Where will Zhuangzi go to when traveling?

In fact, this question was discussed privately as early as the first day when Meng Zhong, Meng Sui and Meng Hu saw Zhuangzi traveling alone.

At that time, Meng Hu thought it should be "Jingshan", which is the famous Jingshan in Jingbo.

In Jingbo, Jingshan should be the most famous natural creature, because it is not only the place where the Shang Tang alliance princes, but also in the middle and late Xia Dynasty, Jingshan was also the residence of the Chu people, so Jingshan is also called "Chu Qiu" - now there are many traces of Chu people living in that year, as well as abandoned sacrifices and temples, etc. on this mountain.

Because of this, as early as the reign of Duke Xiang of Song, when the Song State had a war between the State of Chu State and the State of Chu State had a feud, "recapturing the ancestral residence" was also a reason why the Chu State's nobles supported the war against Song.

In short, Jingshan has an extraordinary status in the minds of the people in the Jingbo area, as if it has a bit of fairy spirit.

But if you think about it carefully, Jingshan is located forty miles northeast of "C County", while Zhuangzi lives in seclusion on the banks of the Shuishi River between Xiayi and Jingbo. The two places are at least sixty or seventy miles apart. Not to mention Zhuangzi, who is now over 70 years old this year, even when the latter was young, he could not go back and forth in just one or two days.

In fact, as Meng Sui had guessed before, Zhuangzi was at most taking a walk nearby and taking a look, and he might not even be able to get out of the ten-mile range.

Just now, after walking along the water for less than two or three miles, Zhuangzi sat down on a stone near the water for a while, watching the rushing water flowing in Hanoi, thinking about something.

Seeing this, Meng Zhong stood by Zhuangzi like a disciple, not daring to speak out to disturb the latter's thoughts.

To be honest, this is indeed very boring, so Meng Zhong stood for a moment and found a stone and sat down - Zhuangzi wouldn't care anyway.

After a while, Zhuangzi suddenly took action. He first took out a pen from the cuff of his left hand, and then pinched the cuff of the left sleeve with his left hand, and used his left hand to write the left sleeve as a writing object, lifting the pen to write on the cuff.

Seeing this, Meng Zhong was very curious, so he walked over with his hands and held his breath and looked carefully.

Only then did he realize that there were actually many dense words written on the left sleeve of Zhuangzi's robe.

Meng Zhong secretly recited in his heart: There is a fish in the north, whose name is Kun. Kun is so big that it is not known how many thousands of miles it is; it turns into a bird, which is called Peng. Peng is so thousands of miles it is not known how many thousands of miles it is; it flies in anger, and its wings are like clouds hanging from the sky. This is a bird, and it will move to the south, and it will travel to the south...

Meng Zhong had never seen this article in the collection of Zhuangziju. It was obviously a work that Zhuangzi was writing.

This can be seen from Zhuangzi's frequent writing and frowning and thinking.

"I said that every time the Master goes on a trip, it seems that he has this soapy green robe..."

Suddenly, Meng Zhong suddenly realized.

Some time ago, he was confused when he was responsible for washing clothes for the people in the village. Although the village had changed a lot of clothes for him to wash, the soapy green robe he wore during his trip had never changed for three months. It turned out that there was such a mystery in it.

Since Zhuangzi's new work is only a few hundred words, Meng Zhong quickly finished reading it, so he inevitably fell into a situation of doing nothing again.

Anyway, I was idle, so Meng Zhongbing lay down on the river beach.

The weather in early September is actually late autumn, but because the sun is deep at this moment, the breeze doesn’t feel cool, but it feels very comfortable.

In addition, I studied "Heaven and Earth" with Meng Sui until late at night and got up early this morning to wash clothes. Therefore, Meng Zhong lay on the river beach under the sun, and felt sleepy and fell asleep unconsciously.

On the other hand, Zhuang Zhou had no thoughts as he wrote, so he put away his pen, stood up with a crutch, and prepared to walk forward, hoping to get insights and inspiration in nature.

Unexpectedly, when he stood up and took a look, he realized that Meng Zhong was actually lying on the river beach with his hands on his head.

"this……"

Even Zhuang Zhou couldn't help but be stunned.

After all, whether nearly twenty years ago or nearly twenty years later, most people were honored to be with him. At that time, no one of the followers around him was respectful and served his side.

However, this kid was fine, and he fell asleep in front of him.

Zhuang Zhou walked over quietly and gently touched Meng Zhong's waist with the end of the crutch, but the latter did not respond at all.

Well, I slept quite well.

What should I do?

Zhuang Zhou was also stumped.

Because according to Taoism's idea of ​​letting things go, Meng Zhong, the boy, is sleeping soundly in front of him at this moment, so he should still sleep with him - he deliberately emphasizes respecting teachers and respecting Taoism, which is practiced by Confucianism, but Taoism does not pay attention to this.

The relationship between Taoist master and disciple is like this: when you can get along, you will disperse if you don’t get along; today if you are willing to accept my thoughts, then you will be my disciple. tomorrow if you are unwilling to accept my thoughts, then you will no longer be my disciple.

In short, everything is to take its course, which is what Taoism advocates.

On the other hand, like the Confucian style, the younger generation must be respectful to the teacher. In fact, Zhuangzi was very disgusted and believed that this was a shackle that Confucian deliberately imprisoned the world - referring to red tape.

Now, like Meng Zhong, the most realistic and natural side is presented in front of him, which is actually worthy of appreciation.

Because it is true, it is not ‘hypocritical’.

