"Flower-Plucking Records": A jade flute sends blossoms flying and falling; three songs calm the tide amid water and clouds-Cat's Words

Wind and mist rose unbidden along the immortal road; light dust swirled and filled the azure sky.

A jade flute sent blossoms flying and falling; three songs calmed the tide amid water and clouds.

-Guan Pingchao's Dust Along the Immortal Road; encountering immortals on the Dao Path; Cat's Words (2006.07.06)

"On Guan Pingchao's Dust Along the Immortal Road" by Cat's Words

Brilliant gems, crystalline and radiant, have always been beloved. Yet before a craftsman has carefully cut and polished one, a gem is merely an utterly unremarkable stone, scarcely worth a second glance.

Every soul-stirring story, too, is like an uncut gemstone. Only when its creator gives full rein to the ideas within, flourishing them into words beneath their hand-as though polishing rough stone into the shining face of a jewel-does it reveal its alluring qualities and draw countless readers to follow it.

Elegant and free of worldly vulgarity, Dust Along the Immortal Road is one such captivating story. "A muted radiance held within"-that is my appraisal of it.

In truth, at first I had little faith in Dust Along the Immortal Road. Its language seemed quite graceful and pleasing, but plenty of other writers were no worse. I always felt the book lacked a certain flavor. It was like viewing flowers through mist, like fishing the moon from water. The plot was drawn-out and fragmented, plodding along like an old ox pulling a cart, and many passages left me feeling that the scratching never quite reached the itch.

Reading it left me both impatient and angry, muttering inwardly, Squandering such wonderful material-Old Guan! Can you actually do this or not? If you can't, you'd be better off stopping early and letting someone else take over, rather than leading countless people astray later!

Fortunately, Guan Pingchao never heard my thoughts