Wu Kun Chopping Down the Laurel Tree
Wu Kun had a short attention span since he was a boy. He could never finish a task and would give up in the middle of it. His parents sent him to learn carpentry. After a few weeks, he could not take the repetition of hard work any more and quitted his apprenticeship, returning home to his parents and giving up on the idea of being a carpenter. His parents had him try tradesmanship. The same result: after weeks of tedious counting of the inventory as a clerk in a medicinal herbs shop in town, he returned home without much more understanding of trades and business than he was before. His frustrated parents now pressured him to think hard about his own future, not wanting him to waste life away as a loafer. What did he want to be? One autumn night, Wu Kun looked up into the sky and saw the bright full moon. How beautiful and mysterious it was. He started to fantasize about visiting the moon and he thought to himself what could I have done to visit the moon. An idea came to him: he could be a sorcerer. With sorcery, he would be able to visit the moon. So he decided he wanted to be a sorcerer.
How could he be a sorcerer? Wu Kun had heard about this old wizard living deep in the woods among the mountains clouded with fogs all year long. He set out to find the master of magic to teach him the crafts needed to become one himself. He found the wise sorcerer up on the mountain higher than the clouds. Out of curiosity, the old wizard agreed to take him on as his pupil in sorcery. First do some chores, the sorcerer ordered Wu Kun, sweeping, dusting, fetching the water from the nearby stream, and chopping the woods to make fire. Day in and day out, the old sorcerer did not mention anything about sorcery. Wu Kun, bored from his daily chores, grew impatient. He mustered up courage to ask his master why hadn't him been taught any magic tricks. Instead of a direct response his master asked him why he wanted to be a sorcerer in the first place. At this Wu Kun confided that he would like one day to visit the moon.
The wise sorcerer thought for a moment, and then with a snap of his fingers, he had transformed both him and Wu Kun onto the moon. The moon was a destitute place with rocks and very cold air. Among the rocks, there was a huge laurel tree. Wu Kun, intrigued by the presence of the tree, asked what was the tree there for. Instead of answering, his master took out an ax and asked Wu Kun to chop down the tree. Wu Kun started to work at it. After fifty or so swings at the tree, Wu Kun took a break to rest a while. To his amazement, the tree trunk where Wu Kun had been chipping away little by little appeared hadn't been touched at all.
Wu Kun turned to his master with an inquisitive look. The old sorcerer explained that the ax, called "three hundred hacks", was a magical one, which would not have any effect unless one kept at it for three hundred times without stopping to rest. This was your chance to learn to be persistent, the sorcerer said, and until you had the patience and strength to chop down this tree, you could not learn anything, let along wizardry. The sorcerer smiled at Wu Kun and disappeared out of sight, leaving Wu Kun alone on the moon to his challenge of persistency.
Wu Kun resumed his chopping. The closest he got to was two hundred and fifty something hacks with stopping. He had not conquered his weakness so the tree was still standing. Neither had the old wizard come back for him. It is said till this day Wu Kun is still up there chipping away the laurel tree.