But the problem is that Zhuangzi has no idea about his new work and is preparing to continue walking forward to find inspiration. He can't leave this kid here, right?

Wake him up?

Or not wake up?

Zhuang Zhou fell into thinking again.

Finally he made a decision: sit on the stone next to him and wait for Meng Zhong to wake up himself.

After about half an hour, Meng Zhongyou woke up, opened his mouth and yawned, but suddenly saw from the corner of his eyes that Zhuangzi had stopped writing his new work, but sat on the stone next to him and looked at him.

The old and the young look at each other.

"Teacher."

Meng Zhong was shocked and held back the yawn, and hurriedly stood up, with an embarrassed look on his face and explained with a embarrassed look: "Teacher, because I read "The World" until late at night last night..."

However, Zhuangzi didn't care about this at first, nodded casually, raised his hand and pointed forward, probably indicating that they were going to continue moving forward again.

"I'm really not angry?"

Meng Zhong followed behind in surprise, and took two steps from time to time, paying attention to Zhuangzi's expression.

But according to his observation, Zhuangzi really didn't take this matter to heart, which surprised him quite.

You should know that Meng Zhong's behavior just now, even if it were the elder Meng Jian, he would probably laugh and scold him and use a crutch to make a warning. However, Zhuangzi did not. Not only did the latter not scold him, he even did not even mean to wake him up. Isn't it said that Zhuangzi has a eccentric personality and is not easy to meet?

After that, Zhuangzi walked forward about two miles, then stopped again, and looked for a resting place near the river.

After sitting down, Zhuangzi took out a piece of cake the size of his palm from his cuff.

Seeing this, Meng Zhong was stunned for a moment. He suddenly realized that the items prepared in the bamboo basket in his hand included empty bamboo slips and pens and inkstones, but he had forgotten to bring the dry food for food.

What should I do?

At this time, Zhuangzi seemed to have noticed Meng Zhong's embarrassment, so he broke half of the cake in his hand and gave it to him.

The elder dared not refuse, Meng Zhong quickly took the cake with both hands and looked carefully and then.

This kind of cake is called "fried cake" or "fried cake", which means food that cooks the rice and mashs it into a cake-shaped food. [PS: Similar to glutinous rice, glutinous rice cake, glutinous rice balls, etc.]

Corresponding to the ingredient, there is also a kind of dry food called "cuibai", which is a food that is fried and mashed, and then pinched into a ball or block.

Powder and bait are both very common dry food in the present. Generally speaking, people eat this when they go out, and soldiers will also eat this when they are marching and fighting.

Even at Meng Zhong's house, when his mother Ge took the two brothers to the fields to do farm work, he would use these dry food to fill his stomach because he didn't have time to cook.

Since it is dry food, as the name suggests, it is a hard and dry food that is difficult to swallow. Therefore, when people go out, including Meng Zhong’s family, they often cook a pot of water, soak the powder or bait in boiling water before eating, or eat it with hot water and hot soup.

But where is hot water and hot soup nearby?

Meng Zhong looked around and finally fixed his eyes on the gourd hanging on Zhuangzi's crutch.

At this time, Zhuangzi had already untied the gourd from the crutch and handed it to Meng Zhong.

Of course, Meng Zhong guessed that the gourd must have water or soup, so he refused to let Zhuangzi drink first to show respect, but Zhuangzi was too stubborn, so he had to take the gourd and take a sip.

Well, the inside of the gourd is indeed water, and it has a little warmth.

So, the old and the young slowly finished half of the cake in their hands with the warm water in the gourd.

After eating half of each cake, Zhuangzi continued to lean on a crutch, staring at the swelling water and fell into deep thought. Sometimes he picked up his pen and wrote a few more inspirational words on his sleeve.

Meng Zhong was idle and wandered by the river.

He remembered that near this area, it seemed that he, Meng Sui and Meng Hu made fishing nets.

Yes, unlike Zhuangzi, who is over 70 years old, half a piece of cake cannot fill his stomach. Meng Zhong even believed that Zhuangzi might not be able to fill his stomach if he gave him half a piece of cake.

Sure enough, he walked forward about ten feet and Meng Zhong found the fish basket net they placed in a bush of water and grass.

I was lucky, there were four or five fish in the fish basket net, all of which were of size.

So Meng Zhong caught two of the big fish from the fish basket net and threw them on the stone on the river beach, knocking them to dizzy.

However, when he picked up the fish that was fainted, Zhuangzi had already walked up to him with a crutch, looked at the fish in Meng Zhong's hand, and then the fish basket net in the river. His eyes showed a stern look for the first time, he pursed his lips, and pointed his right hand at the fish basket net.

Meng Zhong was stunned for a moment, and then understood what Zhuangzi meant, and explained: "Teacher, this thing is not owned by others, but a boy, Meng Sui, Meng Hu and others set it up for fishing. The boy would never dare to invade other people's things."

Upon hearing this, the stern look in Zhuangzi's eyes suddenly faded away. After nodding and expressing his apology to Meng Zhong, he looked at the fish basket net in the river with a cane in a daze, looking at the three remaining fish that were struggling and running around in the net, and his eyes were filled with deep thought.

After a while, Meng Zhong was about to go to the forest not far away to find some firewood to grill fish, but suddenly he heard a thud from behind, as if something heavy fell into the water.

“Hmm?”

He subconsciously looked back and was so scared that he almost lost his soul.

Because he was shocked to see that the village, who was standing on the shore just now, fell into the river for some reason. At this moment, he was pulling the fish basket net to prevent himself from being washed away by the water.

"Damn!"
Chapter completed!