ALL PLEASURES ARE RELATIVE
A COMMON saying of the Chow time is:
"Can a husbandman sit down and rest?
"At dawn he sets out, and at night returns.
"This he considers the perpetual course of human nature.
"He eats coarse fare, which seems to him to be great delicacies. His skin and joints are rough and swollen, and his sinews and joints thickened and swollen. If he could live for one day clothed in smooth furs, in a silken tent, and eat meat and millet, orchids and oranges, he would grow sick at heart and his body would grow weak and his interior fire cause him to fall ill.
"If on the other hand the Prince of Shang or Lu were to try to cultivate the land like the farmer it would not be long before they would both be utterly worn out. Yet each one says: In the world there is nothing better than these our comforts and delights.
Translator of Yang Zhu's Garden of Pleasure is Anton Forke. If you missed any posts in this series, please utilize the Yang Zhu label below.
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