Carpenter Shi was travelling to the state of Qi. When he arrived at Qu Yuan, he caught sight of a sacred oak that was so immense that a bull could hide behind it; its circumference measured seventy-five feet; it towered high above the peak of a hill and had branches that could well have been hollowed out and made into canoes. A crowd had gathered and stared at the tree, but the carpenter paid it no attention whatsever and continued on his way. His journeyman, however, took his fill of the tree and, after he had cought up with his master, said, "Since I have handled a broadaxe in your service, I have never seen such a magnificent piece of wood. How is it, sir, that you did not stop to take a good look?"

"There is no point in talking about it," replied his master. "The wood is good for nothing. If you fashion a boat from it, it will sink; a coffin, it will rot; utensils, they will soon disintegrate; a door, it will exude moisture; a post, it will be devoured by worms. It is a piece of wood without distinction and without use. That id how it has attained its present age."

When the carpenter had returned home, he dreamed that the oak came and spole to him: "What is it that you compare me with? Is it one of the nobler trees? Stripped as soon as their fruits have ripened. the hawthorn, pear tree, orange tree, and other fruit trees are treated ignominiously. People break off the heavier branches and snap the smaller ones. Thus the value of these trees impairs their very existence. They cannot live out their allotted time, but in the middle of their journey they perish, and that is because they are entangled with their surrounding world. That is how it is with everything. For a long time, it was my sim to become useless. Oftentimes I was in danger, but finally I succeeded, and that is how it happened that today I am useful. Had I then been of use, I would not have experienced my present great blessing of usefulness.

"Moreover, both you and I belong to the same order of things. Therefore do away with this censoriousness. Is a useless person the proper one to speak about a useless tree?"

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

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