, and finally decided to go to the banquet.
When we arrived at the prime minister's house, the banquet began, and we saw two maids carrying a basin of fish soup to the table. The prime minister said: "Please forgive me. Since I entered the official position, I have always been honest and honest, and have not been involved in smoke and dust. This is not a banquet, but I just want to ask my dear brother to try how to fish in troubled waters. Only by understanding this mystery can we enter the world." Pu Songling Hearing this, he was very unhappy and thought that life should be lived in the mud without being stained. So I thought of a way to pay tribute to the prime minister in the future.
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 went happily. Seeing the dilapidated huts, I couldn't help but feel a sense of pity in my heart. I remember back then, when I was studying with my classmates, my brother's knowledge far surpassed mine several times. Liu Shizhen died in the end . It was only because of his upright temperament, dissatisfaction with the harsh world, and lack of money to manage the examiners at all levels that he ended up in this situation. Pu Songling wanted to get some silver for rescue, but Pu Songling refused to accept it. He only talked about old times with the prime minister, but didn't mention the banquet.
The prime minister felt hungry and went outside to look at the sun from time to time, but until the sun turned to the west, there was still no movement of people sitting at the table. The prime minister was so hungry that he couldn't hold it in any longer, so he asked Pu Songling: "Brother, when will we have a banquet?" Pu Songling replied casually: "Three meals a day have been completed, and you have eaten enough 'half Lu', why do you still have a banquet?" "The prime minister suddenly realized that the lower part of Lu was clearly the character "日". I asked him to eat the upper part, but he asked me to eat the lower part. This has a different meaning. If you eat it, isn’t it full of sun? Isn’t this clearly advising me to be a magistrate with the sun in his arms? Although the prime minister suffered from hunger for a day, he understood the principles of being an official.
In the invitation, "Please eat half a Lu", the prime minister used the "half a Lu" on it to ask Pu Songling to "try to fish in troubled waters. Only by understanding this mystery can you enter the world." Pu Songling, however, was still "clothed in mud but not stained", and cleverly used the "half Lu" below to advise his old friend to "be a bright official with the sun in his arms", allowing the prime minister to understand the principles of being an official. "Cleaning out of the mud but not staining, washing out the clear ripples without being evil" is easy to say, but difficult to actually do. An upright person like Pu Songling deserves our admiration.
If we can maintain the nobility and integrity of our inner world, even if we don't have a huge fortune, we are still rich people, because our hearts are calm, rich, peaceful and happy. We can sleep peacefully and live happily without worrying about it all day long.
Because of integrity, we win respect, win trust, and also win our own inner satisfaction and fulfillment.