How do I repay my master?

Einstein was a very playful boy. His mother used to worry about him and tell him what to do, but it fell on deaf ears. One morning, in the fall of his 16th year, his father stopped Einstein on his way to the river to go fishing and told him a story that changed his life. The story goes like this:

"Yesterday," Einstein's father said, "our neighbor Uncle Jack and I were sweeping a big chimney at the factory to the south. The only way up that chimney is by stepping on the steel treads on the inside. Your Uncle Jack was in the front and I was in the back. We grabbed the handrail and climbed up one step at a time. When we came down, your Uncle Jack was still in front of us and I was still behind him. Later, when I got out of the chimney, I noticed a strange thing: your Uncle Jack's back and face were blackened by the soot from the chimney, but I didn't have any soot on me." Einstein's father continued with a smile, "I saw the look on your Uncle Jack's face and thought to myself that I must be just like him, with a face as dirty as a clown's, so I went to the nearby creek and washed and washed. As for your Uncle Jack, when he saw me coming out of the chimney clean, he thought he was as clean as I was, so he just washed his hands hastily and went out into the street in a great hurry. The result was that the people in the street laughed their stomachs sore, and thought you Uncle Jack were a madman."

Einstein heard, could not help but laugh with his father. After his father finished laughing, he solemnly said to him, "In fact, no one else can be your mirror, only yourself is your own mirror. Take others as a mirror, idiots may shine themselves into a genius."

Einstein heard, suddenly full of shame.

Einstein left the naughty children from then on. He used himself as a mirror to scrutinize and reflect himself from time to time, and finally reflected the glittering light in his life.

Blindly comparing yourself to others, thinking you are smarter than those around you is satisfying, or feeling frustrated that you are not as good as others. How foolish this is! Each person has his or her own different life goals and lifestyles, and he or she is his or her own most reliable life guide in this world.

The Story of Wang Xizhi

Wang Xizhi was a great calligrapher in the Eastern Jin Dynasty of China. He came from a scholarly family, and with his outstanding talent, all the ministers in the court recommended him to be an official. He was an assassin and a right army general (people also called him Wang Right Army).

Wang Xizhi loved writing from childhood. It is said that when he usually walks, he also practiced writing with his fingers at any time, and for a long time, even his clothes were scratched. After learning and practicing hard, Wang Xizhi's calligraphy became more and more famous. People at that time regarded the characters he wrote as treasures.

It is said that once, Wang Xizhi went to a village. An old woman carried a basket of hexagonal bamboo fans to sell at the market. The bamboo fan is very simple, there is no decoration, can not attract the interest of passers-by, looks like not sold, the old lady is very anxious.

When Wang Xizhi saw this situation, he sympathized with the old woman, and went up to her and said: "There is no painting or writing on your bamboo fan, so of course it won't sell. I will give you the inscription, how is it?"

The old woman did not know Wang Xizhi, see him so enthusiastic, also gave him the bamboo fan to write.

Wang Xizhi lifted his pen, and wrote five words on each fan, and returned it to the old woman. The old woman, who could not read, found his writing scrawling and was very unhappy.

Wang Xizhi comforted her, saying, "Don't be anxious. You tell the person who bought the fan that it was written by Wang Youjun."

As soon as Wang Xizhi left, the old woman did as he said. When the people at the fair saw that it was really Wang Youjun's calligraphy, they all rushed to buy it. A bucket of bamboo fans were sold out immediately.

Many artists have their own hobbies, some love to plant flowers, some love to raise birds. But Wang Xizhi has his special addiction. Wherever there is a good goose, he is interested in seeing it, or buy it back to play and enjoy.

There was a Taoist priest in the place of Shanyin who wanted Wang Xizhi to write him a volume of Tao Te Ching. But he knew that Wang Xizhi refused to copy the scriptures for others easily. Later, he inquired about Wang Xizhi's preference for white geese, so he specially raised a batch of geese of good breeds.

When Wang Xizhi heard that the Taoist priest's house had good geese, he really ran to see them. When he approached the Taoist house, is to see a group of geese in the river in the water surface leisurely floating, a snow-white feathers, reflecting the high red roof, really amusing.

Wang Xizhi looked at the river to see, simply can not leave, and sent to find the Taoist priest, asked to sell this group of geese to him.

The Taoist priest smiled and said: "Since Wang Gong such a favorite, there is no need to break the bank, I will give you all the geese. But I have one request, which is to ask you to write a scroll of sutra for me."

