Abstract: This paper explores the stories of the author’s clansman，the monk Fayun，who gained fame in
Beijing for his masterful calligraphy in late Qing dynasty． The author puts forward several views on how to
treat folk tales and how to integrate the micro history and local history with the total history． The article
argues that，folk tales were not always groundless while the formal records were not reliable all the time．
Though we should not immediately take folk tales as truth，they still could be used as clues for historical
exploration． From the local cases，we can not only observe the daily life of an era，but could also analyze
and summarize the“common sense”of a certain era and region by exploring the relevant social networks，
in other words，every aspect of the stage and the background of daily life． From“common sense”we can
further see through and grasp the flavor and character of the time in a certain region and even country，
thus reaching the goal of total history or general history by studying local and micro history．