The Inexperienced Child
By Joe K.
A long time ago, in a village in China, lived a man named Wei, who was very set in his ways. He thought that he knew everything in the world. He would always wear the same clothes- a brown robe, and old, beat up black shoes. He claimed to know all about how chi flowed, and that he knew more proverbs than anyone else. He would boast about how he was smarter than anyone else in the village. Eventually, the villagers started asking him many difficult questions. Some of these questions he could not answer so the villagers began to lose trust in what he said.
He found that fewer and fewer people were coming to his house to ask him questions. His house was very simple. It was made of bamboo and had a straw roof. There was not even rice paper to cover the windows, and inside was only a sleeping mat, a small stove, and two chairs. Wei had always dreamed of living in a huge house and having more power and knowledge than the emperor.
The villagers were getting angry with Wei because he was still boasting about how smart he was all of the time.
One day, not too long after people completely stopped asking Wei questions, a young man came to the village. At first, no one seemed to notice him, but after a while he did make some friends. When this young man, who called himself Siu, came to the village, he had very little. He arrived in tattered clothes, and old worn shoes. His only belongings were three books. One book was called Wisdom, another was called Art, and the last one was Music.
About a month after Siu arrived, he was in the marketplace with a new friend. People were swarming all around the shops because it was the day of the snail fest. All of the wonderful smells made a person feel fresh and pure. The friend decided to ask Siu one of the questions that Wei could not answer. Siu answered the question better than anyone could imagine. People heard about this and started asking Siu all of the difficult questions that Wei could not answer.
A couple days after this, Siu went to Wei's house. Siu started talking to Wei about things Wei never knew existed. Wei realized that he did not know nearly everything in the world. Wei had never felt like this before. He felt like an inexperienced child. When Wei went back into town, everyone asked him what had happened. Wei answered them only by saying,
"Over everyone who possesses knowledge, is one who is more knowing."