| What comes from Without:...: |
A son of the duke of Ren, having provided himself with a great hook, a powerful black line, and fifty steers to be used as bait, squatted down on (mount) Gui Ji, and threw the line into the Eastern Sea. Morning after morning he angled thus, and for a whole year caught nothing. At the end of that time, a great fish swallowed the bait, and dived down, dragging the great hook with him. Then it rose to the surface in a flurry, and flapped with its fins, till the white waves rose like hills, and the waters were lashed into fury. The noise was like that of imps and spirits, and spread terror for a thousand li. The prince having got such a fish, cut it in slices and dried them. From the Zhi river to the east, and from Cang-wu to the north, there was not one who did not eat his full from that fish. |
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In subsequent generations, story-tellers of small abilities have all repeated the story to one another with astonishment. (But) if the prince had taken his rod, with a fine line, and gone to pools and ditches, and watched for minnows and gobies, it would have been difficult for him to get a large fish. Those who dress up their small tales to obtain favour with the magistrates are far from being men of great understanding; and therefore one who has not heard the story of this scion of Ren is not fit to take any part in the government of the world - far is he from being so'. |
