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Story 74: Pu Songling Attended the Banquet
Pu Songling Attended the Banquet
Author: Anonymous
After Pu Songling repeatedly failed the exam, he 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.
One day, I suddenly received an invitation from the prime minister with the words “Please eat half a piece of Lu”. Pu Songling hated this kind of invitations because the common people could only eat, drink and have fun when they were officials. So he said to the person who sent the invitation: “I am not in good health and cannot go. Please reply to the Prime Minister for understanding.” 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 good for others.” The prime minister has not forgotten his old friends since he became an official; secondly, you and the prime minister once studied together as classmates, no matter what, 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 for a banquet, we saw two maids carrying a basin of fish soup to the table. The prime minister said: “Please forgive me for my brother’s obedience to honesty and integrity since he joined the officialdom.
This is not a banquet, but I want to ask my dear brother to try fishing in troubled waters. Only by understanding this secret can one enter the world.” Pu Songling was very unhappy when he heard this. I believe that life should be lived in the mud without being stained. So I thought of a way to pay tribute to the prime minister one day.
A few days later, Pu Songling used the same method to entertain the prime minister. The prime minister went happily after receiving the invitation to “eat Banlu”. Seeing the dilapidated huts, I couldn’t help but feel a sense of pity.
I remember that my classmate at that time was far more knowledgeable than I was. He ended up in this situation because of his upright personality, dissatisfaction with the world and lack of money to manage examiners at all levels. Pu Songling refused to take any money he wanted to save. He only reminisced with the prime minister but did not mention the banquet.
The prime minister felt hungry and went outside to look at the sun from time to time, but there was still no movement of people sitting at the table until the sun turned west. The prime minister was so hungry that he couldn’t hold it in anymore and asked Pu Songling: “Brother, when are you going to have a banquet?”
Pu Songling replied casually: “You have already finished three meals a day and you have eaten half a meal, why do you still have a banquet?”
The prime minister suddenly realized what Lu was doing. The lower part is obviously the word “日”. I asked him to eat the upper part but he asked me to eat the lower part. The meaning is different. Isn’t it full of sun when I eat the lower part?
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.
