How the Old Man Decided to Level the Mountain

Long ago, there lived a peasant. His house stood near a large mountain, and his fields were on the other side of it. Every day, when heading to the fields, the peasant, his children, and grandchildren had to go around the mountain, either to the right or to the left. The journey was long, and half the time was spent on the road. Each time, everyone resented the mountain, but there was nothing they could do about it.

But one day, the peasant gathered all his sons, daughters, and grandchildren and said:

"The mountain near which our house stands has taken half of my life. The same will happen to you, your children, your grandchildren, and your great-grandchildren. For all of us, this mountain will uselessly take away half our lives. We can't endure this any longer. Let's remove this mountain. Then we will be able to reach our fields directly and quickly. In the time we now spend going around the mountain, we could do much good for ourselves and for others. What do you say to that?"

Everyone happily agreed with the old man. Only his wife, the grandmother, disagreed. She said:

"How can you possibly remove this mountain? Your lifetimes won't be enough for such a task."

But everyone objected in unison:

"You say that, Grandma, because you don't have to walk to the fields along this long road—you mostly stay at home!"

The grandmother's words didn't convince anyone, and they all decided to start the work right away.

The neighbors in the village heard about this plan, and one widow was the first to send her young and strong son to help. Others followed and came to assist as well.

Only one old man, who considered himself very wise because he was rich, declared that this was a senseless endeavor.

"You've come up with a futile idea," he said to the peasant. "How could you, an old, gray-haired man, think of such a thing? In your entire lifetime, you couldn't remove even a millionth part of this mountain. And at the top of the mountain, there are enormous rocks. How can a human being possibly deal with those rocks?"

But the peasant replied:

"I know I am old and don't have much life left. But I have many sons, who have many children, and those children will have sons and daughters of their own, and so their numbers will grow and grow... But the mountain doesn't grow. If I remove a piece of it, another won't grow in its place. And if we all take on this task together, won't we overcome it? The time will come when people won't need to go around this mountain—they will walk a straight path."

More fairy tales

• Mountains of Immortality
• The Grateful Tigress
• Zun - The Long Day
• Who Stole the Egg?
• How They Tried to Torture a Stone Slab