Wang Xizhi did not hesitate to copy a scroll of sutra for the Taoist priest, and the flock of geese was taken back by Wang Xizhi.

Eating Dumplings

One day, Wang Xizhi passed by the market, and saw a dumpling store in front of the door, the noise of people, very lively. Especially the two couplets next to the door, especially eye-catching, written on the top of the "through this can not be, know the flavor and often come" ten words, the horizontal plaque is written on the "Duck Dumpling Shop". But the words are written in a dull and weak manner, lacking in effort.

Wang Xizhi saw, secretly thought: such a bad word, also worthy of writing plaque? Another thought: "After this past not go, know the flavor and often come". --Good guy! The first time I saw this, I was so happy to see you, and I'm so happy to see you.

As we get closer, we see a large pot of boiling water inside the store, located next to a low wall. When the pot is full, the birds stop flying without being greeted. When the pot of dumplings is finished, the "birds" fly in line again, and they are accurate.

Wang Xizhi was very surprised, so he took out some loose silver, asked for a big bowl of dumplings, and then sat down. At this time he realized that the dumplings are delicate and exquisite, like the ducks floating and playing in the water, really ingenious wonders! He picked up the dumplings with his chopsticks, slowly brought them to his mouth, and gently bit into them. At once, the aroma was fresh and delicious. Unconsciously, the big bowl of dumplings, all swallowed into the belly.

After a full meal, Wang Xizhi said to himself: this duck child dumplings really good! Just the door of the couplet is too poorly written, and this delicious dumplings really can not match, I Wang Xizhi why not take this opportunity to write another couplet for them, but also not to disappoint me to come to this one - thought of this, he asked the shopkeeper: "May I ask where the owner of the store?"

The shopkeeper pointed his finger at the short wall and said, "Back to you, the shopkeeper is behind the wall."

Wang Xizhi rounded the short wall, see a white-haired old woman sitting in front of the panel, a person rolled out the dumpling skin, and wrapped the dumpling filling, in the twinkling of an eye that is done, the action is very nimble. More surprisingly, after the package, the white-haired old woman will throw the dumplings to the short wall over there, duck dumplings will be a one by one over the wall.

The old man's superb skills, so that Wang Xizhi marveled more than. He rushed forward and asked: "The old man, like you this deep kung fu, how long to practice?" The old man replied: "I'm not hiding from you, skilled need fifty years, deep need a lifetime."

Hearing this, Wang Xizhi was silent for a while, as if tasting the flavor of the words. Then asked: "Your craft is so skillful, why the door of the pair, do not ask someone to write better?"

The old man huffed and puffed and said; "I don't know, it's not that I don't want to invite, it's just that it's not good to invite! Some people just have a bit of fame in writing, eyes upward, where is willing to write for our people. In fact, as I see it, their writing skills are not as deep as my dumpling throwing skills!" The old man's work does not necessarily mean Wang Xizhi, but Wang Xizhi heard, feel the face hot, ashamed. So he wrote a special couplet and respectfully gave it to the old man.

The story of Lu Ban, the inventor

Lu Ban was born in 57 BC. His family had been hand craftsmen for generations. Lu Ban himself was a highly skilled craftsman and an outstanding inventor. There are many records and legends about him in history. To this day, the stories of his inventions are still widely circulated in the folklore.

Saws and planes

Today, carpenters use hand tools such as saws, drills, planes, shovels, and curves. The inkwell for scribing, according to legend, were all invented by Lu Ban. And the invention of each tool is Lu Ban in production practice, after repeated tests, research.

Take the invention of the saw. Once, the king ordered Lu Ban to cut out three hundred beams and pillars in fifteen days, which were used to build a big palace. So Lu Ban took his disciples up the mountain. They got up early in the morning and worked hard in the dark, wielded the axe, and chopped for ten days in a row, each exhausted, and the result was only a hundred big trees.

By this time, the masonry and stone were all ready, and the zodiacal day chosen by the king to start the construction was about to expire. If the wood is not ready when the work begins, it will be punishable by death. What should we do? At night, Lu Ban lay on his bed, tossing and turning, unable to sleep. He climbed up and walked towards the mountain with one foot deep and one foot shallow. Looking up, the star of the beginning blinked at him, it was almost dawn.

