"If a man of Ch'u, who was sent away to be a door-keeper, began, in the middle of the night, when no one was about, to fight with the boatman, I should say that before his boat left the shore he would already have got himself into considerable trouble."
- A maimed man (Hui Tzŭ) should avoid quarrels. His own share of Tao is insufficient even for himself.
Chuang Tzŭ was once attending a funeral, when he passed by the grave of Hui Tzŭ. Turning to his attendants, he said, "A man of Ying
- Capital of the Ch'u state.
who had his nose covered with a hard scab, no thicker than a fly's wing, sent for a stone-mason to chip it off. The stone-mason plied his adze with great dexterity while the patient sat still and let him chip. When the scab was all off, the nose was found to be uninjured, the man of Ying never having moved a muscle.
"When Yüan, prince of Sung, heard of this, he summoned the stone-mason and said, 'Try to do the same for me.'
"'I used to be able to do it Sire,' replied the stone-mason, 'but my material has long since perished.'
"And I too, ever since he perished, have been without my material, having no one with whom I can speak."
V
