This article tells Zhang Liang’s legendary encounter with the Yellow‑Stone Elder. After a failed assassination on Qin Shi Huang, Zhang met the old man on a bridge, who tested his patience and rewarded him with Taigong’s Art of War. This wisdom shaped him into a key strategist for the Han Dynasty.
The Master said, “To have faults and not correct them – that is truly a fault.”
The Master said, “The noble person worries about his own lack of ability, not about others’ failure to recognize him.”
The Master said, “The noble person takes righteousness as his substance, practices it through ritual propriety, expresses it with humility, and completes it through trustworthiness. Truly a noble person!”
While in Wei, Confucius was playing the qing (a stone chime). A reclusive passerby carrying a straw basket happened to walk by Confucius’s gate and said upon hearing the sound, “Ah! There is intention behind this chime!”After a moment, he added, “How narrow-minded! So obstinately persistent! If no one understands you, just let it…
The Master said, “A thoroughbred horse is praised not for its strength, but for its virtue.”
The Master said, “Do not worry that others do not understand you; worry that you lack ability.”