Shen Yanzhi, the second son of the Shen Mansion in Suzhou, was once an idler who grew up in fine clothes and fine food. He was used to holding the wolf brush and appreciating the snow in the back garden. He thought that the carved beams and painted buildings were eternal and that being surrounded by relatives and friends was normal, until an accident took away everything - his father was imprisoned, his brother died of illness, his mother drowned in the river, and the once prosperous Shen Mansion turned into ruins in the blink of an eye.
He became a bereaved dog, munching on frozen wheat cakes among the fleeing people, and enduring the cold wind of the twelfth lunar month in a ruined temple. His relatives and friends who used to be swayed by others shunned him like a snake or a scorpion. Only then did he understand that wealth is like the moon in the water, and favors are nothing more than flowers on a brocade. It had been snowing for three days, and he was walking aimlessly through the ankle-deep snow, and accidentally bumped into the Qingya Temple on the top of the mountain.
The old Taoist priest in the temple handed him a cup of hot tea and said, "You can't catch the moon in the water, and you can't keep the phantom in your heart." He sat under the snow-covered pine trees, watching sparrows pecking at the grains, and listening to the wind passing through the corridor. He suddenly remembered the absurdity of fishing for the moon when he was young - it turns out that the most important thing in life is never external things, but your own heart.
So he stayed and became a Taoist boy who swept snow and chopped firewood in Qingya Temple. From holding a pen to holding a hoe, from being in love with the prosperity of the hotel to being content with a simple meal, he watched the spring snow melt into the soil, watched the autumn maples fall on the stone steps, and slowly understood the word "cultivation": it is not asking for immortality, but chopping wood well when chopping firewood, and carrying water well when fetching water; it is not that seeing through the world of mortals will make you feel despair, but seeing the coldness of the world, you can still keep a sense of stability in the smoke.
