This essay examines Han Feizi’s concept of restlessness via Zhufu Yan and Li Si’s tragic cases. It merges Legalist practical stillness with Buddhist emptiness to explain inner panic and offers a balanced practical synthesis.
A man fond of movement is like lightning flashing through the clouds, ephemeral. He flickers like a candle flame in the wind. On the other hand, a man devoted to quietude is like dead ashes or a blighted tree stump, bereft of all vitality.