The useless tree chuang tzu biography
Chuang tzu amazon.
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Recently, I’ve gotten very interested in reading old Chinese literature, particularly Taoist philosophy. In this blog post, I’m just going to leave you with one of my favorite anecdotes from one of my favorite Chinese authors, Chuang Tzu (c.
The useless tree chuang tzu biography
BC). Sometimes, what we think is clever is really self-destructive, and what we think is mulish stupidity is ultimately self-preservation.
“Carpenter Shih went to Ch&#;i and, when he got to Crooked Shaft, he saw a serrate oak standing by the village shrine.
It was broad enough to shelter several thousand oxen and measured a hundred spans around, towering above the hills. The lowest branches were eighty feet from the ground, and a dozen or so of them could have been made into boats.
There were so many sightseers that the place looked like a fair, but the carpenter didn&#;t even glance around and went on his way without stopping.
His apprentice stood staring for a long time and then ran after Carpenter Shih and said, &#;Since I first