Examination was a summer morning in Shaanxi Province. The room was small and simple, as befits a student of the Way. The sunlight filtering through the bamboo blinds, flooding the room with its golden rays. The Young Chang could hear the rustle of leaves on the trees, while birds of the forest were called and responded to their appeals in weaving a sweet and lively music.
The boy rose from his mat, like every morning he would practice his Chi Gong, would have applied to work in the fields, after which the waiting hours of grueling physical conditioning. A half day would have practiced the Tao Lu, while the afternoon was traditionally used in the study of the classics of Confucius. In the evening, finally, have struggled with their determination to train Master and kindness, essential characteristics for being a man.
The wooden door opened suddenly while he was absorbed in these thoughts. He saw the master Pei Wei motionless in the doorway, dressed in simple white linen pants and a black shirt, also flax.
"Come, son," he said.
They sat in the clearing in front of the little hut, Pei Wei's eyes had lost none of his resolve, but he seemed to discern a note of sweetness that he had not found a time beyond childhood.
"Son, are more than ten years that I have you under my protection, it is time that you go, you're addressing the world, you are a woman and a job fair. I've been allowed to learn Wu Shu, the I Ching and the Classics, I gave you a roof and I gave you to eat your work. But now it's time you fulfilled your mistakes. "
" Sifu ... I do not ... "
" Who knows does not speak, who speaks does not know. A test that awaits you can no longer procrastinate. "
The boy showed the master all the techniques he had learned, expressing the full force of the Tiger dell'Airone and elegance, speed and flexibility of the Snake Crane. She showed him the deceptive ploys of the Mantis, and the unpredictable movements of the monkey.
While practicing the Tao Lu his mind went to the hexagrams sixty-four and the five elements, he was fire, metal, wood, earth, water, breathing in the cycle of life, inextricably linked to Life.
After that it was the demonstration, he noticed a tear on the beard of Pei Wei. He said: "Sifu, I may disappoint your expectations?"
The teacher started to speak and said, "Chang, now you want to deprive a wolf fangs, kill a tiger with a slender bamboo, you know grab a snake while launching his attack poisonous, avoid an acorn falling from a tree without noise, you can walk silently as a panther and disarm a gang of robbers without turning off the light in their eyes. But the Wu Shu is not only that. The Wu Shu is man's attempt to dominate the randomness of combat, to give the order on chaos, to infuse logic nell'imprevedibilità. This is no different from the I Ching, the maximum of Confucius, from mathematics or from 'engineering, agriculture and animal husbandry. This is why you see a tear on my beard. They do not say maybe:
A sunny day can quickly turn into an echoing of thunder and lightning storm, a raging storm can suddenly give way to a clear moonlit night? "
The boy let the Master's words fall to the bottom of his soul, then gazed gravely and calmly, as we contemplate a great treasure that is also a great power. Then he broke the silence and said
"Forgive my stubbornness, Sifu, but Lao Tzu also said:
Time can be fickle, but the sky remains the same. The essence of the human mind should work the same way. "
" Good point, but it was also said, knowledge is more
experience. Now get your things and go, that I no longer have to worry about your life. "
"So I passed the master?"
the stern eyes of Pei Wei had a flash, the right corner of his mouth pursed in a smile, then began to laugh hard, slapping her thighs with the palms of your hands.
When he had recovered he said: "My dear Cheng, see the road beyond the forest? E 'there, which starts on your exam."
