Allegory

Once, there was a man who claimed to possess the art of immortality, so the ruler of the State of Yan sent an envoy to learn it from him. However, before the envoy had even reached him, the man had already died. The ruler of Yan flew into a rage and was about to have…

In the Zhou dynasty, there was a man surnamed Yin who had a large estate. The labourers in his employ toiled from dawn till dusk without rest. One elderly servant was utterly exhausted; whilst working during the day, he would groan and cry out, and at night he would fall into a deep, drowsy sleep,…

The State of Jin was plagued by a proliferation of thieves. There was a man named Xi Yong who could determine whether a person was a thief by reading their facial features. The Marquis of Jin had him examine the populace for thieves, and among hundreds of people, not a single thief would escape his…

During the Warring States period, there was a man from the State of Qin named Niu Que, a highly learned scholar of great repute from the region of Shangdi. Once, while on his way to the capital of Zhao to pay respects to the ruler of Zhao, he passed through a place called Ousha where…

There was a woodcutter in the State of Zheng who was chopping wood in the wilderness when he encountered a startled deer. He killed the deer and hid it in a ditch, covering it with some banana leaves, intending to take it home after he finished his work. But later, he forgot where he had…

”It is upon bad fortune that good fortune leans, upon good fortune that bad fortune rests. “ – Lao Tzu There lived an old man near the frontier who was skilled in divination. One day, his horse ran off to the lands of the nomadic tribes beyond the border. The neighbours all came to console…