Original Text
Ju Yaoru was a native of Qingzhou. After his wife died, he abandoned his home and wandered away. Several years later, he returned wearing a Taoist robe and carrying a meditation cushion. After staying for just one night, he was about to leave again, but his relatives and clansmen, hoping to keep him, forcibly retained his robe and staff. Using the pretext of taking a walk, Ju Yaoru went outside the village, and the robe and staff left behind in the house flew out on their own, following him away.
Commentary
In the Han dynasty, Wang Chong in his "Balanced Discourses" chapter on "The Way and the Void" recounted that when the Prince of Huainan studied the Way, "his entire household ascended to heaven, and even his livestock became immortals," using the ten words "dogs bark in the heavens, cocks crow among the clouds" to vividly depict the grand spectacle after the Prince of Huainan's family attained immortality. This tale, however, uses the phrase "the garments and implements within the room all drifted out slowly, following him away" to portray the unrestrained nature of Ju Yaoru after he attained the Way, drifting away freely. The former is substantial, possessing a sense of space; the latter is light and ethereal, imbued with movement—both achieve the same effect through different means, each a masterful stroke of narrative.