My Daoist Life Chapter 18

Who would have thought that even in such a small fish pond, there would be so many fish, and moreover, each fish weighed about four-five jin.

“It is really too strange. In such a small fish pond there are so many fish unexpectedly. Moreover, each fish is so big. Ordinarily, one doesn’t get to see something like this, right?”

“Yang Yang cuts fish gra.s.s to feed the fish everyday, and also throws all kinds of things in the fish pond while feeding, you haven’t seen the hardships he goes through. Doesn’t matter if the sun is bearing down, or if rain is pouring, this child will go out to cut gra.s.s for the fish no matter what. Amongst the village adults, how many of them would be able to suffer hardships to the same degree as Yang Yang. Having come to know about it, are you all still jealous of the fish raised by him?”

“Precisely so. Yang Yang, this child is so young but knows how to manage the house.”

The villagers commented one after another, listening to them I felt quite proud. Grandpa was even more cheerful as he chuckled, while he took several packages of tobacco that had been given to him by villagers for the new year’s celebration.

This fish were sold for several hundred yuan. After this, Grandpa and I need not worry about the expenses for the coming year.

I couldn’t help much with the catching of fish, so I could only sit down at the corner and watch. Watch as the water slowly emptied, from within the water the fish were revealed. Seeing the catch, it seems the investment had really paid off. This was the will of the heavens which greatly rewards those who work hard. Apparently, I had come to a realization. The primordial qi in the world seemed to have become a soup that I was immersed in. I received the harvest of the favor of the heavens, but paid out the familial love of a mother and father. The affairs of time were as inevitable as the sun and moon, and could never be perfect. As I continued thinking, my mind suddenly became brightly illuminated. A strand of iridescent bright light entered my spirit altar. Countless strands of primordial qi integrated into my Dantian. The dense fog within my dantian slowly turned into the mouth of a spring. Spiritual energy condensed into a liquid drop. The fog within my dantian had unexpectedly condensed into a very small drop of primordial liquid. However, it was just another starting point for me.

It was only later that I came to know that from this moment onwards, I had truly entered the realm of Dao cultivation, and on this day, I had succeeded in establishing my foundation. This so-called Foundation establishment, lays down the foundation for cultivation. The establishment of the foundation implies that a person has truly become a Daoist. Unfortunately, I had neither a guide nor a teacher. I hadn’t walked a step, as making progress was very difficult at each step, instead I was very lucky. In this era, in the world, there were not a lot of people who were capable of becoming Daoists like me. This was my luck. However, I could no longer be the same as other children, I was treated coldly by my parents. The heavens weren’t perfect to begin with, I lost, but also gained.

Reaching this point, deep in my heart, I seemingly became even calmer. Earlier, no matter how much I tried to conceal it, within the depths of my heart I would always blame my parents. However, within this moment, I seemed to have become serene.

Fortunately, everybody’s attention was on the incessantly jumping fish, and no one noticed my state at this moment. At an unknown point of time, heavy snow began to coalesce in the sky, and it seemed as if the snowflakes had gained eyes. Not even a single flake fell on me. Every time one came close to me, it would be very rapidly swayed away in mid-air.

I seemed to have entered a state that was a mystery of mysteries, making me forget all other matters completely. However, there was somewhat of a difference between this state, and the state which I had entered the first time. Previously, once I entered this state, my mind would be completely immersed within this state of mine, completely oblivious to the outside world’s matters. However, this time, I remained very clear and conscious, I could clearly look at all the people, and bizarrely enough, as if I were flying in the skies, looking down at the earth from the skies, I was able to clearly see all the various kinds of feelings and expressions of the villagers of Ba Jiao village through my eyes. Each and every word spoken by them, I was able to clearly hear it through my ears.
[TLNote: If you find that “mystery of mysteries” jarring or oddly amusing, you might want to check out this link: http://www.taoism.net/ttc/chapters/chap01.htm. Actually, Lao Zi, has referred to the great mysteries of the Tao(Dao) as Mysteries within Mysteries, and having read Dao De Jing, I couldn’t help but seek out the reference]

I could hear Thirteenth Uncle speaking: “This fish is really different. The strength is really great. It has the capabilities of a genuine wild fish. Those fish that are fed with feed, are absolutely incapable of comparison to it. These fish are so good, they can only be found in Yang Yang’s fish pond. The fish are being sold, while priced so cheaply, everybody will benefit greatly. I will wait to buy a few. Bring it back and keep it in a water jar and slowly relish it. Eating a good fish fresh is worthwhile, smoked fish doesn’t have that kind of a taste.

“Bring the biggest fish for me, I want it!”

The villagers seemed to all of a sudden have discovered the benefits of these fish, everybody was scrambling to buy them. The selling price of these fish was not at all high. After all, these were all people from our own village. If the price was set too high, then it would lead to much back-b.i.t.c.hing. Such good fish, were being sold at the same price as that of ordinary pond fish, they didn’t have any reason not to rush to buy, also fortunately a few days before the pond was to be emptied, Grandpa spread around the news. A lot of people were waiting for my house’s pond to be emptied. Unfortunately, my Grandpa didn’t know how many fish the pond actually contained. In the village, some people, who were worried that they wouldn’t be able to buy a fish, had already bought some in advance. These people today were left with no time for regrets.

“If I had known that there were so many fish in this pond, why would I have bought so many fish before. If such kinds of fish are turned into dried fish, they would be somewhat even more delicious to eat.” Eldest Grandpa felt it was too late for regrets.

