How to Adjust When You Feel Unlucky? You'll Understand After Reading the Story of Zhang Liang Picking Up the Shoe

The most rewarding investment Zhang Liang made in his life was not hiring a strongman to hurl an iron cone at Qin Shi Huang at Bolangsha. That time, the cone hit the副 carriage, and he ended up becoming a class A wanted criminal, fleeing to Xiapi overnight under a new name—just like an internet celebrity hiding from debts.

To say his state back then was miserable would be an understatement: his status as a Korean noble was gone, his vast family fortune was squandered, and his revenge plan was stillborn. Anyone else would have been moping around all day, asking everyone how to adjust when you feel unlucky. But Zhang Liang was different. He still went for walks on the bridge every day, calling it "quietly observing the changing times," when in fact he was just bored out of his mind.

One day, as he was strolling along, an old man in coarse linen short clothes walked toward him. He looked ordinary, but he deliberately walked close to Zhang Liang's feet. The moment he got near, with a "plop," he kicked his shoe off the bridge.

The old man lifted his chin, his tone more arrogant than a boss changing requirements: "Boy, go down and get my shoe!"

Zhang Liang was stunned on the spot. With his fiery temper in the old days, he would have thrown a punch already—after all, he was a ruthless man who dared to hire someone to assassinate the First Emperor. But on second thought, the old man looked quite old, and if a fight really broke out, he wouldn't be able to explain himself even if he was in the right. Suppressing his anger, he went down the bridge and picked up the shoe.

The old man, pushing his luck, stretched out his foot: "Put it on for me!"

Zhang Liang was so angry he laughed. He thought, since I've already picked it up, I might as well do a good deed to the end. He knelt down and respectfully put the shoe on the old man. The old man didn't even thank him. He laughed loudly, turned around and left. After walking half a li, he turned back and dropped a line: "This boy is teachable. Five days from now, at dawn, meet me here."

Most people would probably think they'd run into a lunatic if this happened to them. But Zhang Liang had a vague feeling something was off—this old man had an unusual aura. He didn't纠结 about what to do when faced with a choice; his intuition told him this was worth waiting for.

On the first day of the meeting, Zhang Liang overslept. By the time he arrived, the old man was already on the bridge, and he gave him a tongue-lashing: "Late for an appointment with an old man? Come earlier in five days!"

The second time, Zhang Liang left home as soon as the rooster crowed, but the old man had arrived again first, and he got another scolding.

The third time, Zhang Liang simply went to squat on the bridge in the first half of the night. After waiting for a long time, the old man slowly sauntered over. This time he was satisfied: "That's more like it." He took out a scroll of book and handed it to him: "Read this, and you shall become the teacher of kings. In ten years, you will rise to prominence. In thirteen years, boy, you will see me at Jibei—the yellow stone at the foot of Gucheng Mountain is me."

This scroll of book was the legendary *Taigong's Art of War*.

Later, Zhang Liang followed Liu Bang to conquer the empire. How many times was Liu Bang beaten to a pulp by Xiang Yu? It was all thanks to Zhang Liang's ideas that he turned the tables. When Han Xin asked to be the acting King of Qi, Liu Bang was so angry he jumped up and down. Zhang Liang stomped on his foot under the table, and Liu Bang immediately changed his tune: "A real man should be a real king, what's the point of being an acting one!" This ability to improve one's judgment was all pondered from that scroll of book.

When Sima Qian wrote the *Hereditary House of Marquis of Liu*, he specifically put this story at the beginning, and added a line at the end, saying that when Zhang Liang later passed through Jibei, he indeed found a yellow stone at the foot of Gucheng Mountain, took it back, and enshrined it as a treasure. Some say this old man was a hermit, some say he was a stone that had become a spirit. In fact, there aren't so many strange things—he was just a wise man who had seen through the world, deliberately using the test of three pairs of shoes to pick a disciple who could keep his cool.

At the end of the day, luck, more often than not, is when you endure the anger that others can't endure, wait for the situation that others can't wait for, and when opportunity finally knocks on your door, you have the ability to catch it.