An ancient Chinese man called Mencius once told this story:
There was a farmer from the Song State growing a stretch of crops. He was convinced that his crops grew more slowly than those of his neighbors. He went to look at his field every day, wishing that his crops would grow faster.
Though many days passed, it seemed that the seedlings hadn’t grown higher. He strode around the field impatiently and pondered, “I must get an idea to help them grow faster.”
One day he finally came up with a solution. He started to pull the crops up. The peasant worked very hard the whole day and was physically exhausted but mentally happy. After coming back home, he gasped to his son, “I was totally tired today, but I didn’t beat the air, and I helped the seedlings grow a little higher!”
His son was confused by his words and went to the field only to discover that all of his crops were dead.
The story is fromMencius. It indicates that handling affairs in spite of nature just makes a mess of things.