“Eldest Brother, you don’t need to sigh. Consider this fish, as Yang Yang’s show of filial piety for you, you take this back home and make dried fish, it won’t be an issue how long you eat.” Grandpa grabbed a four-five jin carp from the big cask and handed it over to Eldest Grandpa.

“Won’t do, won’t do. How could I consider myself the Eldest Grandfather, if I eat the fish raised by my Grandson for free, when YangYang had to wake up early morning everyday and muck about in the darkness for it. These fish are already being sold at such a cheap price, everybody has already taken Yang Yang’s face. This money necessarily needs to be given. You give this money to Yang Yang to buy some more clothes for himself. Yang Yang, this child, has been wronged. If I were to come across ZhengYou (Huang ZhengYou= Huang JingYang’s father), then I shall properly scold him without a pause. Such a well-behaved obedient kid, but those parents don’t even show any concern in the slightest, what kind of parents can be they be considered to be? Even wild beasts look after their children, I want to ask ZhengYou where exactly his conscience went?”

“That’s right, everyone said that YangYang has bad luck, and is a messenger of death. However, from that time onwards, when looking at the things Yang Yang has accomplished, who amongst the village children can compare to him? If he brings misfortune, then who would dare to claim that they bring fortune? It needs to be said, that feudalistic superst.i.tion can really be the end of a human being. Yang Yang, this intelligent child, was precisely harmed by this feudalistic superst.i.tion.” Thirteenth Uncle came to my aid and defended me.

The villagers’ opinion towards me slowly began to change. The performance I had put out, had already exceeded their imagination. Their views naturally and gradually changed, but unfortunately, I could only change the people in my village. My Papa and Mama still didn’t care that they left me behind in this mountain village.

The mysterious state hadn’t managed to last long, I had already sobered up. Interestingly enough, although I had managed to extricate myself from that condition, the primordial qi was still circulating in a loop within my meridians, and my dantian seemed to have become the main force for moving the primordial qi.

I suddenly felt an impulse, as I performed the《Xing Yi Quan Five Fists》straight up in an empty area. Every gesture and every motion, conformed to the Fist Intent.

Just performing one form, immediately caught the attention of the villagers.

“Quickly look, Yang Yang is doing shadowboxing!”

“What kind of boxing is this? I have never seen anything like this before. Could it be that Yang Yang is just randomly punching?”

“It’s possible. I also think that Yang Yang is just acting randomly.”

“Wrong. This boxing routine is so well practiced, it definitely cannot come out of randomly punching. I can see that this set of punches of Yang Yang is even more refined compared to that boxing master Xin Hua who came to our village many years ago to accept disciples.

“En. It’s not bad. However, from where did Yang Yang learn Chinese boxing at such a young age?”

My Grandpa said proudly: “From where would what kind of a master come. He has actually studied from a book purchased from a street stall. As for what its name was, I don’t remember.”

“So to speak, Yang Yang does indeed have natural talent.”

Although Teacher Lin had gone away, I didn’t lag behind in my everyday calligraphy practice. Earlier, I had already learned to write three of the seal script characters “天” (Sky),“地” (Earth) and “雷” (Thunder), and bring out the charm in them while writing. At this time, after succeeding in establishing my Foundation, when I again set about to write seal script characters, I discovered that impressively enough, I was able to write “风” (Wind), “山” (Mountain), “泽” (Swamp), “水” (Water) and “火” (Fire), all in one breath. Even I found it somewhat hard to believe. Going from the earlier ‘Qi Sensing’ stage, to the Initial stage of Foundation Establishment, was definitely a huge leap. Having successfully crossed this threshold, I had already reached a higher level. If the Qi Sensing stage could be explained as looking up to a mountain, then at present, the view was just like looking at flat plains.

The moment the seal script character for “风” (Wind) was written, an inexplicable whirlwind suddenly began blowing in the room, while the 风 character that I had written kept spiralling in the air incessantly. I quickly jumped in an attempt to grab the “风” character, but who would have thought that this jump would lead me to directly crashing my head into the house’s ceiling beam. Fortunately, I hadn’t gone one hundred percent in terms of effort, the beam just issued a loud noise, and the roof trembled for a bit. And after a long time calmed down.

Unexpectedly, I suddenly had so much strength, and I hadn’t even noticed it till now.

I raised my head in annoyance only to see the “风” floating in the air just as before.

I didn’t dare to again attempt to jump after that piece of paper. At the moment, my control of my strength was not good. Therefore, I must slowly adapt to this sudden increase in power.

I shifted a stool over, and while standing on top of it, I took down that piece of paper with 风 written on it. This matter was really weird. I couldn’t understand why some things happened. Oddly enough, now matter how I wrote the simplified chinese characters, the charm of the seal script characters never emerged. What kind of secret did the seal script actually hide within it? I didn’t think about it too much. Because I still hadn’t reached the age where any matter must be seen through to the end.

During the new year’s time, quite frequently because of hosting joyous occasions, the county television stations would broadcast tv dramas on request. Performing plays set up on platforms like the earlier times. Naturally they would have some fame. The television station in the County would frequently put up Hong Kong and Taiwan Movies and TV Soaps. Hong Kong’s horror pieces were unexpectedly popular, and everybody also liked watching them. Some people on account of a happy occasion, would go to the TV Station to request horror pieces. This kind of a thing could also be said to be quite amusing.