Follow us on Facebook to receive important updates Follow us on Twitter to receive important updates Follow us on sina.com's microblogging site to receive important updates Follow us on Douban to receive important updates
Chinese Text Project
Simplified Chinese version
Back Forward
Daoism -> Zhuangzi -> Outer Chapters -> The Tree on the Mountain -> 5.2

Zi-sang Hu replied,
'Have you not heard of the flight of Lin Hui of Jia
- how he abandoned his round jade symbol of rank, worth a thousand pieces of silver,
and hurried away with his infant son on his back?
If it be asked,
"Was it because of the market value of the child?"
But that value was small (compared with the value of the jade token).
If it be asked again, "Was it because of the troubles (of his office)?"
But the child would occasion him much more trouble.
?’Why was it then that, abandoning the jade token, worth a thousand pieces of silver, he hurried away with the child on his back?
Lin Hui (himself) said,
"The union between me and the token rested on the ground of gain;
。’ that between me and the child was of Heaven's appointment."
Where the bond of union is its profitableness,
when the pressure of poverty, calamity, distress, and injury come, the parties abandon one another;
when it is of Heaven's appointment,
they hold in the same circumstances to one another.
Now between abandoning one another, and holding to one another, the difference is great.
君子Moreover, the intercourse of superior men is tasteless as water,
while that of mean men is sweet as new wine.
君子 But the tastelessness of the superior men leads on to affection,
and the sweetness of the mean men to aversion.
The union which originates without any cause will end in separation without any cause.


Enjoy this site? Please help.Site design and content copyright 2006-2024. When quoting or citing information from this site, please link to the corresponding page or to https://ctext.org/ens. Please note that the use of automatic download software on this site is strictly prohibited, and that users of such software are automatically banned without warning to save bandwidth. 沪ICP备09015720号-3Comments? Suggestions? Please raise them here.