Laotzu was by himself at his house in the woods studying the ways of chi. A chi of power is capable of raising a stone weighing ten ocques (and which the barbarians would say weighed 27 pounds) at one hundredth of a mile a minute. By centering his awareness, and by means of a pulley, the sage could cause a stone of this weight to rise into the air at exactly that speed. In this way Laotzu caused a chi of power to flow into the stone.
Suddenly the sage heard many explosions coming from across the lake and noticed a cloud of black smoke rising from the shore. He lowered the stone he had been raising and assumed an attitude of repose. Soon Confucius appeared driving an automobile along the shore of the lake with the three dervishes in the back seat.
I believe the car was a 100 ponypower Yoga sedan. The engines of these Yogas are rated in half-horsepowers called ponies, so it was really only 50 horsepower. In any case it now belonged to the three dervishes. Gypsies had traded it to them for their three donkeys. The new owners did not understand their Yoga and even experienced difficulty getting it started—so Confucius had offered to be their driver.
"This wagon has a thousand chi of power," declared Confucius. Indeed a thousand chi is is equivalent to the 100 pony rating and has the additional advantage of sounding more Chinese.
*
Copyright © 2002 Leonard Cottrell. All rights reserved.
Table of Contents