How the Fable of the Foolish Man Inspires us to Move Mountains
Faith and community support are the key ingredients
Any Chinese kid can recite the famous fable of “Yugong Yishan”.
An old farmer in his 90s lived in the ancient Yu province. His name was Yugong, literally translated into the “foolish old man.” The idiom means “the foolish man who removed the mountains.”
In front of his house were 2 huge mountains, which blocked the way of the villagers when outing, wasting a lot of time and effort.
One day, this old man said: we should remove the mountains. We shall put the rocks and debris in baskets every day and transport them to the shore of the Bohai Sea.
This journey back and forth took over half a year each time, but the villagers and people from nearby provinces, old and young, supported and joined.
A clever old man ridiculed Yugong and told him how foolish he was to think he could remove the big mountains!
Yugong said, “Even the widow and child know better than you; how are you wise?”
He went on, “what I cannot finish, my sons and daughters, their children, and children of their children can continue. We just have to keep at it and will remove the mountains.”
