Chapter 26: The Legend of Laozi's Statue

As soon as Mr. Tyler finished speaking, someone from the crowd shouted loudly, "Mr. Tyler, what we heard was incomplete. Please tell us more." "Alright." Mr. Tyler cleared his throat. "Yang Huizi had already gained a great reputation during the reign of Emperor Taizong of Tang. During the era of Empress Wu Zetian, she summoned him to the palace and gave him an almost impossible task: to carve the entire text of the tao te ching (a fundamental text for both philosophical and religious Taoism) on a jade stone with the size of a small fingernail." "Presumably, Empress Wu Zetian just wanted to give Yang Huizi a hard time. After all, he was renowned as a master sculptor, and that didn't sit well with her, the ruler of the dynasty at the time." "This challenge didn't stump Yang Huizi. He completed the task in just three years." Mr. Tyler pointed to the large screen. "Yang Huizi carved this statue of Laozi and engraved the complete text of the 5,162 characters of the tao te ching on a tiny