The Fa-nien-ts’ing and the Mön-tien-sing

Confucius had labored teaching the people righteousness for many

forgotten moons. One day he said to himself:

“I have taught many years and I will now rest a while.” He thought for

a few days and said, “Where shall I go to find rest?” Then he spoke to

Tsze-Lu, Yen-Yuen, and Tsze-Kong, his faithful pupils, saying, “I have

been thinking that I would now rest for three moons and visit the

Tai-San Mountain, but I do not wish to go alone. I should like you to

go with me. Where on the mountain is the best place, do you think?”

“On the southwest side where the sun shines warm and the wind does not

blow cold,” answered Tsze-Kong. And Tsze-Lu, Tsze-Kong, and Yen-Yuen

went to their own rooms and planned the journey.

After ten days Confucius and his pupils went to the Tai-San Mountain to

rest for the three moons; but even there his pupils studied, for they

took their books with them.

As Confucius walked on the Tai-San Mountain he said, “How great and

beautiful are the things made by the Creator; even the trees, bushes,

and flowers are beyond man’s understanding.” Then he went to the temple

and saw the images of honored men, and when he looked at the face of

Dai-Yee, the Just, he said, “You are very great. We remember and honor

you, and other generations yet to come will remember and honor you.”

When he had walked another half-mile, he grew tired and sat down under

the Fa-Nien-Ts’ing tree, and soon he slept.

Suddenly he heard a noise. He awoke thinking his pupils had come, but

seeing no man he lay down again to sleep. Once more he heard the same

noise, and looking upward he saw the Mön-Tien-Sing and the

Fa-Nien-Ts’ing trees looking into each other’s faces; but they were not

happy. The Mön-Tien-Sing’s face was distorted with anger, and in great

wrath she said to the Fa-Nien-Ts’ing, “If I were the Creator, I would

not allow you to live. A year and a year passes by and you do not grow.

You eat much food and you have more earth than I, and still you do not

grow. I never heard that you did any good thing since you were born,

and it is said you have lived here five hundred years. Your branches

are crooked and your bark is rough.

“You are not even good to look upon. Do you think the children of men

care for you? No, for you have neither flowers nor fruit. If people sit

under your shade when the wind blows hard, I should think your sharp,

ugly leaves would fall on them and stick them.

“It is a strange thing that the woodcutter does not chop you

down—useless thing. If I were the Creator, I would not allow the sun to

shine on you, nor would I give you rain to drink. I would cause the

wind to blow hard until you fell down dead.

“You see I have the sweetest of flowers and the people all like me. One

day two women passed by here and one of them said, ‘Mön-Tien-Sing, how

I wish that I might take you with me. You are so beautiful, but I fear

you do not like me. Three times I have gathered your flowers for my

hair, but I was careless and passed by a bush and it did but touch them

when their lovely petals all fell to the earth. I wish that I might

take you to my garden, and that you would grow there and open your

beautiful flowers every third moon forever.’

“My name is Mön-Tien-Sing which means Flowers-every-three-moons. If you

do not know another meaning it has, I will tell you.

“When you look in the sky on a summer night do you know how many stars

are there? Even man can not count a clear sky filled with shining

stars. I am Mön-Tien-Sing. Mön means full; Tien means heaven; and Sing

means stars:—‘sky filled with stars’—that is my name. I grow very fast.

Every three moons I bear a thousand and a thousand flowers. I do not

need servants to care for me, for I grow everywhere. Even the chickens

and birds like me. They come to me and eat my seeds and grow fat.

“If I were the Creator, the Mön-Tien-Sing would grow everywhere in all

the world, and fill the earth with its sweetness, but oh, I wish I

could go away from you. I do not like even to see you, and here I must

stand always by your side. Your branches are too strong; for when the

wind blows, they come close and hurt me and spoil my beautiful flowers.

I will pray the Creator to bring a woodcutter and cut you down

to-day—useless, evil thing.”

The Fa-Nien-Ts’ing did not answer, though he bowed his head in shame.

He knew well that he was ugly and that his leaves were sharp and his

bark rough, but he said to himself, “I know in my heart that some day,

some one will like me, too. For the Creator made me and he surely made

me for good. I will keep patient and wait.”

In about three moons the cold days came and all things were frozen. The

rivers stood still, the flowers were no longer seen, the trees and

shrubs threw all their leaves to the ground. But the Fa-Nien-Ts’ing

held his head up and smiled bravely, and he kept his leaves and they

grew green and green. Then he said to himself, “The cool wind is good

for me. The frost does me no harm. I feel better. This is my happy

time, for the people like to have green in their houses now. To-day

they came to the mountain and they found no other thing that was yet

green but my leaves.

“A young man was about to be married. He could find no flowers. So he

took some of my leaves and branches to put in his house. The birds come

to me for shelter from the cold wind and snow. They say the

Fa-Nien-Ts’ing is a good home for them.

“The winter is cold, cold every day, but I grow greener and greener.

The woodcutter comes and stands by my side and says that I keep the

cold wind away from him. I know the Creator made me for good.”

Then Confucius awoke. He looked up, and he looked down, and he looked

all about him. There was no living thing near except the Fa-Nien-Ts’ing

and the Mön-Tien-Sing, and he said:

“It was a dream, but surely I heard the Mön-Tien-Sing trying to quarrel

with the Fa-Nien-Ts’ing. I know that the things of the world have deep

meaning, and this is my lesson: I would not be as the Mön-Tien-Sing,

but I wish to be like the Fa-Nien-Ts’ing.”

He arose and laid his hand gently on the Fa-Nien-Ts’ing and said, “The

time is long that you stand here, patient one. The cold heart of winter

does not change your nature more than it does that of birds, beasts,

men, or even your enemy, the Mön-Tien-Sing.

“The cold weather makes you better, for you grow green as the

springtime, and there is no other tree, bush, or flower which can do

this. When the frost of winter comes, where are the flowers, where are

the leaves, where are all the growing things of beauty? Where is the

grass, where is the green of the field? They are gone. The first cold

wintry wind of adversity takes them one by one, but you alone can

withstand sorrow and grow even more beautiful.

“Your life is a lesson to me. I am serving the king and serving the

people, but there are few who like me now. Three kings have tried to

kill me, though my doctrine is to serve the world and help every one.

“But kings will not listen to my teaching, and my brothers try to drive

me away, as the Mön-Tien-Sing wished to drive away the Fa-Nien-Ts’ing.

For four days I went without food, and many were the enemies around and

against me at that time when the king banished me. But I know that it

is my duty to live and teach in the world, although it is winter for me

and the cold winds of adversity blow and the hearts of my people seem

hard and cold like rocks of ice. I hope I will be as the

Fa-Nien-Ts’ing, and stand firmly on the mountain of righteousness

forever, that I, Confucius, may do good to a wintry world.

“I would not be as the Mön-Tien-Sing. It is covered in the morning with

the flowers of beauty which it drops before the evening. It is

beautiful, for an hour, but is frail beyond all of its kind. It bears

no fruit and its flowers last but a day, while the Fa-Nien-Ts’ing is

strong of heart and mind, though a world is against him.”