One day, Han Zhongli the Immortal waved his magic fan at a mountain and said, "Change into delicious glutinous rice balls!" Suddenly, the soil on the mountain changed into many delicious glutinous rice balls. Han Zhongli turned into an old man with white hair, and pushed his cart along the streets, shouting, "Large and delicious glutinous rice balls for sale! One for a dollar, two for two dollars, and three for free! Come quick!" All who heard him came to gather around his cart. They said, "Three for free! I won't need to pay a cent if I order three rice balls!" "Wow! Rice balls for free!" Many days passed, and all of the people who gathered at Han Zhongli's cart wanted to have the rice balls for free.

Just as Han Zhongli was about to give up, a young scholar came up to him and said, “Dear sir, please give me a rice ball, thank you.” After he finished eating, he gave Han Zhongli a dollar. Then he said, “Could you please give me another? It is so delicious!” After he finished eating the second rice ball, he gave Han Zhongli another dollar. Han Zhongli asked the young scholar, “Young man, why didn't you order three rice balls like the others? You could have eaten three for free.” The young scholar replied, “Dear sir, you are elderly, and you seem to have traveled here from afar to do business, I could not bear to see you lose money!” The young scholar ordered three more rice balls, one at a time, and paid five dollars in total.

After hearing the scholar's reply, Han Zhongli thought to himself, “This scholar is kind and virtuous by nature. He is the disciple that I have been looking for.” He changed back into his original appearance and told everyone who he really was. Then, he asked the scholar, “I would like you to be my disciple. Are you willing to come with me?” The scholar agreed and became Han Zhongli's disciple.

Before they left for another place, the disciple asked Han Zhongli where all the rice balls came from. The Immortal replied, “I made the rice balls using soil from the mountain ahead. Because there were so many greedy people, only half of the mountain is left.” From then on, the mountain became known as “Banping Mountain (Half Screen Mountain).”

漢鍾離拿著扇子對山揮舞說：「變啊！快變成好吃的湯圓喔！」忽然，從山上掉落下來的泥土全都變成湯圓。漢鍾離喬裝成白髮的老爺爺，推著攤子在街上大喊：「來喔！又大又好吃的湯圓，一粒一文錢、兩粒兩文錢、吃三粒不用錢！快來啊！」來往的路人一聽到全都圍著攤子說：「一次吃三粒不用錢耶！那我多吃幾次就賺到了。」「太好了有免費的湯圓可以吃。」一連過了好幾天，漢鍾離遇到的都是想吃免費湯圓的人。

正當他想放棄時，有位書生對他說：「老爺爺，請給我一粒湯圓，謝謝。」吃完後給了漢鍾離一文錢，接著又說：「請您再給我一粒，這個湯圓真好吃。」吃完後同樣再付一文錢，漢鍾離疑惑地問他：「年輕人，你怎麼不和其他人一樣，吃三粒就可以免費啊？」書生回答：「老爺爺您年紀這麼大，又大老遠來做生意，總不能讓您虧本啊！」就這樣連續吃了五粒也付了五文錢。

漢鍾離聽完心想：「這個書生本性善良，是我心目中想找的徒弟。」便向書生和圍觀的人說明自己的真實身分，並告訴書生：「我想收你為徒，請和我一起走吧！」書生答應漢鍾離的請求，成為他的徒弟。

當兩人要離開人間時，徒弟詢問有關湯圓的由來，漢鍾離告訴他：「湯圓都是用前方那座山的泥土做成的，因為人們的貪心，使山只剩下一半。」從此，大家就稱呼這座被削過的山為「半屏山」。