As the saying goes, "There is only one step between genius and madness." Although this is not always the case, it is normal for talented people to have a little quirk.
There was a literati in ancient China who was regarded as crazy because of his clothing, behavior and attitude towards calligraphy, painting and precious stones, so he was nicknamed "Mi Man". This person is the great calligrapher Mi Fu.
Mi Fu is a famous calligrapher, connoisseur, painter, and collector, who calls himself Lumen layman. Because he could not respect the world as an official, his official career was not smooth.
This article does not talk about Mi Fu’s fascination with calligraphy, painting and precious stones, nor his plight in his official career, but only about his mysophobia that was so serious that he was in his bones. The little habits that come from mysophobia are hard to understand.
The most intuitive manifestation of patients with mysophobia is washing their hands many times for a long time, and Mi Fu is no exception in this regard. According to historical records, Mi Fu had to wash his hands at least a dozen times a day. The weirdest thing is that he never wipes his hands with a towel after washing them, and just waits for them to dry naturally. The reason is that he feels that the towel is not clean, and wiping it with a towel after washing his hands will make his hands dirty again.
Mi Fu never eats boiled eggs because he feels they are unclean. To put it crudely, eggs are pulled out by chickens from the same place as chicken droppings. Mi Fu believes that boiled eggs will have the smell of chicken feces cooked into the eggs. It's nothing at first, but what should I do if I can't look directly at the boiled eggs?
Mysophobia not only affected his own life, but also affected his daughter’s lifelong events. Marrying a daughter should be an important stage in a father's life.
Most fathers choose a son-in-law for their daughters based on their character, talent, family background, and their own abilities. It depends on whether the man's conditions are good and whether his daughter can live a good life after marrying him. It depends on the person's character and whether he will treat his daughter well in the future.
But Mi Fu didn’t. He chose a son-in-law for his daughter based on whether he was clean. This cleanliness is not only limited to the aspect of life, but also rises to the subjective aspect.
At that time, Mi Fu had many choices for his son-in-law, but in the end he chose a man named Duan Fuchen. Mi Fu's explanation is: "With a whisk and dust removed, I am truly my son-in-law. Looking at this name, he is a clean person."
This young man can't help but dress neatly, and even his name is brushed with dust. , he is really a clean man, and he should be my son-in-law! So, Mi Fu chose his son-in-law.
People often say that Mi Fu has mysophobia. At first, the emperor didn’t believe it. Later, he accidentally got a note from Mi Fu, which said: "The court boots are held by others, and I hate them. Because it was washed many times, it was damaged and could no longer be worn." Then I believed it. This is true for just one pair of shoes, let alone anything else.
Just because someone accidentally picked up the wrong pair of his boots, he felt uncomfortable and kept washing them until they were completely ruined. This move is really difficult for ordinary people to understand.
In fact, Mi Fu was not the only literati with mysophobia, Ni Yunlin of the Four Yuan Dynasties was also one of them. It is said that when he washed his face, he had to constantly change the water to keep it clean. The family hired two servants to clean the furniture constantly. The trees planted at home are fine, but they have to be washed every day, which kills the trees.
There is another very funny thing. It is said that he drank only the first bucket brought by the servant. Everyone found it strange and asked him why. He actually replied that the bucket of water at the back was contaminated by the servant's ***, which was very particular!
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