Once upon a time, there was famous musician in ancient China named Ya. Ya was very clever since he was little. He was also very lucky that he got a good teacher called Cheng.

Ya followed him for three years, and became a good musician. But he still worried his art level, he want to go higher and higher. Teacher Cheng told Ya that he had already given everything to him. If Ya wanted to learn more , Teacher Cheng would introduce another teacher who might be good to Ya. Ya said it’s OK.

They prepared enough food and went to East Sea by boat. When the boat reached an island called PengLai Mountain, Teacher Cheng said: “Ya, you wait here , and I will go to pick up the master.” Then teacher Cheng went away..

Ya waited and waited and waited for Teacher Cheng’s showing up. For many days Ya stayed at the island by himself. He looked at the sea which sea water ups and downs like mountains, and he looked at the fores which is very quiet and birds singing. At this moment Ya felt a special music tone coming out from his heart. Soon he understood that this situation given by Teacher Cheng which helped him to get better understanding of music in the nature world..

Ya stayed alone, the sea was his friends and the birds were his company.. His feelings changed naturally and greatly. He almost got to the heart of the art. He understood that only at this point one could write the master music tone. Ya became a famous musician not long after that, but only few could understand his music.

Ya was appointed as music officer by the King of China in charge of collecting music tones everywhere specially in the middle of China, where one day he and his follower went by boat. During the trip they met a big storm, and they saw the water up and down and big black cloud over their head. Because the bad weather they had to find a place near the river waiting the good weather coming out.

The storm did not stop until night. Ya came out from the boat cabinet. He looked at the moon staying in the beautiful clear sky, and its shadow in the water, and the birds birding in the quiet night. What he saw gave him a good feeling to play a song. He grabbed his instrument out of the cabinet and played in front of the sky and the sea.. Unfortunately one string broke even before he finished the first part. At this point his follower and boatman waked up suddenly because they found a stranger standing on the boat listening.

The boatman cried out: “ Who is standing here? Why you got the boat without permission?”

The woodman answered: “I was little late by cutting woods, and also because of the heavy storm. I would rather go home when I heard the playing, so I got the boat and listened.”

The follower answered with a cold smile: “A woodman could understand music?”

The woodman statically: “If no listeners in these wild forest mountains, why someone played here?”

“If you understand music, could you tell me what music I was playing?” Ya found this woodman very strange, didn’t look like normal people.

“What you played just now is your real feeling coming from your experience before. You must have a sad feeling before. Your sad feeling did not like the beautiful moonlight and the quiet sea,, so one of your strings broken suddenly.” The woodman answered.

Ya thought the woodman was right: “Come and have a drink.” Ya chatted with the woodman: “It looked that you know something about music, but I don’t think you understand the theory of music.”

The woodman thought that Ya looked down upon him: “Please ask whatever you want to know about music.”

Ya asked and the woodman answered. Ya asked and the woodman answered one by one. Then the woodman said: “ Now you can start playing , and I can tell you what the play looks like.” This time Ya played with real deep feelings. The woodman said : “ this looks like mountains ,this looks like river , this looks like a storm, this looks like a young lady.” At the end Ya found that the woodman understood his music best. The woodman also found the player was a real master at the moment, so he gave Ya a lot of wood pieces on which many music tones were written .

The second morning they had to say goodbye to each other with tears and they promised each other the same day next year they would meet here exactly the same place.

Ya never broke his word and he came back the next year. Instead finding the woodman, what come to his eye was the woodman’s tomb. At this moment Ya heart looked like broken, and said that you are the only one who understand my music in my whole life, the God is not right , the God is not right .

Ya played for the last time in front of the woodman’s tomb. As soon as he finished, he smashed his instrument and never played again.

Ya died one year later, and the music “mountain and river” past generations by generations.

07/02/2008

日期：2008-7-13 12:47:01

《老不炒楼，少不炒网》

潘涌

再次人生感叹，上网两年有余，不知不觉成了知名写手。过去说人怕出名猪怕壮，现在看来这句话讲得不对，应该是人要出名猪要壮。人一出名，行为受人监督，思路受人点拨，写文章有人帮你挑错别字，更难得的是名人也要向你靠拢握手。这个星期，生产黑鹰的美国西科斯基公司派要员送来公司体恤衫和记录黑鹰直升机在陆航最初的使用岁月珍贵资料，我也应邀出席康州的七七级欢迎台湾神探李昌玉博士的午餐会。这次汶川大地震，出了朱坚强，那是壮猪的骄傲，还要青史留名，因为谁都明白，人和动物都有一死。