The priest in charge of sacrifices, dressed in his somber, square robe, stepped to the pigsty and addressed the pigs as follows:

"What objections can you raise to dying: I shall fatten you with first-rate corn over three months. Then I shall do penance for ten days and for the following three days stay awake. I shall spread for you mats of white grass. Then I shall place your bodies upon the carved sacrificial vessel. Does that not give you satisfaction?"

Then for a moment he assumed the point of view of the pigs and said, "It would seem preferable to us to eat clay and remain alive....."

"However," he added, again from his own point of view, "in order to win honors, everyone is pleased to die either on the shield of war or in the basket of the hangman."

That is how he rid himself of the pigs' point of view and made his own prevail. In what respect then was he differnt from the pigs?

Buber, M. (1991). Chinese Tales: Zhuangzi: Sayings and Parables and Chinese Ghost and Love Stories. New Jersey: Humanities Press International.