Woodworker Stone and the Gigantic Tree
A woodworker named Stone travelled to State Qi and saw a gigantic oak tree
inside a temple for the god of earth. The tree was large enough to shade
thousands of oxen. It was a hundred spans around and rose as high as a mountain,
its lowest branches some eighty feet above the ground, and dozens of them were
large enough to be hollowed out into boats. Sightseers were packed in like at
the marketplace but Stone barely gave it a glance, continuing along his way
without stop for a moment. His apprentices all had a good look at the tree, and
then ran to catch up.
They said, “Since we picked our axes to follow you, Master, we have never seen
such beautiful material. You hardly looked at it and went on by. How can this
be?”
“Enough!” Stone cried. “That wood is trash, and no good for anything. That’s why
it has grown so old. Make a boat from it, and the boat will sink. For coffins,
it rots fast. Make a pillar, and it will attract worms.”
At night, this tree appeared in his dream and told Stone, “Have you seen enough
of the miserable lives of those useful trees? When the fruit is ripe, they are
stripped and peeled. Big branches break off, and the little ones drip sap from
wounds. Their lives are cut short by you guys using axes and saws. It is the sad
truth for all things in the world. That’s why I have striven so long to master
the arts of uselessness, and it is useful for me. If I were of any use, there
would not have been any chance for me to be living now. We are both things. Why
pass judgement? Are you mere trash? Why call me trash?” (Chuang Tzu Chapter 4)
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