Although Chen Yaozi was a civil official in Song Dynasty, he loved archery very much, and was pretty good at it.

One day he was practicing in his own field, and eight or nine times out of ten he hit the target. He became quite complacent.

Looking around, he found an old man who sells oil standing nearby. And the old man only nodded slightly towards his skills, not amazed. Angered by this, he called the old man to come over and asked him, "Do you also know archery? Aren't my skills brilliant?" The old man took out a gourd from the wicker-basket and placed it on the ground. He covered the opening of the gourd with a copper coin. And then he scooped a spoon of oil and began to pour the oil into the gourd through the hole in the coin drop by drop without wetting the coin. The old man said to Chen Yaozi, "This is only practice makes perfect, nothing so brilliant." Chen Yaozi laughed and sent him away.

宋朝大臣陳堯咨雖然是進(jìn)士出身，卻愛好射箭，而且技藝不俗。

一天，他在自家的場(chǎng)地上演習(xí)，中靶率高達(dá)百分之八九十，心中大為得意。

四周一看，發(fā)現(xiàn)旁邊站了很久的一位賣油的老頭對(duì)此只是微微點(diǎn)點(diǎn)頭，并不特別驚訝，頓時(shí)無名火起，將老頭叫過來，問道：“你也懂射箭嗎?我的技術(shù)難道不高明嗎?”老頭從筐里取出一只葫蘆，放在地上，用一枚銅錢蓋住葫蘆口，舀出一勺油，通過錢眼，一滴一滴倒進(jìn)葫蘆里，銅錢上一星油跡也沒有。老頭對(duì)陳堯說：“我這不過是熟能生巧，談不上什么高明。”陳堯咨笑笑，將老頭打發(fā)走了。