In Lû there was a cripple, called Shû-shan the Toeless, who came on his heels to see Kung-nì.
Kung-nì said to him, "By your want of circumspection in the past, Sir, you have incurred such a calamity—of what use is your coming to me now?"
Toeless said, "Through my ignorance of my proper business and taking too little care of my body, I came to lose my feet. But now I am come to you, still possessing what is more honorable than my feet, and which therefore I am anxious to preserve entire. There is nothing which Heaven does not cover, and nothing which Earth does not sustain; you, Master, were regarded by me as doing the part of Heaven and Earth—how could I know that you would receive me in such a way?"
Confucius rejoined, "I am but a poor creature. But why, my master, do you not come inside, where I will try to tell you what I have learned?"
When Toeless had gone out, Confucius said, "Be stimulated to effort, my disciples. This toeless cripple is still anxious to learn to make up for the evil of his former conduct—how much more should those be so whose conduct has been unchallenged!"
Toeless, however, told Lâo Tan of the interview, saying, "Khung Khiû, I apprehend, has not yet attained to be a Perfect man. What has he to do with keeping a crowd of disciples around him? He is seeking to have the reputation of being an extraordinary and marvelous man, and does not know that the Perfect man considers this to be as handcuffs and fetters to him."
Lâo Tan said, "Why did you not simply lead him to see the unity of life and death, and that the admissible and inadmissible belong to one category, so freeing him from his fetters? Would this be possible?"
Toeless said, "It is the punishment inflicted on him by Heaven. How can he be freed from it?"
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