AnonyMencius Boshu :verywise: on Nostr: The Master wished to teach a lesson, so he took his students to Shang: the town drunk ...

The Master wished to teach a lesson, so he took his students to Shang: the town drunk and a surly quarreler. The Master said to Shang, “I prefer to eat noodles.” Shang responded hotly, “Oh, so you hate rice!” The Master bowed in thanks to the confused Shang, and then took his students to a court eunuch (太監) in town visiting with the local magistrate. The Master said to the eunuch, “I prefer for the government’s purse to care for the people of the kingdom.” The eunuch replied hotly, “Oh, so you hate nanban who come in to do important work and the infrastructure of our land!” The Master then turned to his students: “See now, the eunuch of the court is no smarter or rhetorically brilliant than the town drunk. They differ only in the scope of their cliché’s consequences.”