Xiangru leaves chengdu for capital 3

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.