Suddenly, Lu Ban felt that his hand was scratched by something, and lifted his hand to see that his calloused hand made a cut and oozed blood. He carefully observed around, it turned out to be silk thatch scratch. Lu Ban was very surprised, he picked a blade of grass, found that the edge of the blade of grass with many sharp teeth. When he turned around, he saw a big locust opening its two big teeth and eating the grass leaves very quickly. Lu Ban caught a locust and saw that it also had sharp teeth on its fangs. When he looked at the leaves of the silk thatch grass and then at the locust's large teeth, his mind was enlightened.

He made a piece of bamboo with moso bamboo, on which he carved a lot of serrated teeth like the leaves of silk grass and the locust's teeth. With it to pull the tree, only a few times, the bark is broken, and then a force, the trunk out of a deep groove. However, a long time, the serration on the bamboo sheet is either pure, or broken. At this time, Lu Ban remembered the iron. He ran down the mountain, asked the blacksmith in accordance with their own bamboo pieces, hit the iron bar with serrated, use it to pull the tree, really fast!

This iron bar is the ancestor of the saw. With it, Lu Ban and his disciples felled three hundred beams in only thirteen days.

Lu Ban was a carpenter who worked with wood all day long. He was highly skilled and particularly good with an axe, able to chop wood into the desired shape in a few strokes. The phrase "Ban Men Teasing Axe" means that whoever wants to tease the axe in front of Lu Ban is not measuring himself. This shows that Luban's axe is very skillful.

However, with the axe to cut the wood smooth and smooth, Lu Ban can not do, especially when encountering coarse wood grain and more scar wood, it is more difficult. In order to solve this problem, Lu Ban pondered during the day, the night to think, he first made a thin axe, grinding quickly, chopping up than before is much better, but still not ideal.

So, Lu Ban again ground a small thin axe, covered with a piece of iron, only let the axe exposed a narrow edge. This time, Lu Ban did not chop. He used this narrow edge in the wood to push. A push, the wood pushed down a thin layer of wood. Push a dozen times, the surface of the wood and flat and smooth, than in the past with an axe can be much stronger. But this thing in the hand to push both card hand and can not make strength. Lu Ban also made a wooden seat, put it inside. Planer, so born.

Lu Ban do carpentry work, often encountered right angles. Although he had a rectangle for drawing right angles on hand, it was quite laborious to use. Lu Ban improved, made a "L" shaped wooden ruler, measure up to the right angle, can be convenient! Later, people called it Lu Ban ruler. Because Lu Ban made such a great contribution to the improvement of carpentry tools, so, for more than two thousand years, carpenters respectfully called him the grandfather.

The Stone Mill and the Ladder

All year round, Lu Ban traveled around, working for others. On this day, he had been busy all morning and sat down to rest. Next to him, a family was preparing to cook, but there was no flour left. They brought some wheat, put it in a stone mortar, and pounded it with a heavy stone pestle. The pounders were sweating profusely and only managed to crush a very small amount. Because the grains of wheat are oval in shape, if you use too little strength, you can't break them; if you use too much strength, the grains of wheat will be smashed away, which is really a big deal. At that time, people used this method. Lu Ban was determined to reform it and solve the problem for people. Another day, "Lu Ban came to another place to work, and happened to see an old woman pounding wheat. The old woman was too old to lift the mortar and pestle. She was holding the mortar and pestle, and she was grinding the wheat grains in the stone mortar. Lu Ban went over and saw that many of the wheat grains in the mortar had already been ground into powder. Lu Ban was inspired by this.

Back home, Lu Ban asked his wife Yun to find two pieces of stone. He chiseled the stone into two large disks, and chiseled a groove on one side of each disk. On one of the disks, he also put a wooden handle. The neighbors wondered what Lu Ban had made. Everyone gathered around to see. Lu Ban stacked the two discs on top of each other, with the grooved sides together, the one with the wooden handle on top, and a shaft in the center. He put wheat grains in the center of the discs, and then turned the stone disc on top of them, and the wheat grains were soon ground into flour. Everyone was very happy, Lu Ban really for the people to make a big achievement ah "This is more than two thousand years, in China's rural areas had been widely used stone mill.

Lu Ban is not only a skilled craftsman who can make all kinds of living tools for the people. He was also an outstanding mechanical inventor.

Lu Ban lived at a time when the feudal lords were fighting for supremacy, and the wars lasted for years. At that time, every city had high and thick walls. The generals who defended the cities closed the gates and stood on the walls to guard them. The attackers, on the other hand, were armed with bows and arrows, spears and the like, and it was difficult for them to take the city down. The city is often surrounded for many days, dry and anxious to attack.

