A GROUP OF travelers made its way along the winding Ahighway heading northwest from the city of Chengdu and arrived at a bridge. In front was a young man on horseback, clad in a gray robe, and with a gray cloth turban on his head. At his waist hung a sword sheathed a magnificently-decorated scabbard. As he rode with the breeze fluttering the hems of his garment, the youth made an unusually elegant figure. Behind him came a group of servants, some carrying loaded shoulder poles and others pushing one-wheeled luggage barrows.

The name of this bridge was Ascension to Heaven Bridge. Anyone traveling north from Chengdu to Chang'an, the capital of the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC-24 AD), had to cross it. Legend had it that its construction had been fraught with difficulties. Previously, the only way to cross the river had been by ferry, and as this part of the river was particularly turbulent and subject to frequent high winds, the crossing was hazardous. Since time immemorial, people had lost their lives struggling to cross. A number of attempts had been made to bridge this dangerous stretch of the river by prefects of Chengdu in the early years of the dynasty on several occasions, but the rapids had defeated the buildersc time. Then one night the chief engineer of the latest attempt had had a dream, in which a white-haired old man appeared to him. The old man told him that some little distance away from the construction site, at a bend in the river, there was a stone on the riverbed, if the bridge were erected there it would stand firm. Upon awaking and realizing that he had only been dreaming, the chief engineer felt chagrined. Nevertheless, he dispatched some of his men to investigate the riverbed at the spot indicated by the vision in his dream, Sure enough, his men reported chat there was indeed a huge stone in the riverbed in exactly thar place. Its surface was flat and smooth, and there was a large indentation in the middle of it. Delighted at this news, the chief engineer lost no time moving the construction site to the spot. Within a month, the bridge was completed. On the day of its opening, the whole population of Chengdu flocked to witness the ceremony. Gazing on the jostling throng, the chief engineer was astonished to see among them a white-haired old man wearing a toothless grin and chortling with delight dream! The chief engineer forced his way through the crowd to where the old man was standing. Taking the old fellow by the hand, he asked him his name and where he was from. But the old man, every - the very image of the old gaffer he had seen in his still laughing, simply said, "Now, at last, Chengdu is connected with the capital!"

Then, before the eyes of the chief engineer and the gaping onlookers, the old man began to rise slowly up in the air. Eventually, he disappeared among the clouds A gasp ran through the multitude: "An immortal!" And from then on, the bridge was • called the Ascension to Heaven Bridge.

But another wonder followed a few days later. When preparations were being made to carve the name of the bridge upon a wooden pillar, it was found that an inscription had already appeared on it, which read: "In fifty years' time a worthy man will cross here, and he will achieve immortal fame."

The characters were written in an ancient script,but the incredible thing about them was that they had nor been carved by any human hand; instead, they seemed to follow the natural grain of the wood. The carvers dared not lay chisel to this eerie pillar, but instead carved the words Ascension to Heaven Bridge on a stone stele. Although this was in contravention of the regulations at that time, the preternatural aura which had come to surround the bridge made the prefect waive the rules for once.

The young rider was perfectly at his ease as he trotted along. Not so his servants following him on foot, huffing and puffing. At last, one of them, named Puppy Carrier, called out, "Young Master, can't we have a bit of a breather when we get to the bridge?"

There is an interesting story behind this lad's unusual name

. The young man on horseback was Sima Xiangru, the only son of a distinguished Chengdu family, His father, Sima Gong, had once been a government official, and had retired to his native city. He had amassed great wealth during his career, but did not have a son to pass it on to. Not until he was in his forties did he succeed in becoming a father. The boy was the apple of his father's eye, and, as the custom was in those days that the more one valucd one's offspring the lowlier a name one gave him, in order to deter jealous deities snatching him out of this world for themselves, they called him Puppy. When the boy was three or four years old, he once saw his father riding a horse. At once, he burst into tears, and howled that he too wanted to ride a horse. Sima Gong was delighted, assuming that this was a sign that his son would achieve noble status in the future, as horse riding was a symbol of an aristocratic position. But Puppy was scarcely more than a baby; how could he ride a horse? As he was pondering whether to take the boy on the horse with him, a servant lad nearby volunteered to act as Puppy's "horse". It turned out that Puppy was delighted with his steed, and Sima Gong was impressed with the young servant's nimble wits. He asked the lad his name, and when the latter confessed that he did not have one, guffawed, "Well, you shall have one from now on --Puppy carrier!"

Sima Gong had meant this only as a joke, but, to his surprise, the servant lad kowtowed in gratitude for at last been given a name of his own.

Sima Gong's son was still being called Sima Puppy at the age of nine, and the growing boy found it irksome. Then, one day, while reading the "Story of Lin Xiangru, "he was so impressed by 1Lin's Courage and resourcefulness that he determined to model himselr on this hero, and as a first step adopted the name Xiangru.

Incredible as it may seem, Sima Xiangru, even before he had reached the age of ten, displayed such genius.

He was able to read classical works on his own. A neighbor, named Yang, had made his fortune in trade, but to his great regret had never managed to gain an oficial post. Yang's burning ambition was to have his son educated so that the boy could bring glory on the family name by entering started his lessons as early as possible. Yang Deyi was one year older than Sima Puppy, and he soon took delight in flaunting his learning by reciting poems from the Book of Songs in front of the unlettered playmate. Sima Puppy, however, was unimpressed, and one day, when the other boy was ostentatiously reading a book of ancient poems aloud, said to Yang Deyi: "You've been studying those poems for half a year. I don't see anything so marvelous in that. Why, it wouldn't take me three days to master them." Secretly smarting from Deyi's air of superiority, Sima Puppy went straight home and badgered his father to let him start studying too. This came as a pleasant surprise to Sima Gong, who the very next day arranged for his son to study at the Yang's house together with his playmate. Deyi's tutor, happy to double his salary, agreed with enthusiasm.

Sima Puppy proved to be such an enthusiastic student that in less than six months he had memorized and could recite fluently 230 poems from the Book of Songs. The tutor was amazed; in his long teaching career he had never met such an intelligent student. Sadly, however, Sima Puppy's discovery of his own genius gave rise to overbearing conceit, which eventually drove his teacher to expel him .

By this time, Sima Puppy had attained a level of scholarship at which he no longer needed instruction, but could make satisfactory progress alone. However, boys will be boys, and one day when he went over to play with Yang Deyi it happened that the teacher was absent. Noticing the teacher's dictionary on a table, Puppy distracted Deyi's attention, and slipped the dictionary under his shirt. Later, the teacher, after looking high and low for the volume and being unable to find it concluded that his pupil must have lost it, and berated the boy soundly. The result was that the teacher was dismissed from the Yang household. To his dying day he never found out what had happened to the dictionary.

Back at the bridge, Sima Xiangru tugged at the reins, bringing his horse to a halt. His servants lost no time putting down their burdensome items and sprawling on the ground to rest their weary limbs, while their master dismounted, handed his horse to the care of Puppy Carrier, and strolled up to the bridge itself. Xiangru was moved by the grandeur of the edifice and the rushing torrent below. Catching sight of the bold inscription Ascension to Heaven Bridge, he blurted Sima Xiangru!" "If there is an immortal here, let him please help ano So saying, he drew his sword, and started to carve a vertical line of characters beside the inscription.