What’s the point of this – things condemning things? You, a worthless man about to die – how do you know I’m a worthless tree?” If I had been of some use, would I ever have grown this large? Moreover you and I are both of us things. “As for me, I’ve been trying a long time to be of no use, and though I almost died, I’ve finally got it. And it’s the same way with all other things. They bring it on themselves – the pulling and tearing of the common mob. Their utility makes life miserable for them, and so they don’t get to finish out the years Heaven gave them, but are cut off in mid-journey. Their big limbs are broken off, their little limbs are yanked around. “What are you comparing me with? Are you comparing me with those useful trees? The cherry apple, the pear, the orange, the citron, the rest of those fructiferous trees and shrubs – as soon as their fruit is ripe, they are torn apart and subjected to abuse. Later, after the master carpenter had returned home, the old tree itself appeared to him in a dream to give him a bit of a talking-to. It’s not a timber tree – there’s nothing it can be used for.
Use it for doors and it would sweat sap like pine use it for posts and the worms would eat them up. “It’s a worthless tree! Make boats out of it and they’d sink make coffins and they’d rot in no time make vessels and they’d break at once. “Forget it – say no more!” said the carpenter. But you don’t even bother to look, and go right on without stopping. His apprentice stood staring for a long time and then ran after Carpenter Shih and said, “Since I first took up my ax and followed you, Master, I have never seen timber as beautiful as this. There were so many sightseers that the place looked like a fair, but the carpenter didn’t even glance around and went on his way without stopping. The lowest branches were eighty feet from the ground, and a dozen or so of them could have been made into boats. It was broad enough to shelter several thousand oxen and measured a hundred spans around, towering above the hills. Here’s a version of the story, from Burton Watson’s translation of the text:Ĭarpenter Shih went to Ch’i and, when he got to Crooked Shaft, he saw a serrate oak standing by the village shrine. There’s an old Chinese story – from the writings attributed to the Taoist sage Chuang Tzu – about a master carpenter who was traveling with his apprentice through the countryside when the two happened upon a rather remarkable tree.
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