Ma Liang’s Magic Brush

Drawings Come Alive

A poor boy’s magic brush makes paintings real — he uses it to aid the poor and foil an emperor.

Ma Liang, a poor boy who loves to draw, is given a magic brush by a white-bearded elder in a dream: whatever he paints becomes real. He paints an ox for the village and a well for the thirsty; when the emperor seizes the brush and commands a mountain of gold, Ma Liang paints the sea, a boat and a storm — and the emperor is never seen again. The brush serves only the honest hand.