Jianwu met the madman Jie Yu.
“What did the Noon Beginning tell you?” - asked the madman Jie Yu.
“It told me that the ruler among men himself establishes laws, rules, regulations and patterns, and no mortal dares to neglect them and not change for the better thanks to them,” answered Jianwu.
“Such is the unrighteous power,” said the madman Yu. “Running the Celestial Empire in this way is like wading an ocean, chiseling a river with a chisel, teaching mosquitoes to fly in formation, or carrying a mountain on your back.” When a wise man takes on public affairs, will he manage external matters? He straightens himself first, and only then acts and does only what he can do perfectly. After all, birds fly high to be out of reach of an arrow, and a field mouse digs a hole for itself as deep as possible under the sacred hill so that no one can reach it and drive it out. Are people dumber than these tiny creatures?
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru