Chuang Tzu 5.2

Shan-thû Kiâ was another man who had lost his feet. Along with Tsze-khân of Kang he studied under the master Po-hwan Wû-zan. 

Tsze-khân said to him one day, "If I go out first, do you remain behind; and if you go out first, I will remain behind." 

Next day they were again sitting together on the same mat in the hall, when Tsze-khân spoke the same words to him, adding, "Now I am about to go out; will you stay behind or not? Moreover, when you see one of official rank like myself, you do not try to get out of his way—do you consider yourself equal to one of official rank?" 

Shan-thû Kiâ replied, "In our Master's school is there indeed such recognition required of official rank? You are one, Sir, whose pleasure is in your official rank, and would therefore take precedence of other men. 

"I have heard that when a mirror is bright, the dust does not rest on it; when dust rests on it the mirror is not bright. When one dwells long with a man of ability and virtue, he comes to be without error. 

"There now is our teacher whom you have chosen to make you greater than you are; and when you still talk in this way, are you not in error?" 

Tsze-khan rejoined, "A shattered object as you are, you would still strive to make yourself out as good as Yâo! If I may form an estimate of your virtue, might it not be sufficient to lead you to the examination of yourself?" 

The other said, "Most criminals, in describing their offenses, would make it out that they ought not to have lost their feet for them; few would describe them so as to make it appear that they should not have preserved their feet. They are only the virtuous who know that such a calamity was unavoidable, and therefore rest in it as what was appointed for them. 

"When men stand before an archer, like Yi, with his bent bow, if they are in the middle of his field, that is the place where they should be hit; and if they be not hit, that also was appointed. 

"There are many with their feet entire who laugh at me because I have lost my feet, which makes me feel vexed and angry. But when I go to our teacher, I throw off that feeling, and return to a better mood— he has washed, without my knowing it, the other from me by his instructions in what is good. I have attended him now for nineteen years, and have not known that I am without my feet. 

"Now, you, Sir, and I have for the object of our study the virtue which is internal, and not an adjunct of the body, and yet you are continually directing your attention to my external body—are you not wrong in this?" 

Tsze-khân felt uneasy, altered his manner and looks, and said, "You need not, Sir, say anything more about it."