Where does Zhuangzi go on a trip?

In fact, this question had been discussed privately as early as the first day when Meng Zhong, Meng Sui, and Meng Hu saw Zhuangzi traveling alone.

At that time, Menghu thought that it should be "Jingshan", that is, the Jingshan that Jingbo is famous for.

In the territory of Jingbo, Jingshan should be the most famous natural creation, because it is not only the location of the princes of the Shang Tang Alliance, and as early as the middle and late Xia Dynasty, Jingshan was inhabited by the Chu people, so Jingshan is also called "Chu Qiu" - now this mountain still retains many traces of the Chu people's residence, as well as abandoned sacrificial temples and so on.

Because of this, as early as the reign of Xianggong of the Song Dynasty, when the Song State and the Chu State fought against each other and a war broke out, "reclaiming the ancestral residence" was also used as a reason for the Chu nobles to support the war against the Song Dynasty.

All in all, Jingshan has an extraordinary status in the minds of the people in the Jingbo area, as if it has a bit of fairy spirit.

But if you think about it carefully, Jingshan is located forty miles northeast of "County C", and Zhuangzi lives in seclusion on the bank of the Hushui River between Xiayi and Jingbo, and the distance between the two places is at least sixty or seventy miles.

In fact, just as Meng Sui had guessed before, Zhuangzi was at most just taking a walk and taking a look in the vicinity, and he might not even be able to go out within ten miles.

No, after walking less than two or three miles along the muddy water, Zhuangzi sat down on a stone near the muddy water, watched the rushing water in the river, and thought thoughtfully.

Seeing this, Meng Zhong stood beside Zhuangzi like a disciple, not daring to open his mouth so as not to disturb the latter's thoughts.

To be honest, it was really boring, so Meng Zhong stood for a moment, then found a stone and sat down—Zhuangzi wouldn't care anyway.

I don't know how long later, Zhuangzi suddenly moved, only to see that he first took out a pen from the cuff of his left hand, and then pinched the cuff of his left sleeve with his left hand.

Seeing this, Meng Zhong was very curious, so he walked over lightly, holding his breath and taking a closer look.

Only then did he realize that on the left sleeve of Zhuangzi's robe, there were actually many dense words written on it.

Meng Zhong secretly recited in his heart: There is a fish in the North Underworld, and its name is Kun. The Kun is so big that I don't know how many thousands of miles it is; Turned into a bird, its name is Peng. Peng's back, I don't know how many thousands of miles it is; Flying in anger, its wings are like clouds hanging from the sky. It is a bird, and the sea will migrate to the south......

This article, which Meng Zhong had never seen in the treasury of Zhuangzi's house, was clearly a work that Zhuangzi was compiling.

This can be seen from Zhuangzi's pause from time to time, frowning and thinking.

"I said that every time the master travels, it seems to be this soapy robe......

Suddenly, Meng Zhong suddenly realized.

Some time ago, he was confused when he was responsible for washing the clothes of the people in the village, obviously Zhuangzi changed a lot of clothes for him to wash, but only the soapy blue robe he wore when he traveled never changed in three months, it turned out that there was such a mystery in it.

Since Zhuangzi's new book is still only a few hundred words, Meng Zhong read it quickly, so it is inevitable that he will fall into a situation of idleness again.

Anyway, there was nothing to do, so Meng Zhong lay down on the river beach.

The weather at the beginning of September is actually close to late autumn, but because the sun is high and deep at the moment, the breeze does not feel cool, but feels very comfortable.

In addition, I studied the "Heaven and Earth Chapter" with Meng Sui until late at night last night, and got up early this morning to wash and dry clothes, so Meng Zhong lay on the river beach in the sun, and suddenly felt sleepy in his heart, and fell asleep unconsciously.

On Zhuang Zhou's side, he had no thoughts when he was writing, so he put away his pen and stood up on crutches, ready to walk further, hoping to get insights and inspiration in nature.

Unexpectedly, when he stood up and took a look, he realized that Meng Zhong was lying on the river beach with his head on his hands and sleeping soundly.

"This ......"

Even if it was Zhuang Zhou, he couldn't help but be stunned.

After all, whether it was nearly twenty years ago or nearly twenty years later, ordinary people were honored to be by his side, and at that time, the entourage around him Zhuang Zhou was not respectful and serving.

However, this kid was fortunate to fall asleep in front of him.

Zhuang Zhou walked over silently and gently touched Meng Zhong's waist a few times with the end of his crutches, but the latter did not respond.

Hmm, I slept soundly.

How good is that?

Zhuang Zhou was also stumped.

Because according to the Taoist idea of going with the flow, Meng Zhong, the kid, is sleeping in front of him at the moment, then he should still be sleeping - deliberately pay attention to respecting teachers and respecting the Tao, which is what Confucianism pursues, but Taoism does not pay attention to this set.

The relationship between Taoist master and apprentice is like this: if you can get there, you will be dissolved; If you are willing to accept my thoughts today, then you will be my disciple, and tomorrow if you are not willing to accept my thoughts, then you will no longer be my disciples.

In short, everything should be done with the flow, which is the Taoist proposition.

On the other hand, like Confucianism, the juniors must be respectful and respectful at the side of the teacher, but in fact, Zhuangzi is very disgusted, thinking that this is a kind of shackles that Confucianism deliberately imprisons the world - referring to red tape.

And now, like Meng Zhong, showing the most real and natural side in front of him, in fact, this is worthy of appreciation.

Because it's true, it's not 'hypocritical'.

But the problem is that Zhuangzi has no idea for a new work, and is about to continue to walk forward to find inspiration, so he can't leave this kid here, right?

