Trey Smith
The king of Ch'u was sitting with the lord of Fan. After a little while, three of the king of Ch'u's attendants reported that the state of Fan had been destroyed. The lord of Fan said, "The destruction of Fan is not enough to make me lose what I am intent on preserving. And if the destruction of Fan is not enough to make me lose what I preserve, then the preservation of Ch'u is not enough to make it preserve what it ought to preserve. Looking at it this way, then, Fan has not yet begun to be destroyed, and Ch'u has not yet begun to be preserved!"Regardless of what happens external to ourselves, we can control how we shall react.
~ Burton Watson translation ~
To view the Index page for this series, go here.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Comments are unmoderated, so you can write whatever you want.