The king of Lu ordered Lu Ban to make a siege weapon. When Lu Ban thought about it, he remembered the short ladder he used when he built his house. If you step on the short ladder, you can climb up to the roof of the house. If you build a long ladder, won't you be able to climb up to the high city wall? If you could also shoot arrows on the ladder, wouldn't you be able to repel the defenders of the city? So, Lu Ban made a "ladder". This "ladder", can care about the ground up, enough to reach the high walls, above can also stand people shooting arrows. Modern firefighting equipment in the ladder, from the development of this ladder evolved.

According to ancient books, Lu Ban also built a "wooden carriage". That is his mother died, in order to send the funeral built. Lu Ban in the car installed a mechanism, there are wooden people driving. On the day of the funeral, a lot of people gathered along the way, looking at the automatic walking wooden carriage, one by one marveled.

Zhang Liang's ingenious plan to solve the crisis

One day, Liu Bang saw a lot of generals gathered near Luoyang to complain, and when he approached them, he stopped talking, only to see the generals' faces with grumbling looks, and it looks like they have quite a lot of opinions about Liu Bang!

Liu Bang found Zhang Liang and asked him what was going on, and Zhang Liang reported truthfully, "The generals are discussing the rebellion!"

This sentence let Liu Bang ate a shock, he has just become the emperor of the Han Dynasty, the world has just been stabilized, and now there are actually people out of the rebellion, which can not let him anxious. He hurriedly asked Zhang Liang about the details, and Zhang Liang analyzed and said: "Your Majesty, the snake uprising, all rely on these generals and soldiers into the death to take over the world. Now that His Majesty has defeated Xiang Yu and seized the throne, what the generals are most concerned about is the granting of official positions and the division of land. However, His Majesty has granted land to those who are closest to him and punished those who have grudges against him. Now, while the generals hoped that His Majesty would divide them as soon as possible, they were worried that they would not be rewarded for the limited land, and some were afraid that they would be punished by His Majesty if they had offended Him in the ordinary course of their lives. So they gathered together and plotted to throw a tantrum. If they are not handled appropriately, there will be civil unrest."

"With things as they are, how should they be cleaned up?" Liu Bang asked busily.

Zhang Liang said unhurriedly, "I have a plan to deal with this situation. Your Majesty please tell me, who is the person you usually hate the most and is known to the generals?"

Liu Bang had to tell the truth: "The person I hate the most is Yong Te. This person is brave in battle, has made many achievements, and has prestige among the generals. However, relying on his own merits, he spoke without regard to the etiquette of kings and ministers, and embarrassed me several times in front of the ministers. I really wanted to kill him to relieve my anger. But thinking that at that time it was the time to use people, so I endured."

Zhang Liang clapped his hands and laughed: "That's good, Your Majesty will immediately confer the title of Marquis on Yong Tooth, and those who have meritorious achievements in war and are worried that Your Majesty will make things difficult for them, seeing that Your Majesty has divided and conferred on the person they hate the most, will remove all their worries and will never rebel again?"

Liu Bang adopted Zhang Liang's plan, set up a banquet, and in front of the ministers and generals, he made Yong tooth the Marquis of Shifang, and asked the prime minister and the royal historian to speed up the progress of determining the merits and rewards.

The generals, who were ready to cause trouble before this, ate the banquet and said happily, "Now it's good, we don't have to worry about anything, we'll just wait for His Majesty's divided reward!"

Zhang Liang's stratagem quelled the rebellion that was about to take place.

Insight: When it comes to rewards and punishments, leaders should make a clear distinction between public and private.

A story about a mathematician, Chen Jingrun

Chen Jingrun, a well-known mathematician, has made a significant contribution to solving Goldbach's conjecture, and created the famous "Chen's Theorem", which is affectionately known by many as "Chen's Theorem", and has been used by many people as an example of how to solve the problem. But who would have thought that his achievements stemmed from a story.

