ExclusiveTraditional Chinese Tales：The Miraculous “Stubborn Liu”

The Miraculous Stubborn Liu During the Qing Dynasty, there was a man whose last name was Liu. No one knew where he was from or his age, but everyone knew that once he made up his mind about something, he would never give it up easily. Hence, everyone called him Liu Juezi, which means Stubborn Liu. There was also an old man with the last name of Wen in his 80s. One day old Wen met Liu. Liu smiled and said, Little Wen, can you now honor your old promise of presenting a Taoist robe to me? Old Wen was really astonished. The next day, old Wen diligently made a Taoist robe and respectfully presented it to Liu. Some people were surprised, wondering why he did so. Old Wen explained, When I was 15 years old, I once attended a dinner party with my father and his friends. Liu was there too. Once seeing me, Liu said, This boy will live a long life. I jokingly replied, If I live over 80 years old, I will present you a Taoist robe as a gift. Now as I recall this incident, it feels like just yesterday. Liu's look has never changed. People did the calculation and realized that Liu must be close to 100 years old. Hence, people speculated that Liu might be a reclusive Taoist master. General Wang, in Tongzhou, recruited Liu as his special guest. One time the general had an urgent official document to send to Jinmen, but it was already dark. Liu volunteered to take on the task. Early next morning, Liu returned with a reply from Jinmen. The distance from Tongzhou to Jinmen was over 100 kilometers. But Liu made a round trip in just one night. It was truly amazing. Liu and his friends once visited the West Mountain in Beijing. During the trip, everyone became hungry. Suddenly, Liu magically took out a big pot. He then picked up some stones, put them in the pot together with spring water, and started cooking after firing some dry wood. After a while, he opened the pot lid and announced the meal was cooked. He scooped up the stones and distributed them to everyone. And they tasted just like yams. One person secretly kept a stone in his pocket, hoping to study it carefully later at home. But once he got home, it turned back into a regular hard, inedible stone. One day, Liu suddenly disappeared and no one ever saw him again. However, people believed that he had ascended and become an immortal. From this story, we could see that there are indeed spiritual masters in the mundane world. They might be right beside us, appearing no different from anyone else. As the ancient saying goes, the great hermit hides in the city, the less great hermit hides in the wilderness. This is truly thought-provoking.