The Natural Course of Events (8)

1 In a quiet afternoon, the hotness made all people looked wan. Duke Huan of Qi was reading in his studying room. To keep awake, he read aloud on purpose. A craftsman who sat repairing wheel stopped his work to listen to Duke Huan’s reading. To a craftsman, the ancient article with recondite and scholastic words was too abstruse to understand.

2 Listening for a while, the craftsman couldn’t understand it yet. So he stood up and asked through the window, “Sir, May I know what the article is? Could you explain it for me?”

3 Taking a glance of the craftsman, Duke Huan said to himself that as a craftsman, you certainly understand nothing about it. So he answered absently and randomly, “They are words of sages.”

4 Instead the craftsman took it seriously. He asked, “Is the sage still alive?”

5 Looking at him, Duke Huan said to himself that why this idiot asked such a question? The men became sages mostly because they were dead. Knowing nothing about it, you even want to know the words of sage. So he replied, “They are already dead.”

6 Feeling disappointed, the craftsman signed,” Alas! What you read must be something unworthy.”

7 The craftsman turned and prepared to leave. Duke Huan felt surprised and curious instead. He shouted, “Back. Back. You, an understrapper, stop me and tell me what I read is nonsense and unworthy while I am reading carefully here. Hay! Come and explain it or you are punished.”

8 The even-tempered craftsman was not frightened by his shout. He said, “I read few book but I am fairly aware of the knowledge conveying in the field of wheel repairing.”

9 I know that if I make the spoke too small, it can’t fit the wheel; if make it too big, the wheel would slide off from it. So I have to make it to the point.

10 How to make it to the point? I can’t tell. I gauge it by my hand and heart. The feeling of gauging I know myself but can’t tell the reasons. So I can’t impart it to my son. My son can’t learn it from me. This is why I, as an old man of seventy, toil here.”

11 I think that the sage who wrote the book had been dead so the tour de force in his heart, which he could not impart to other, must have vanished.

12 That’s why I said the book you read is something unworthy.”