Long ago, in a small Chinese village, there lived an orphan boy named Ma Liang. He gathered firewood and herded animals for rich people, and he could barely get by. But he had one great dream: he loved to paint with all his heart.
Ma Liang had no money for a brush. So he drew birds in the sand with a stick, fish on stones with charcoal and clouds on the water with his finger. His birds looked alive, and his fish seemed to be swimming.
One day he peeped through the door of the school. The teacher was showing the children how to paint with a brush. "Teacher, please give me a brush too," asked Ma Liang. But the rich teacher drove him away. "What does a poor boy need a brush for?"
That night Ma Liang cried for a long time before he fell asleep. In his dream a kind old man with a white beard came to him. He placed in the boy's hand a brush that shone like gold and said, "Ma Liang, use it only for good. Help the poor."
When Ma Liang woke up, he really was holding a golden brush! Overjoyed, he painted a bird on the wall. The bird flapped its wings and flew out of the window. He painted a fish, and it leapt into a jar of water.
From that day on, Ma Liang helped the villagers. For an old man who had no plough, he painted a plough. For women tired of carrying water, he painted buckets. In the middle of the village he painted a well full of clear water. And for one poor family he painted a cow that gave milk.
News of the magic brush spread across the whole country, and at last it reached a greedy emperor. He sent soldiers, who brought Ma Liang to the palace. "Paint me gold!" ordered the emperor. Ma Liang refused. "I will not paint for greed."
The emperor was furious and threw Ma Liang into a dungeon. But at night Ma Liang painted a door on the wall, opened it and walked out. When the soldiers caught him again, the emperor tried a trick. "Very well, don't paint gold. Paint me the sea. I want to admire the sea."
Ma Liang thought for a moment and painted a wide, clear, calm sea. In the middle of the sea shone a mountain of pure gold. The emperor's eyes lit up. "Now paint a ship! I will sail to that mountain!"
Ma Liang painted a big ship. The emperor, his ministers and his soldiers went aboard and sailed towards the golden mountain. When the ship reached the middle of the sea, Ma Liang swept his brush and painted the wind. He swept it again, and great waves rose up.
"Enough! Stop!" shouted the emperor. But Ma Liang painted the wind stronger and stronger. The storm carried the ship far, far away, and it never came back.
Ma Liang returned to his village and helped the poor with his magic brush all his life. They say he later travelled to other villages and taught children to paint for free. And the birds he painted are said to be flying in the skies over China to this very day.
Пікір қалдыру (0 пікір бар)
Әзірге пікір ешкім қалдырмаған!
Пікір қалдыру