The Old Man Who Moved Mountains

The Mountains in the Way

In the north of China, long ago, there lived an old man whom everyone simply called the Foolish Old Man, for he was already ninety years old and still full of big ideas. He lived with his family at the foot of two enormous mountains, called Taihang and Wangwu. They were so high they seemed to touch the clouds, and so wide that they blocked the way completely.

Every time the old man or anyone in his family wished to go to the village, or to market, or to visit a friend, they had to walk a long, weary path all the way around the mountains. The journey took days. They were tired of it, and the mountains never moved an inch to help.

One evening the old man gathered his family together. "Those two mountains have stood in our way all our lives," he said. "I have decided we shall dig them away, every stone of them, until the path before our house runs flat and straight to the sea. What do you say?"

The Work Begins

His sons and grandsons cheered. "Yes! Let us begin!" Only his wife had a doubt.

"You can barely lift a basket of earth at your age," she said gently. "How can you move two whole mountains? And where on earth would you put all that rock and soil?"

"We will carry it to the sea," the old man answered, "a little each day."

So the very next morning, the whole family set to work. The old man, his sons, and his grandsons broke up the rock with simple tools and loaded the earth into baskets. They carried the baskets all the way to the edge of the sea and tipped them out, then walked all the way back. The journey was so long that they could only make one trip between the start of summer and the start of winter.

It was slow, slow work. But every day they dug, and every day a little more of the mountain was carried away.

The Wise Man's Mockery

Now, in a nearby village lived a man who thought himself very clever. People called him the Wise Old Man. When he saw the family chipping away at the giant mountains with their little baskets, he laughed out loud.

"What foolishness!" he called. "You are an old, old man, too weak to pull up even the weeds in your own garden. How could you ever move a mountain? You will be dead long before you shift even a corner of it. Give up this silly dream!"

The Foolish Old Man set down his basket and looked at him calmly.

"You think you are clever," he said, "but you cannot see past the end of your own life. Listen. It is true that I am old and may die. But when I die, my sons will keep digging. When my sons die, their sons will keep digging. And their sons after them. My family will go on and on, forever, without end."

He pointed at the mountains. "But these mountains cannot grow any taller. They cannot grow any wider. Every basket of earth we carry away is gone for good and will never come back. So tell me — if we never stop, and the mountains can only get smaller, how can we possibly fail? One day, however long it takes, the path will be flat."

The Wise Old Man opened his mouth to argue, but he found he had nothing to say. The Foolish Old Man was not so foolish after all.

Help from the Heavens

The story does not end there. High above, the spirits of the mountains heard the old man's words, and they grew worried. For they could see that he meant exactly what he said — that his family truly would dig on, year after year, century after century, and never, ever stop.

The spirits hurried to report this to the Emperor of Heaven. And the Emperor of Heaven, moved by the old man's astonishing determination, decided to help. He sent two mighty sons of a giant to lift the two great mountains and carry them far away — one to the east, one to the south.

When the Foolish Old Man and his family woke the next morning, the mountains were gone. Before their house stretched a wide, flat plain, with a clear road running straight to the sea. No more long detours. No more weary days of walking. The way was open at last.

The Power of Not Giving Up

People told this story for hundreds of years afterward, and they remembered the old man not as foolish at all, but as wise in the deepest way. He understood something the clever man never grasped: that no task is truly impossible if you are willing to keep at it, patiently, one small step after another, and to let those who come after you carry on the work.

The mountains were enormous. The man was old and weak. His tools were only baskets and hands. And yet, in the end, the mountains moved.

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The moral: Great things are not done in a single day, and not always by a single person. With patience, steady effort, and the will to never give up, even mountains can be moved.

Want more world folktales? Try The Tortoise and the Hare or The Crow and the Pitcher next.