The Magical Brush

Once upon a time, there was a child whose name was Ma Liang. He likes drawing very much, but, the family is poor, even have no pen!

One day when he came back from herding cattle, he passed by the school and saw a painter with a pen drawing for a senior official. Ma Liang was so excited that he went in unconsciously. He said to the senior official and the painter, "Will you lend me a pen? I want to learn painting very much." The painter and the official laughed and said, "Even a poor boy wants to learn to paint!" So he drove Ma Liang out. Ma Liang angrily said: "partial don't believe, poor children can't even learn painting!"

From then on, he made up his mind to learn painting and practiced hard every day. When he went to the mountains to gather wood, he would break a branch and learn to trace birds in the sand. When he went to the river to cut grass, he dipped his roots in the water and painted fish on the beach. In the evening, when he returned home, he took a piece of charcoal and painted on the wall of the cave again, one by one, the things he had painted during the day. He learned to draw without a pen.

Year after year, Ma Liang never stopped studying painting. The walls of his cave house are covered with overlapping paintings. Of course, the progress is also very fast, is really the painting of the bird will not cry, the painting of the fish will not swim. Once, he drew a little hen at the entrance of the village, and there were hawks circling all day. Once, he painted a black Wolf behind a hill, so that cattle and sheep did not dare to eat grass behind the hill. But Ma Liang doesn't have a pen yet! He thought how nice it would be to have a pen of his own!

One night, Ma Liang was lying in his cave. He was very tired from working and studying painting all day. As soon as he lay down, he fell asleep.

At some point, the cave lit up with a burst of colorful light, and an old man with a white beard presented him with a pen: "This is a magic pen. Use it better!" Ma Liang took it over and saw that it was golden; It was heavy in my hand. He jumped up with joy: "Thank you, grandpa..." Before Ma Liang finished speaking, the old man with white beard had disappeared.

Startled, Ma Liang woke up and rubbed his eyes. It turned out to be a dream! But it's not a dream! The pen was perfectly in his own hand!

He was so happy that he ran out, knocked on every door, woke up his friends, and told them, "I have a pen!" It was only midnight! He drew a bird with his pen. It fluttered its wings, flew into the sky, and chirped and sang to him. He drew a picture of a fish, which, with its tail bent, swam into the water and danced to him. He was very happy and said: "This magic pen, how good!" With this magic pen, Ma Liang drew pictures for the poor people in the village every day. He would draw plows for those whose families did not have a plough or harrow. He would draw a picture of a cow for a family that did not have one; Whoever did not have a waterwheel, he drew him a waterwheel; He would draw a stone mill for anyone who didn't have one...

There is no impermeable wall in the world, and the news soon reached the ears of a rich man in the neighboring village. The rich man sent two families to arrest him and force him to paint.

Young as Ma Liang is, he was born a hard-core. He saw through the bad heart of the rich, and let the rich man coax and scare him into painting a gold ingot, but he would not do it. So the rich man shut him up in a stable and gave him no food.

In the evening, the snow has fallen profusely and disorderly, the ground has accumulated a thick layer. The rich man thought that if Ma Liang had not starved to death, he must have frozen to death. As he passed the door of the stable, he saw a red light coming from a crack in the door, and smelled a delicious smell. He felt strange, and looked close to the door. Ah! Not only did Ma Liang not DIE, but he also had a big stove burning and was eating hot cakes at the same time. The rich man knew that the oven and cake must have been drawn by Ma Liang with the magic brush, so he angrily went to call the family members and asked them to kill Ma Liang and take the magic brush. More than a dozen fierce family members rushed into the stable, but Ma Liang was nowhere to be found, only a ladder leaning against the east wall. Ma Liang took advantage of the darkness to climb the ladder and climb over the wall. The rich man hurried up the ladder to catch up, did not climb three steps, fell down. It turned out that this ladder was drawn by Ma Liang with a magic brush.

When Ma Liang left the rich man's house, he knew that he could not live in the village. He waved to his village and silently said, "Goodbye, my friends!" Ma Liang drew a beautiful horse with a magic brush, jumped on its back and ran to the road. He had not gone far when he heard a noise behind him. Looking back, he saw the torch shining brightly. The rich man, riding on a fast horse with a bright steel knife in his hand, was running after him with ten or twenty family members.

Seeing that he was about to catch up with him, Ma Liang took his time and drew a bow and an arrow with a magic brush. As soon as the arrow was on the string, it hit the rich man in the throat. The rich man turned and fell off his horse. Ma Liang patted the stallion, and the stallion galloped forward like flying.

