Chia Koua Vang, who was a student of Shong Lue Yang, says that Shong Lue habitually spoke in cryptic, indirect speech. From birth he had spiritual illumination that enabled him to know everything. He was gifted to know people's feelings and thoughts, including their good or bad intentions, so that in answering someone's question or in teaching, he would do so according to that person's nature. All of Shong Lue's teaohing and answers were delivered to people in cryptio language because he was born at a time when human beings were very deceitful [and the truly good people would be able to interpret the cryptio language, but it could not be held against him by evil people]. Therefore, whoever oannot translate these cryptio messages [correctly] will not know the truth.

Shong Lue refuses to teach Chi a Koua

In 1966, when Shong Lue lived with Yong Chue Yang in the city of Long Cheng, Chia Koua Vang [then a neighbor] saw Shong Lue as a poor person, and not especially intelligent [because he did not talk much, did not volunteer information, was withdrawn and behaved like a poor, uneducated individual], unlike the way he had been portrayed by many others. But Chia Koua was curious to find out how Shong Lue knew the Pahawh writing system for the Hmong language, because over many generations no Hmong person had been able to invent a script for Hmong people to learn.

Curious to know the script and the truth surrounding it, Chia Koua approached Shong Lue at Yong Chue's residence and asked him, "Are you Mother of Writing [the source of the Hmong script]?" Shong Lue did not answer at first, [but after three or four     minutes] he glanced at Chia Koua and said: "Yes, I am. What do you want to ask me?" Handing Shong Lue a writing pad and a ballpoint pen, Chia Koua then said, "Some time ago, we [the military unit by General Vang Pao] went to rescue you [from the communists], and I learned some of your Pahawh [from a student of yours], but I still do not know how many letters there are in all. I would like to ask you to write all of them down for me." Shong Lue took the pad and the ballpoint pen, quickly began to write a few of the characters, and handed them back. Chia Koua looked at them and saw that there were fewer than he had formerly learned. He told Shong Lue that the characters he had learned looked different from these and that there had been more of them. "Can you tell me why the difference between the two?" he asked Shong Lue. [Shong Lue had written down only a few examples of the Second Stage Reduced Version characters, where as Chia Koua had earlier learned the Source Version.]

"That's all I know," Shong Lue replied [in his indirect way, testing Chia Koua, as he did all inquirers who came to him]. "I don't know how to teach you, so go and ask someone else to do so." [He did not tell Chia Koua to go and learn from one of his students, as he often told other inquirers.] Even after a long wait [of two hours or so] Shong Lue still refused to teach him anything, so Chia Koua went home. But from that time on Chia Koua went every day to see Shong Lue [approaching him when nobody else was there] and kept asking him to teach him, but without success [as he was always politely refused]. Later when Shong Lue moved out to settle in the village of Nam Ngua, Chia Koua kept going back to see him almost every night, waiting for Shong Lue to teach him, but the latter still flatly refused. He joined other disciples congregated there every night at Shong Lue's house.

Shong Lue selects Chia Koua as his disciple

Then one night Shong Lue said to him, "I know you are a good and righteous man who is seeking the truth. I am going to teach you, but learning is difficult. We have a saying “If you want to have a baby, you have to sacrifice some sleep; if you want to have knowledge you have to bear the heat of the sunshine.” If you can go through such hardship I will teach you. But you will only receive instruction from midnight on [actually they began whenever the other people who flocked to Shang Lue's house had left or had gone to sleep]. If you are concerned about your wife, she is welcome to be here with you, too." [Chia Koua does not know why he was chosen for this unique privilege rather than older students and followers like Pa Kao Her and Moua Lor. He believes, however, that Shong Lue, facing opposition from Hmong leadership, had come to realize the need for someone to take the responsibility for preserving his work.]

Chia Koua did not know what Shong Lue would teach him, but [the next] night he brought his wife along to Shong Lue's residence. When they arrived there, Shong Lue's wife made a bed for Chia Koua's wife to sleep on while the two men were holding conversation to pass the time away. At midnight [when others in the house had gone to sleep and they were alone] Shong Lue began telling Chia Koua about his mission, one episode after another, such as why he was sent down as a savior, and how the Pahawh script came into existence. From that night on Chia Koua was allowed to go to study the Pahawh and Shong Lue's history every night [working anywhere from two hours to the remainder of the night.  Chia Koua sometimes went directly from the session to his work in an army office, and slept in the evening.  He does not know why he did not become tired.