Some much-needed skills for the season

張芬中丞在韋南康皋幕中，有一客於宴席上以籌椀中綠豆擊蠅，十不失一，一坐驚笑。芬曰：“無費吾豆。”遂指起蠅，拈其後腳，畧無脫者。

When Vice Censor-in-Chief Zhang Fen served as an advisor to Wei Gao [745-805], the Prince of Nankang, a guest at his banquet took green beans from a bowl of drinking game tokens to hit flies and hardly missed one out of ten. Everyone present laughed in surprise. [Zhang] Fen said, “Don’t waste my beans.” Then he seized flies with his fingers, pinching their hind legs; practically no fly could escape.

* Duan Chengshi 段成式 (803?-863), Youyang zazu 酉陽雜俎 (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1981), "Xuji" 續集, 4.238.

Album leaf by Qian Xuan 錢選 (1239-1301)

Image credit: National Palace Museum, Taipei