Ma Liang ran on the road day and night for several days. When he arrived at a town, he saw how far he was from his hometown and settled there. He painted a lot of pictures and sold them in the neighborhood. Because he was afraid that others would know, he would not let the painting come to life, and the painting would either have a mouth or a broken leg.

One day, he drew a white crane with no eyes. Carelessly, splash a drop of ink on its face, the crane will open its eyes, fan wings fly to the sky.

The whole town was in shock. The local officials immediately reported the matter to the emperor. The emperor issued a decree and sent for him to go to Kyoto. Ma Liang refused to go, so they took him with them.

Ma Liang had heard many stories about emperors bullying the poor, and he hated them. How could he draw pictures for the emperor? The emperor asked him to draw a dragon, but he drew a large gecko; The emperor asked him to draw a phoenix, but he drew a crow instead. The big gecko and the big crow are very ugly, in the throne room crawling and Shouting, but also fight, make the palace black mess. The emperor was so angry that he ordered his guards to seize his magic pen and put him in prison.

The emperor got the magic brush and drew it himself. He first painted a mountain of gold. The greedy emperor painted one after another, painted one after another, piling up many paintings. Draw a good look, which is Jinshan! But piles of large stones; There was so much pressure on it that it collapsed, almost injuring the emperor's foot.

The emperor did not give up. He thought to himself, if he could not paint gold mountain, he would exchange gold bricks. He drew one too small, another too small, and finally a long, long strip. Draw a good look, which is a gold brick! But a long boa constrictor came at him with a wide mouth like a blood bowl. Fortunately, the guards saved fast, otherwise, the emperor had been eaten by a boa constrictor.

The emperor had no choice but to release Ma Liang, and then he said some nice things to him. He said that he would give him a lot of gold and silver, and that he would marry the princess to him and invite him to be a bridegroom.

Ma Liang wanted to take back the magic brush, he pretended to agree. When the emperor saw that Ma Liang agreed, he was very happy. He returned the magic pen to Ma Liang and asked him to paint for him. The emperor thought, painting gold mountain, gold bricks are not, then paint a cash cow tree! Money tree, long is money, gently shake, can fall a lot of money to come, how good it is! He asked Ma Liang to paint a cash cow.

Ma Liang made up his mind and said nothing. With a stroke of his magic pen, a boundless sea appeared in front of him. Blue sea water, without a ripple, shining like a big jade mirror. The emperor looked very unhappy, face a plate, cursing: "You were told to draw a cash cow, who told you to draw the sea!"

Ma Liang drew a small island in the middle of the sea with a big, tall tree on it and said, "Isn't this a money-making tree?" When the emperor saw the tree shining with a dazzling golden light, he gulped a little water in his throat. Then he began to laugh and said urgently to Ma Liang, "Hurry up and draw a ship! I'm going to shake my money in the middle of the ocean!" Ma Liang drew a big wooden boat. The emperor took the empress, the prince, the princess, and many ministers and generals and went aboard.

Ma Liang drew a few more strokes of wind. The waves of the sea set off the big wooden boat.

The emperor felt itchy and thought the ship was moving too slowly. He called out from the bow, "Wind is stronger! The wind is big! ..." Ma Liang added a few brushstrokes of wind. The sea began to stir, and the white sails filled to the brim, and the wooden boat moved rapidly toward the middle of the sea.

Malang added a few strong winds. The sea roared uneasily, rolling up the waves, and the big wooden boat rolled.

Frightened, the emperor shook his hand to Ma Liang and shouted, "Enough of the wind! Wind is enough! ..." Ma Liang pretended not to hear and kept drawing on the wind. The sea was angry, and the waves rushed over the boat. The ship tipped over and there was chaos on board.

The emperor, who was wet from the sea, clung to the mast of the ship and kept Shouting, "The wind is too strong! The boat is going to capsize! No more drawing! ..." Ma Liang ignored him and continued to paint. The wind grew stronger, and there were many thick black clouds, and loud noises, and lightning, and heavy rain. The waves grew stronger, and the water pressed down on the ship like a collapsed high wall. The ship capsized, broke into pieces, and the emperor and all of them sank to the bottom of the sea.

After the emperor died, the story of the magic pen Malang spread. However, it is not clear where Ma Liang went afterwards. Others said, "He went back to his hometown to be with his fellow farmers." Some said: He wandered around and painted pictures for many poor people.