After attaining immortality, the Taoist patriarch Wang Chongyang received a divine decree to wander the land and guide others toward enlightenment.
One moonlit night, Wang Chongyang sat beneath a pine tree at the foot of Beimang Mountain outside Xi'an, resting with his eyes closed. In a haze, he heard singing and saw a figure in the darkness whose clothes didn't stir in the wind and whose shadow was indistinguishable from the moonlight—it was a female ghost.
The female ghost saw Wang Chongyang and knew she had encountered a true master, so she begged him to release her soul from suffering. Wang Chongyang instructed her to first descend to the mortal world, be reborn as a woman, and repay the karmic debts of five lifetimes; he added that in twenty years, a Daoist master named Ma, who would wear his hair in a triangular topknot, would come to liberate her. The deity in charge of reincarnation at the Eastern Peak Hall then led the ghost to be reborn in the Liu family of Bianliang, where she was named Liu Qianjiao.
Twenty years later, Liu Qianjiao had blossomed into a graceful young woman, skilled in music, dance, poetry, and calligraphy—a celebrated courtesan of Bianliang. On the Double Ninth Festival, the local officials held a grand feast and summoned her to entertain them.
Liu Qianjiao, after dressing up meticulously, headed toward the government office. In a narrow alley, she lost her way and spotted a Taoist priest in a patched robe with a topknot of three buns approaching. She stepped forward to ask for directions. The priest looked at her and chuckled, "I've just run into an old friend who returned from the dead after 20 years." Liu Qianjiao was baffled and replied, "I'm only 21—how could I be your old friend from 20 years ago?"
It turned out this Taoist was Ma Danyang, a disciple of Wang Chongyang, sent to the mortal world to find the female ghost from twenty years ago. He urged Liu Qianjiao to leave the mundane realm and return to the righteous path. But Liu Qianjiao, remembering nothing of her past life, thought the Taoist was simply mad. Badgered beyond endurance, she said to Ma Danyang, "I am in the prime of my youth, with a willowy waist and a begonia's bloom. I wear gold and silver, nestle in silk and rouge—how comfortable I am! What benefit would I gain by becoming a nun?" She begged him to let her go and not delay her official duties.
Ma Danyang, seeing her stubborn refusal to change, stamped his feet in frustration: "This unyielding Sister Liu, trying to guide you is like sifting gold from sand, striking fire from stone, or fishing the moon from water—impossible!"
At that time, Liu Qianjiao was deeply in love with a wealthy man named Lin, who already had a wife and children, and she planned to marry him as his concubine. Ma Danyang, knowing Liu Qianjiao was too attached to worldly pleasures and her heart was too entangled in mortal desires, pursued her to her home to enlighten her. He asked, "Where is your twenty years of spiritual devotion?" Liu Qianjiao retorted sharply, "You reject the bonds of ruler and subject, father and son, and abandon ancestral traditions—people like you should become monks! I would rather marry Lin." Ignoring Ma Danyang's persistence, she dozed off on the side.
Ma Danyang noticed her dozing off and devised a plan. Using his powers, he summoned the reincarnated Dongyue Judgment Deity, who sent a dream to Liu Qianjiao revealing the full story of her reincarnation twenty years prior, urging her to follow Master Ma and turn back. Liu Qianjiao finally began to awaken and agreed to leave the mundane world with Ma Danyang to cultivate the Dao. Yet, still attached to human life, she hesitated the moment she saw Squire Lin, unable to let go of her beloved. Seeing Ma Danyang's relentless pursuit, Squire Lin grabbed hold of him and threatened to take him to the authorities.
Ma Danyang, unable to escape, had no choice but to use his magic again, summoning Squire Lin's wife and children to cause a commotion. When Lin's wife discovered her husband had secretly taken a concubine, she flew into a rage, grabbing him and threatening to drag him to the authorities. Squire Lin, panicked and utterly bewildered, was at a complete loss.
The commotion fully awakened Liu Qianjiao, and she remembered events from twenty years ago. Ma Danyang then recounted Liu Qianjiao's past life to the crowd, and everyone suddenly understood. Breaking free from Squire Lin's attempts to stop her, Liu Qianjiao shed her red dress, donned plain clothes, renounced worldly attachments, and followed Ma Danyang to receive the secret of immortality before departing to meet the immortals.
The idiom "fishing the moon from water" refers to scooping the moon from the water. It later describes empty illusions and wasted effort in attempting the impossible.
Source: Yang Jingxian (Yuan Dynasty), *Liu Xing Shou*
Meaning of the Idiom: Later, the Chinese idiom "水中捞月" came to describe empty illusions and wasted effort in attempting the impossible.