encouragement

  • Seeing Li off to Zizhou [Tang Poems]

    — Wang Wei The trees in your valley scrape the sky, You’ll hear in your hills cuckoo’s cry. If it rained at night in your mountain, You’d see your tree tips hung like fountain. Your women weave to make a suit; You’d try to solve people’s dispute. The sage before you opened schools; Like…

  • The Analects – Chapter 11.22

    Zilu asked, “When I hear a truth, should I act on it immediately?” The Master replied, “You still have your father and elder brothers alive – how can you act on it as soon as you hear it?”Ran You asked the same question: “When I hear a truth, should I act on it immediately?”…

  • Scholar Ye

    There was in Huaiyang County a scholar surnamed Ye. His given name I do not know. Although he was the most outstanding literary talent in the county, his luck always proved fickle and he failed the imperial civil service examination repeatedly.