If Mohammed won’t go to the mountain, the mountain will have to come to Mohammed

The expression “If Mohammed won’t go to the mountain, then the mountain will have to come to Mohammed.” gives a concise form to a practical solution in the story: when an elderly tutor cannot be persuaded to travel to China, someone from Grandmother Rong’s family must go to him instead. The proverb’s reversal becomes a journey undertaken in the hope of extending her life, though its outcome is tragically late.

Meaning and Function

The line converts an obstacle into a change of direction. The tutor’s arrival in China is impossible: he is already wealthy, has no interest in making more money, and is old enough that a voyage across the ocean might frighten him to death. Rather than press him to come, the young man suggests sending someone overseas to study. The expression names that adjustment: if the desired person will not come to the seeker, the seeker must go to the desired person.

The Expression Put into Action

The task requires a grandson who is both devoted to Grandmother Rong and able to master dream interpretation and divination quickly. After considering her many descendants, the family selects twenty-year-old Rong Zilai. He sets out across the ocean with a letter of recommendation and the burden of learning how to prolong his grandmother’s life. In this episode, the saying is more than a general maxim: its logic becomes the plot’s literal arrangement of teacher, pupil, and distance.

Reversal and Consequence

During Rong Zilai’s passage, Grandmother Rong dreams that a typhoon swallows his ship and sends him to his death. The terror of the dream causes cardiac arrest, and she dies in her sleep. When Rong Zilai finally stands before the tutor and presents his letter, the old man gives him a letter announcing her death. The journey fulfills the proverb’s practical logic but cannot fulfill its purpose: the student reaches the teacher only after the person he hoped to save is gone. The narration underscores the distance between intention and result by observing that information travels faster than people.