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歧路亡羊 (qi2 lu4 wang2 yang2) - Pick a path and stay on course
April 26, 2009, Sunday
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A lost lamb isn't much of a story. But the particular one lost more than 2,000 years ago was different. It had not only led to a thought-provoking theorization, but also a popular Chinese idiom, qi2 lu4 wang2 yang2, or "a lamb going astray in forked roads."
Yang Zi was a famous thinker during the Warring States Period (476-221 BC). One day, one of his neighbors came to him for help.
He told the philosopher that one of his lambs was missing and he had already mobilized all his family members to look for it.
However there were still not enough hands to find it. So, he had come to ask Yang to send some of his servants to join in the search.
Yang felt puzzled and asked: "Why should you need so many people to track down a single lamb?"
The neighbor answered: "Because there are so many forked paths."
After a long time the searchers, including Yang's servants, returned empty-handed.
Yang again asked his neighbor: "How could you fail to find the lamb despite so many helping hands?"
"There are just too many branches on the paths in each forked road," he replied.
After getting the response, the philosopher became lost in thought and looked distraught.
Then one of his students asked: "Sir, why are you so concerned about a lamb which isn't worth much and which isn't yours?"
The teacher said that was not the point. He explained the lamb got lost because there were too many forked roads.
Similarly, a student could end up nowhere if he could not pick the right path from many academic courses available and stick to it.
"The conclusion is: one tends to get lost, not because there isn't a path ahead but there are just too many," the thinker commented.
Now, the Chinese saying q(r)(tm) l(r)￡§ w(r)°èng y(r)°èng and the story behind it are often quoted to persuade people to devote themselves wholeheartedly and stick to their chosen path.
Yang Zi was a famous thinker during the Warring States Period (476-221 BC). One day, one of his neighbors came to him for help.
He told the philosopher that one of his lambs was missing and he had already mobilized all his family members to look for it.
However there were still not enough hands to find it. So, he had come to ask Yang to send some of his servants to join in the search.
Yang felt puzzled and asked: "Why should you need so many people to track down a single lamb?"
The neighbor answered: "Because there are so many forked paths."
After a long time the searchers, including Yang's servants, returned empty-handed.
Yang again asked his neighbor: "How could you fail to find the lamb despite so many helping hands?"
"There are just too many branches on the paths in each forked road," he replied.
After getting the response, the philosopher became lost in thought and looked distraught.
Then one of his students asked: "Sir, why are you so concerned about a lamb which isn't worth much and which isn't yours?"
The teacher said that was not the point. He explained the lamb got lost because there were too many forked roads.
Similarly, a student could end up nowhere if he could not pick the right path from many academic courses available and stick to it.
"The conclusion is: one tends to get lost, not because there isn't a path ahead but there are just too many," the thinker commented.
Now, the Chinese saying q(r)(tm) l(r)￡§ w(r)°èng y(r)°èng and the story behind it are often quoted to persuade people to devote themselves wholeheartedly and stick to their chosen path.
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