Where does this story come from?

The original words are "Let's wait for the little monk to stretch his legs before talking about this", which comes from the preface of the book "Night Sailing" written by Zhang Dai in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties.

The original text is:

Once upon a time, there was a monk who stayed with a scholar on a night boat. The scholars talked loudly, but the monks were frightened and fell asleep with their fists on their feet. The monk heard that there was something wrong with his words, so he asked, "Excuse me, Sir, is Tantai Mieming one person or two people?" The scholar said, "It is two people." The monk said, "Are Yao and Shun one person or two people? The scholar said: "Of course it is a person!" The monk laughed and said: "Let's wait for the little monk to stretch his legs."

Translation:

There is a little monk. A monk and a scholar were riding in the same boat at night. The scholar kept talking eloquently. The young monk thought that the scholar had great talent. He curled up his feet all night and did not dare to stretch out for fear of disturbing the scholar. He overheard that there were flaws in the scholar's words, so he asked Scholar: "How many people are named Tantai Mieming?" The scholar replied: "Two people." The monk asked again: "If you put it this way, how many people were Yao and Shun?" The scholar actually replied: "One person." So the young monk's awe of the scholar disappeared, and he joked: "If you want to say this, wait until the young monk stretches his legs."

This little story satirizes the kind of person who likes to learn without real talent. Scholars who show off and "make half a bottle out of a bottle" will eventually be despised by others for exposing their flaws and making jokes. Scholars who read books about sages did not know that there were two saints like Yao and Shun, nor did they know that Tantai had a compound surname.

Extended information

"Night Sailing" is an encyclopedia book written by Zhang Dai. It is a small encyclopedia, covering astronomy and geography, three religions and nine streams, and hundreds of schools of thought. , human ethics and political affairs, rituals, music, imperial examinations, vegetation, flowers, ghosts and gods... There are 20 major categories in total, divided into 125 sub-categories and more than 4,000 items.

Zhang Dai named his book "Night Sailing" because night sailing is a symbol of the long and arduous journey in the southern water towns. People go out by boat. During the slow sailing, they sit If you are bored, you will entertain yourself by chatting. Among the passengers were literati and wealthy businessmen. There were officials who went to their posts, and there were also people who came to seek relatives. There were all kinds of people, and the content of the conversations was all-encompassing.

Zhang Dai said: "Of all the knowledge in the world, night sailing is the most difficult to deal with." So Zhang Dai compiled a book listing common knowledge about Chinese culture and named it "Night Sailing" so that people would not be confused. It's embarrassing to be on a night cruise.

"Night Sailing" uses relatively simple classical Chinese to narrate more than 4,000 cultural common sense passages. Most of these items are content that a literate person must be familiar with. Although it also contains some content that seems absurd now, as the interesting jokes of the ancients, it is helpful to understand some cultural conditions in ancient times.

About the author

Zhang Dai (AD 1597 (the twenty-fifth year of Wanli in the Ming Dynasty) ~ 1679 (the eighteenth year of Kangxi in the Qing Dynasty)) was a prose writer in the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties, with the courtesy name Zongzi. , also named Shi Gong, nicknamed Tao'an, also known as Die'an layman, and called himself Jiannan Tao'an old man. A native of Shanyin (now Shaoxing, Zhejiang). Zhang Dai is recognized as the greatest essayist of the Ming Dynasty. He is the author of peerless literary masterpieces such as "Collected Works of Lang Huan", "Memories of Tao'an Dreams", "Dreams of the West Lake" and "Three Immortal Pictures".

Baidu Encyclopedia--Night Sailing