critique of power

  • The Farmer of Shihu [Biographies of Noble Scholars]

    The Farmer of Shihu was a man whose origins are unknown. He was a friend of Shun. When Shun offered to yield the world to him, the Farmer of Shihu remarked: “How tirelessly laborious the Lord is! He is indeed a man who exhausts his strength [for the sake of others].”

  • The Yellow River [Tang Poems]

    — Luo Yin Don’t try to make the muddy Yellow River clean! Could Heaven mirrored in the waves be clearly seen? How could a winding stream go up the Milky Way? Just out of Mount Kunlun, it is muddy like clay. In vain the emperor swore to narrow it down; Could a raft reach…