Once Yang Tzu was traveling through the kingdom of Song and stopped for the night at a roadside inn. The owner of the tavern had two concubines: one beautiful, the other ugly. He treated the ugly girl with respect, but was rude to the beauty.
Yang Tzu asked why he behaved this way, and the owner’s young son replied:
— A beauty thinks of herself that she is beautiful, but we do not know what her beauty is. The ugly woman thinks of herself that she is ugly, but we do not know what her ugliness is.
Returning home, Yang Tzu told his students about this incident.
“Remember this,” he said. - If you live wisely, but do not consider yourself wise, you will be loved everywhere!
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru