Bit by Bit - Chapter 4, Part 25

Trey Smith

When Confucius visited Ch'u, Chieh Yu, the madman of Ch'u, wandered by his gate crying, "Phoenix, phoenix, how his virtue failed! The future you cannot wait for; the past you cannot pursue. When the world has the Way, the sage succeeds; when the world is without the Way, the sage survives. In times like the present, we do well to escape penalty. Good fortune is light as a feather, but nobody knows how to hold it up. Misfortune is heavy as the earth, but nobody knows how to stay out of its way. Leave off, leave off - this teaching men virtue! Dangerous, dangerous - to mark off the ground and run! Fool, fool - don't spoil my walking! I walk a crooked way - don't step on my feet. The mountain trees do themselves harm; the grease in the torch burns itself up. The cinnamon can be eaten and so it gets cut down; the lacquer tree can be used and so it gets hacked apart. All men know the use of the useful, but nobody knows the use of the useless!"
~ Burton Watson translation ~

As I wrote at the outset of this series, when a particular snippet doesn't speak to me -- it doesn't inspire me to write anything cogent -- I'm not going to force it.  I'm not going to pretend to be inspired just for the sake of filling up space for that day's entry.  So, I encourage readers to check out Scott's writings on the "use of the useless."  He has written much on this topic.

To view the Index page for this series, go here.