"Never give up" takes on an interestingly new perspective with the popular Chinese fable "愚公移山 (yúgōngyíshān) Yu Gong Yi Shan". The story presents a magnifying look into the Chinese culture, a motivational pep talk, as well as an interesting lesson on how to use "聪明 (cōngmíng) clever" and "愚蠢 (yúchǔn) foolish" in Chinese.

The story is centered around a man called Yu Gong or literally "Mr. Fool. Mr. Fool takes it upon himself to literally move a couple of mountains that sit outside his home, as he finds that they are a nuisance to his comfort. He attempts to dig up the mountain and insists on persistently going at it, no matter what. Later on, the heavenly God learned about Yu Gong's story, was highly impressed, and helped him. Yu Gong finally, after much persistence, succeeded.

Take notes of the following vocabulary words in the fable:

聪明 (Cōngmíng) intelligent; bright; clever
愚蠢 (Yúchǔn) stupid; foolish; silly

The story is a familiar, yet interesting takes on "never giving up". The exact script of the story is as follows:

Cóngqián, yǒu yì míng lǎorén, míng jiào Yú Gōng, kuài jiǔ shí suì le.
从前，有一名老人，名叫愚公，快九十岁了。
Once upon a time, there was an old man named Yu Gong (Mr. Fool), who was about ninety years old.

Tā jiā de ménkǒu yǒu liǎng zuò dà shān, yí zuò jiào Tàihángshān, yí zuò jiào Wángwūshān.
他家的门口有两座大山，一座叫太行山，一座叫王屋山。
There were two mountains just outside his house, one was Taihang Mountain, and the other was Wangwu Mountain,

Yīnwèi zhè liǎng zuò dà shān, tā měicì chūmén dōu fēicháng bù fāngbiàn.
因为这两座大山，他每次出门都非常不方便。
Because of the two mountains, it was very troublesome each time he'd step outside.

Learn Further About The Versatile Chinese Word: 方便 (Fāngbiàn)!

Suóyǐ tā juédìng yí zǒu zhè liǎng zuò dà shān.
所以他决定移走这两座大山。
So he decided to literally remove both mountains.

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