◎ Xianyi Bian by Liu Yuanqing
There was a very rich farmer in Ruzhou who had several generations of illiterates in his family. One year， the farmer retained a teacher from the Chu area to teach his son. The teacher first taught his son to imitate the master sheet， and told him after one stroke， “This is the word of one (一)”， taught the son after two strokes， “This is the word of two (二)”， and said after three strokes， “This is the word of three (三).”
Before the teacher finished his remarks，
the child happily threw away his calligraphy writing brush， and went to tell his father， “I have learned the rule， and no longer need the teacher. Please dismiss him as soon as possible so as to not waste money.”
Seeing that his son had learned so quickly， the father was overjoyed， and dismissed the teacher after paying for the tuition.
Shortly after that， the father wanted to invite a friend surnamed Wan (both mean ten thousand and a surname in Chinese “万”) to a dinner， and so asked his son to write the letter of invitation. However， the son didn’t finish the letter after a long period of time. The father became very impatient， and came to rush his son.
The son said angrily， “There are so many surnames in the world. Why is Wan the surname of your friend？ I have just written five hundred strokes from morning until now.”
A scholar with very limited knowledge would think he had learned everything if he understood something by accident just like the person who wrote the word of Wan.
