Lu Dongbin had vowed to Han Zhongli to spend all the beings in the world. Thinking that he had not yet spent one person, he went to Yueyang to travel around again.
He dressed up as an oil seller and used the name of selling oil, secretly thinking that if someone bought oil without asking for more, he would be rehabilitated. After selling oil for several years, all the customers he met were selfish people with excessive demands. Only one old woman came and bought as much oil as she wanted, without any extravagant demands. Lu Dong was surprised and thought there was still a person in this world who could be measured. So he asked the old woman, “Everyone who buys oil wants to have more, why are you the only one who doesn’t want more?” The old woman said, “I am satisfied with just one pot of oil, and it is not easy for you to sell oil, so how dare you ask for more?” She thanked Lu Dongbin with wine.
When he found a well in her yard, he threw some rice into it and said to the old woman, “If you sell the water from this well, you will become rich.” The old woman asked him to sit for a while, but he didn’t reply and left. The old woman turned around and saw that all the water in the well had turned into wine. The old woman followed Lu Dongbin’s message and sold the well wine for a year, and became very rich.
One day, when Lu Dongbin came to the old woman’s house, it happened that the old woman was not at home, only her son was at home. Lu Dongbin asked his son, “How has the wine been sold these years?” His son said, “It is good, but there is no wine lees to feed the pigs.” After hearing his words, Lu Dongbin lamented, “The insatiable greed of the human heart has reached this point.” So he took the rice back from the well and left the old woman’s house. Not long after, the old woman returned home, and her son told the old woman what had just happened. The old woman went to the well and saw that all the wine in the well had turned into water again. The old woman hurriedly chased out, where she could still see the shadow of Lu Dongbin.
Lu Dongbin came to Dongting from Yueyang, and went with Han Zhongli to rehabilitate Han Xiangzi. Lü Dongbin left a poem, lamenting that “three times to Yueyang people do not know, reciting a poem flying over the Dongting Lake.”
(Source: “Journey to the East”)
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