Translation:
Xue Tan learned to sing with Qin Qing, but he didn't finish learning Qin Qing's skills. He thought he had finished learning and left for home. Qin Qing didn't dissuade him and sent him to the roadside outside the city. Qin Qing sang an elegy while playing.
The singing made the trees along the road tremble and the flying clouds in the air stopped. ? Xue Tan (after listening) apologized (to Qin Qing) and asked to go back (to continue singing with Qin Qingxue), and never said that he would go back for a lifetime.
Original text:
Xue Tan studied in Qin Qing, but he didn't lack Qin Qing's skills, so he said he would do it, so he resigned. Qin Qing, stop. In the suburbs, touching elegies, shaking trees, very sonorous. Xue Tan thanked him for his rebellion and never dared to say anything again.
This ancient prose tells people that there is no end to learning, and never be complacent with small achievements.
Extended data:
Xue Tan's biography comes from the ancient Liezi Tang Wen, which tells us to be open-minded and eager to learn, pursue more knowledge and ask more questions. Don't study lightly, be open-minded and persist.
Liezi, a thinker in the early Warring States Period, appeared repeatedly in Zhuangzi, and his theory was close to Zhuangzi, so he was an important Taoist figure in the pre-Qin period. Many chapters in Liezi are similar to those in Zhuangzi. This passage is from Liezi Huangdi, and there are similar words in Zhuangzi's Theory of All Things, with the same meaning and slightly reduced words.