Three Seasons

It is said that one day, a man came to the place where Confucius taught. I saw a young man cleaning the yard at the gate of the compound. He stepped forward and asked, "Are you a student of Confucius?" The young man replied proudly, "Yes. What do you think?" "I heard that Confucius was a famous teacher, so you must also be a disciple, right?" "Ashamed. "Then I want to ask you a question. Is that okay?" Kowtow three times.” The young man thought to himself, here comes the kicker. For the sake of the teacher's reputation, he readily replied: "Okay." "Actually, my question is very simple. Just tell me how many seasons there are in a year?" "Four seasons!" the young man blurted out without thinking. "No, there are only three seasons in a year!" "Four seasons!!" "Three seasons!!" "Four seasons!!!" The young man said confidently. "Three Seasons!!!" The visitor showed no sign of weakness. During the debate, Confucius came out of the courtyard. As if he had found a savior, the young man stepped forward to explain the whole story and let Confucius comment. I thought to myself, let’s see how you will step down? Unexpectedly, Confucius said to his student: "There are only three seasons in a year. You lose. Go ahead and kowtow to others." The visitor clapped his hands and laughed and said, "Kowtow three times quickly!" The young man was confused. But the teacher said so, it means losing. As a last resort, he had no choice but to step forward and kowtow three times to the visitor. When the visitor saw this, he laughed and left. After the visitor left, the young man hurriedly asked the teacher: "This is different from what you taught, and there are indeed four seasons in a year, teacher!" "Usually, you are not convinced when I say you are stupid. I will teach you now: This person has four seasons. Green. When arguing with you, he insisted that there are only three seasons in a year. He is clearly a grasshopper. He lives in spring and dies in autumn. He has only experienced spring, summer and autumn in his life, so he has never seen winter. There is no concept of "winter" in my mind. Even if you fight with such a person for three days and three nights, there will be no result. If you don't obey him, how can he leave so easily? I made a small mistake, but I learned a lot about being good." After saying that, the young disciple waved his sleeves and left with a confused look on his face.