The Tao

The Tao

I am the storyteller. I find people who have stories that are interesting. I can tell when their life is going to be interesting which helps me find these people. I have decided to tell an old story and put on paper the events of Ma De Yao’s life. He was very interesting and he went through so much.

It started in the Tang Dynasty imperial China in a small busy village where most everyone was Taoist. In this town nine out of ten people were Taoist. If you don’t know what that is let me answer that question for you because it is very important to the story.

A Taoist is someone who practices the religion of Taoism or Daoism. It is not like most religions were one worships a god or there is a creation story. No, it is a concept where there is a large force known as the Tao( Tao also means way or path.). Every living thing has a Tao. The goal is to balance your Tao with dark and light. The picture is a yin-yang that describes it perfectly. It is the symbol of the religion. Now you know that I can tell the story.

So one day Ma De Yao was going to his Taoist lessons so he could learn the basics. That way he could continue on his own and become balanced in light and dark. He decided to walk on the nasty side of town where he could smell the trash rotting outside and smell the meat with flies and maggots crawling over it. It made his gag reflex react when it reached his nostril. He questioned why he had even taken this route. Ma De Yao hurried down the street almost tripping on his robe. He wished he didn’t have to wear it during the summer when it was very hot. He was excited to finish his basic lessons in Taoism and then do it on his own. He was getting sort of stressed by the lessons and wanted nothing more than to finish them. He wanted to be like many other people who just try to find the balance in yin and yang themselves. His two best friends Lin and Ming had finished a while ago and they now practiced together.

When he arrived at his lessons he was surprised at how many people weren’t there. He was told that they had already finished and were now practicing independently. Oh how Ma De Yao envied them. He was trying so hard and still couldn’t finish. His Taoism leader, Kong always told him that he didn’t think he was ready. Ma De Yao and Kong had always been friends but lately it seemed that the leader was getting tired of Ma De Yao. This might be because of how many times he forgot his Tao de ching (the important book of Taoism). His parents were also angry at him. The lesson went ok but he still had to go home and practice.

On the way home, in anger because he couldn’t study by himself, Ma De Yao threw his Tao de ching at a house. The book scraped some old red paint off the house and rebounded into a large pile of revolting trash. Knowing just how important and expensive the book was he regrettably walked over and started searching. At first he skimmed the surface thinking that it probably didn’t go far, and because he didn’t want to and never got his hands dirty. The book was not to be seen. This worried him for now he had to search the trash with his hands. He was mortified with all the garbage that got stuck to his hand. Lots of unwanted rotting rice, or at least he thought it was rice and not maggots, were everywhere along with eggs that smelt so bad he gagged when he saw them there, all green and goopy. He thought he saw his book in the eggs so he reached under them and grabbed it. As he pulled it out some of the decayed eggs flew into his mouth. It tasted like rotten fish and old carrion. When he pulled the book out, it was just someone's old journal that had something sticky all over and the eggs stuck to it were turning red. When they turned red it smelled like bloody, thick, B.O from a pig. He immediately threw it down and ran home.

When he got home he was distraught. All he wanted to do was sit on the stool which for some reason, that was not clear to him had just become popular in that dynasty. His dad rushed to him very quickly but his mom couldn’t because her feet had been bound as a child. His father's name was Rong and his mother's name was Ma. They wondered why their child was so gross, so they asked him, “Why do you smell this way??!!”

Ma De Yao answered sadly, “Because I lost my Tao de ching in a trash heap and I searched through it for so long.”

“But that was the fifth Tao de ching you lost and we are not getting you another one,” his mother said with rage.

Ma De Yao was so upset. He felt defeated and wanted to cry forever, but he would not let his parents see him cry. “ Why would you disappoint us like this?! I want to disown you but it is too much work.” His father yelled.

Suddenly Ma De Yao started crying even though he promised he wouldn’t. His parents started laughing at him and poking him playfully. Because his sadness brought them joy, and they were bad people. This only made him cry more and more.

The next day, he set out and he saw his friends on the way to his lessons. They came up to him and asked him if he has been eating the right foods. He wondered what they meant so he asked them. They told him on that cloudy day about yin and yang foods. He thought it was hard enough to keep up Taoism without eating specific foods to keep balanced. When Ma De Yao admitted to never knowing about this they laughed and slapped him hard. It left a hand mark and stung. Ma De Yao left crying not even telling them about the Tao de ching.

That day he foraged through nasty trash again determined to find his Tao de ching. He got sewage and slop on his hand and under his fingernails. He felt disgusted but he didn’t care. He foraged until the people who lived there shooed him away. He hissed at them then trudged away. Then he realized that he had been searching the wrong pile and all that trash he accidently got in his mouth was for nothing. He saw it clear as day on the neighbor's garbage. It rested upon some old cloth. He rushed over nearly tripping on a step to get it. When he picked it up he realized it was moist. It was warm like a freshly baked cookie. Then he smelt it and knew immediately it was urine. He was not disgusted because he had been searching through trash all day to find it. He opened it and it was still legible which amazed him because he remembered forcing the scribe day and night to write it and it should have smeared. Nonetheless, he was still happy.

Later when he got home he finished reading it and showed it to his parents. They were happy and hugged him even though he smelt of urine. They, of course, gagged and made him bathe.

The next day he informed his friends that he knew what they were talking about. They hugged and made up for their fight. The Taoist leader Kong let him do independent study. He was so happy he cried tears of joy all the way home. Little did he know that would be his last time crying.

The next day he was awoke very early. This was because he was having a stroke. Just as an emperor did during that dynasty. And no one even knew what had happened because strokes were not recognizable. He died, but at least he was happy. Right when things started going good. As his spirit floated away the situation reminded him of a saying by Lao Tzu “, Heaven and Earth are eternal because they don’t live for themselves. This is the reason they exist consistently through time.”

This thought brought Ma De Yao hapiness and reassurance that heaven was real and would except him as he drifted off.