A fable for Overseas Hakka kids

[CHUNG Yoon-Ngan <chungyn@mozart.collective.com.au>]

    This is a fable for the Overseas Hakka kids
    lest they forget our culture.

    Foolish Old Man who removed the mountains

    Long time ago in northern Hebei province there lived an old man who went
by the name of Foolish Old Man of North Mountain. He was about ninety years
old and lived in a house that faced south. There were two great mountain
peaks, the Tai Hang and the Wang Wu, rose majestically in front of his
house. The road leading to his house was tortous because of obstruction by
the two mountains. It was rather inconvenient and time consuming each time
he went out and returned home. So he decided to remove them.
 
    One evening over dinner he told his children and grandchildren about his
plan to remove the two mountains. They all agreed with him. 

   The following morning and every morning thereafter at the crack of dawn
he and his offspring, with hoe in hand, would dig into the mountains. They
kept at it with diligence and great determination.

    His neighbour, a grey-bearded old man known to one and all as the Wise
Old Man, saw what was going on. In derision he told the Foolish Old Man,

   "How silly of you to do this. 
    You are so old and going to die soon.
    Why bother yourself.
    Besides it is impossible for you few to 
    dig up these two huge mountains." 

The Foolish Old Man replied,
    "The silly one is you and not me. 
     You see, when I die, my sons will carry on; 
     when they die, there will be my grandsons, 
     and then their sons and grandsons, 
     and so on to infinity. 
     High as they are, the mountains cannot grow any higher 
     and with every bit we dig, they will be that much lower. 
     Why can't we remove them?"
 
     Having refuted the Wise Old Man's view, the Foolish Old Man and his 
brood went on digging every day, unshaken in their conviction. The heavens
were so moved by their tenacity and determination that two angels were sent
down to earth and they carried away the mountains on their backs.

A Chinese fable story "Yu Gong Yi Shan".

CHUNG Yoon-Ngan.