Hello and welcome to chinese folktales.
This is bebe, as i mentioned last time.
Today i'm gonna talk about a foolish old man that has been honored in chinese culture for generations.
What did this 90 year old man do that's so admirable?
Well, he's quite a character, all right.
So this healthy old man of 90 years of age was called Yu Gong, or literally the foolish man.
And you will understand why he got that name by the end of the story.
The old man lived on a farm and had two huge mountains right in front of his house.
One was called Taihang Mountain, and the other was called Wangwu Mountain.
By today's standard, this was a perfect spot for some hidden luxury resort.
But back then, it was as backward as it got, completely cut off from the rest of the world.
No airplanes, no bullet trains, no buses. only your legs and probably your donkey.
The old man Yu Gong was so sick of being so isolated and from having to go around these mountains to get to anywhere.
Thinking of his children and grandchildren, the old man just couldn't take it any longer.
I've been trapped here all my life.
I can't let that happen to my children and my grandchildren.
He made up his mind to do something about it.
One day, Yu Gong called a family meeting.
He said to his big family, Let's work together to remove these two mountains.
How about that?
Yeah, how about that?
I can see his wife rolling her eyes.
All these decades putting up with this silly old man and his silly new ideas.
She asked him, you are 90 years old and you want to move these mountains?
Besides, where will you put whatever that you're trying to remove?
Just where?
Two very good points.
The younger members of the family, however, are excited about this new project.
Life can get a bit boring and stale when you are trapped by mountains.
They chipped in and said, That's no problem.
We can all help and move the dirt and rocks to Bo Hai Sea.
The meeting lasted till late into the night.
An agreement was finally reached.
Early next morning, Yu Gong picked three of his strongest sons and grandsons and went to the mountains.
They started chipping away, one basket of rocks at a time.
Some kids from the neighborhood also came to help.
The adults, I assume, were busy gossiping and asking themselves just why.
The intensive bodybuilding work went on from winter to the next summer.
One day, another old man from the neighboring village called Zhi Sou, or literally wise old man, heard of what Yu Gong was doing.
Information traveled a bit slower those days.
Of course, the wise old man had to come over to point out the foolishness of the foolish old man.
He wagged his bony finger at Yu Gong and said, Just how foolish can you get?
How many years have you got left?
You can't even remove the grass here, and you have to waste your time removing the mountains?
Stupid is as stupid as.
This is what humble Yu Gong would have said if he had watched Forrest Gump.
But he was way too busy for that.
He's got mountains to remove.
This instead was what Yu Gong said to the wise old man.
See that kid over there?
Even he came over to help.
I might not have long to live.
But I have sons, and my sons have sons, and they will keep having sons.
The mountains are not getting any taller, so if we just continue, you do the math.
Seeing that it was pointless to argue, the wise old man shook his head and walked away.
Why waste your breath on the foolish?
So the digging went on.
It would have gone on like this till the day of Yu Gong's death.
But someone else also heard about it, and he couldn't sit still anymore.
It was the mountain god.
Oh gee, this is a direct assault on my authority here.
I can't be a god if I've got no mountains.
The mountain god got on the next express cloud and reported this affront of immortal power to the Lord of Heaven.
If the mountain god could see into the future, he would have kept his mouth shut.
In an interesting twist of events, the Lord of Heaven was touched by the perseverance of Yu Gong and his family.
I mean, who wouldn't be moved by Forrest Gump, right?
If only all my gods and deities worked half as hard, the Lord of Heaven must have thought.
I must help them.
Poor, weak mortals, said the Lord of Heaven to the dismay and regret of the mountain god.
He ordered the two sons of God of Strength to remove those mountains immediately.
Just carry it away on their backs.
They put one to the east and one to the south.
Voila!
Plain views for thousands of miles for the Yu Gong family, just like that, overnight.
Yu Gong and Kua Fu.
The giant might not have been the smartest man, but their dogged spirit touched generations of the Chinese people.
After all, we've all got our own goals to chase and mountains to remove.
We tell this story to our kids because we want them to know that if you're unsatisfied with what you've got, you must change it for the better with your own two hands.
We've always been slight in face of nature.
Even today, with the help of robots and gadgets of all sorts.
What's different in real life is that there are no miracles.
We've just got to keep digging and shoving.
Speaking of miracles, we've mentioned some immortal figures in today's story.
The mountain god might have lost his job, but what other celestial figures are there in chinese mythology, and what are their responsibilities?
Well, that's a very interesting topic.
And let's save it for our next episode.
Hope to see you then.
Bye for now.
Special thanks go out to Sanlian Zhongdu for their help in creating the content for this show.
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