A Scholar rented a room from a monastery
to use for study. In fact, he played all around instead of studying. One
afternoon, he suddenly came back and called the page boy to fetch him a book. At
first, the page boy fetched the Liang Dynasty Wenxuan. He looked at the book and
said," Too low." Then, he brought the scholar the classic History of the
Han Dynasty, but the answer was still "Too low." Finally, he brought a
third famous classic, the Records of the Historian, but the answer was still
"Too low."
A monk, very astonished by this,
confronted the scholar," Generally, if a person masters one of these great books
in a lifetime he is considered well-learned. Why do you say these classics are
low books?"
"I'm trying to find a book that's
just the right height to use as a pillow," the scholar replied," these are
all too low."