The Kylin Rider
Thefe was once a servant of Zhang Maoshi，a native of Nanyang Pfefecture，who lived at the foot of Mount Hua.
The servant was hired from the south mafket of the east Capital Luoyang during Zhang's visit there in the first year of Dazhong reign of the Tang Dynasty.This man，whose name was Wang Xiong，was in his forties，and he agreed to work for a mere five hundred coins a month.He was an earnest and diligent man.Furthermore，he seemed to take delight in working and never waited to be told what to do.Zhang liked him so much that he offered to double his pay，but that was declined.This made the Zhangs hold lum in even higher regard.
At the end of the fifth year，however，aftef settling accounts，Wang told his master that he would like to quit.He had Lived quite well—off in the mountains，he explained，but in the face of an impending twist of fate，he had to apply himself to hard manual labor in order to avert it.In this way he was unlike those deprived laborers who worked for pay Now that misfortune had been warded off，it was time for him to go home，Mystified by the story，Zhang didn't venture to stop him.
Track Book Series
Selected Tales from Records of the Taiping Era Chinese-English $6.45