Wake him up?

Still not wake-up?

Zhuang Zhou fell into thought again.

In the end, he made a decision: sit on the stone next to him and wait for Meng Zhong to wake up by himself.

After about half an hour, Meng Zhong woke up quietly, opened his mouth and yawned, but out of the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of Zhuangzi not knowing when he no longer wrote his new work, but sat on a stone next to him and looked at him.

One old and one young look at each other.

"Master."

Meng Zhong was shocked to hold back the yawn, and hurriedly stood up, with an embarrassed face, and explained with a sneering face: "Master, the boy is ...... because he read the "Heaven and Earth Chapter" late at night last night."

However, Zhuangzi didn't care about this in the first place, nodded casually, and raised his finger forward, probably indicating that they were going to move forward again.

"Really not angry?"

Meng Zhong followed behind him in surprise, taking two steps from time to time, paying attention to Zhuangzi's expression.

But according to his observations, Zhuangzi really didn't seem to take this matter to heart, which surprised him.

You must know that his behavior was different, even if he was recommended by an elder, I am afraid that he would laugh and scold him with a cane on the door of his head as a reprimand, but Zhuangzi did not, and the latter not only reprimanded him, but also did not even mean to wake him up—didn't it mean that Zhuangzi had a perverse personality and was not easy to get along with?

After that, Zhuangzi walked about two miles or so further, and then stopped again, looking for a resting place near the river.

After sitting down, Zhuangzi took out a palm-sized piece of bread from his cuff.

Seeing this, Meng Zhong was stunned for a moment, and he suddenly found that the things prepared in the bamboo basket in his hand included both empty bamboo slips and pen and ink inkstones, but he only forgot to bring dry food to eat.

How good is that?

At this time, Zhuangzi also seemed to notice Meng Zhong's embarrassment, so he broke half of the bread in his hand and gave it to him.

The elder gave it, but he didn't dare to resign, Meng Zhong hurriedly took the cake with both hands and looked at it carefully.

This type of cake is called "flour cake", or "rice cake", which is a food made by boiling rice and mashing it into a cake shape. [PS: Similar to glutinous rice, glutinous rice, glutinous balls, etc.] 】

Corresponding to the rice dumpling, there is also a type of dry food called "糗 (qiǔ) bait", which is a food that is fried and mashed and kneaded into balls or blocks.

Flour and bait are very common dry food in contemporary times, under normal circumstances, people in the world eat this when they go out, and soldiers will also eat this when marching and fighting.

Even in Meng Zhong's family, when his mother Ge Shi took the brothers to the fields to do farm work, because they didn't have time to cook, they would use these dry foods to feed their stomachs.

Since it is dry food, as the name suggests, it is hard, dry, and difficult to swallow food, so when people in the world go out, including Meng Zhong's family, they will often boil a pot of water, soak the flour or glutinous bait in boiling water and eat it before eating, or eat it with hot water or soup.

But where is the hot water and hot soup around here?

Meng Zhong looked around, and finally fixed his gaze on the gourd hanging from Zhuangzi's cane.

At this time, Zhuangzi had also untied the gourd from the cane and handed it to Meng Zhong.

Of course, Meng Zhong guessed that the gourd must be filled with water or soup or something, so he excused himself and wanted Zhuangzi to drink it first to show respect, but Zhuangzi's personality was too awkward, so he had to take the gourd and take a small sip.

Well, the gourd is really filled with water, and it has a little temperature.

So, the old and the young slowly ate half of the cake in their hands with the warm water in the gourd.

After eating half of the bread, Zhuangzi continued to crutches, staring at the rushing muddy water and falling into deep thought, sometimes taking up a pen and writing a few words of inspiration on his sleeve.

Meng Zhong, on the other hand, was idle and wandering by the river.

He remembered that in the vicinity of this area, there seemed to be a fishing basket net made by him, Meng Sui, and Meng Hu for fishing.

Yes, unlike Zhuangzi, who is over seventy years old, half a piece of cake does not fill his stomach – and even Meng Zhong thinks that Zhuangzi may not be able to fill his stomach if he gives him half a piece of cake.

Sure enough, after walking about a dozen zhang forward, Meng Zhong found the fish basket net they had placed in a patch of water and grass.

As luck would have it, there were four or five fish in the net, large and small.

So Meng Zhong caught two of the big fish from the net, threw them on the rocks on the beach, and knocked them unconscious.

However, when he picked up the fainted fish, Zhuangzi had already walked in front of him on crutches, looked at the fish in Meng Zhong's hand, and then looked at the fish basket net in the river, and for the first time showed a stern look in his eyes, pursed his lips, and pointed to the fish basket net with his right hand.

Meng Zhong was stunned, but even though he understood what Zhuangzi meant, he explained: "Master, this thing is not owned by others, but set up by the kid, Meng Sui, and Meng Hu for fishing. The kid would never dare to encroach on someone else's property. ”

As soon as he heard this, the stern look in Zhuangzi's eyes suddenly retreated, and after nodding his head to apologize to Meng Zhong, he looked at the fish basket net in the river with a cane in a daze, and looked at the three fish that were struggling and scurrying in the net, and his eyes showed a thoughtful look.

At this time, Meng Zhong was about to go to the forest not far away to find some firewood to grill fish, but suddenly heard a pop behind him, as if something heavy had fallen into the water.

"Huh?"

He subconsciously looked back, and was almost frightened.

Because he was shocked to see that Zhuangzi, who was still standing on the shore just now, had fallen into the river for some reason, and was now dragging the fishing basket net to prevent himself from being swept away by the current.