In 1937, the diligent Chen Jingrun was admitted to Fuzhou Yinghua College, at this time during the anti-Japanese war, the head of the Department of Aeronautical Engineering at Tsinghua University, Dr. Shen Yuan, who stayed in the United Kingdom to go back to Fujian for mourning, did not want to be stranded in his hometown due to the war. Several universities learned of the news and wanted to invite Prof. Shen forward to give lectures, but he declined the invitation. Since he was an alumnus of Yinghua, in order to repay his alma mater, he came to this high school to teach math classes for his students. One day, Mr. Shen Yuan told a story in his math class: "200 years ago a Frenchman discovered an interesting phenomenon: 6=3+3, 8=5+3, 10=5+5, 12=5+7, 28=5+23, and 100=11+89. Every even number greater than 4 can be expressed as the sum of two odd numbers. Since this conclusion has not been proven, it is still a conjecture. The great math Euler said: although I can not prove it, I am sure that this conclusion is correct.

It is like a beautiful halo, shining dazzlingly in our not-so-distant future. ...... "Chen Jingrun stared and listened with rapt attention.

As a result, Chen Jingrun has developed a strong interest in this marvelous problem. After school he loves to go to the library, not only read the middle school tutorials, these university mathematics and chemistry course materials he also read hungrily. This is why he has earned the nickname "bookworm".

Interest is the first teacher. It is this kind of math story that triggered Chen Jingrun's interest, triggered his diligence, and thus triggered a great mathematician.

Deng Xiaoping's childhood story: a "steal money" experience

Deng Xiaoping also had a "steal money" experience during the Beishan Primary School. One day on the way home from school, found a classmate is crying sadly, he asked the original reason, the original classmate's sister is seriously ill at home, the family is poor, no money for medical treatment. What to do? Xiaoping returned home with his heart calculating. Early the next morning, he was eager to stuff the classmates 5 silver dollars, told him to quickly take to his sister's treatment.

This amount of money at that time can buy 500 pounds of rice, is Deng Xiaoping from his father to steal. In fact, at this time Deng Xiaoping's family is not particularly generous, the family relies on his mother to weave cloth and silkworms to support. Soon after, Deng Shaochang realized that he had lost the money, and angrily called the whole family together to inquire about it. When he learned that it was Xiaoping who had done it, Deng Shaochang picked up a piece of bamboo and angrily beat him. Later, when his mother realized why her son had taken the money, she took her son in her arms in pain.

Confucius admits his mistake

On one occasion, Confucius and his disciples Zi Lu, Zi Gong, and Yan Yuan were visiting Hai Zhou. When Confucius heard a rumbling noise, he said to Zi Lu, "It is thundering and raining on the other side of the mountain, so why are you hurrying?" Zi Lu said, "This is not the sound of thunder and rain, but the sound of waves lapping at the shore." Confucius had never seen the sea and wanted to go to the sea to see the sea, so Confucius and his party traveled by car to the bottom of Quyang Mountain by the sea.

Confucius and his disciples climbed to the top of the mountain, only to see the water and the sky connected, the sea is vast, they are all excited. At this point, Confucius felt hot and thirsty, and he asked Yan Yuan to go down the mountain to scoop up seawater to drink.

Yan Yuan took the container and was about to go down the mountain, when he heard someone laughing behind him, which was very strange. The boy said, "The sea water is salty and astringent, and cannot be drunk." After saying this, he handed Confucius a bamboo tube filled with fresh water.

Confucius drank the water, quenched his thirst, and was very grateful to the boy, and was about to thank him, when suddenly the sea wind blew a sharp rain, and Zi Lu, looking anxious, exclaimed, "Oh no, where can I go to hide from the rain now?"

The fisherman's boy said to everyone, "You all don't need to be in a hurry, please follow me!" After saying this, the boy led the line of children into a cave, which was where he usually hid his fish. Confucius stood at the entrance of the cave and took shelter from the rain while philosophizing about the rainy seascape, and could not help but wax poetic and recite two lines of poetry, "The wind blows the sea with a thousand waves, the rain hits the beach with ten thousand points of puddles." Three of Confucius' disciples all praised Confucius for his well-done poem in unison, but the boy took an opposing stance, saying to Confucius, "Thousand layers of waves and ten thousand points of pits, have you ever counted them?" Confucius heartily agreed with the child's cross-examination.

When the rain stopped, the boy went out to sea to fish again. Confucius recalled the few things that had just happened, and apologized and blamed himself to his three disciples, "I used to say that the only thing that is unchangeable is the wisdom of the top and the stupidity of the bottom, but it seems that this is not proper, and that it is better to advocate 'Learning to Know,' 'Knowing as Knowing, and Not Knowing as Not Knowing '."

Confucius was already a famous sage at that time, but in front of a child, he recognized his own shortcomings and mistakes and had the courage to admit it.