A carpenter named Shih was travelling to the Ch'i State. Upon reaching Shady Circle, he saw a sacred Li tree in the temple to the God of Earth. It was so large that its shade could cover a herd of several thousand cattle. It was a hundred spans in girth, towering up eighty feet over the hilltop, before it branched out. A dozen boats could be cut out of it. Crowds stood gazing at it, but the carpenter took no notice, and went on his way without even casting a look behind. His apprentice, however, took a long look at it, and when he caught up with Shih, he said, "Ever since I have handled an axe in your service, I have never seen such a splendid piece of timber. How is it that you, Master, did not care to stop and look at it?"
"Forget about it. It's not worth talking about," replied Shih. "It's good for nothing. Made into a boat, it would sink; into a coffin, it would rot; into furniture, it would break easily; into a door, it would sweat; into a pillar, it would be worm-eaten. It is wood of no quality, and of no use. That is why it has attained its present age."
That night after the carpenter went to bed, he dreamed that the spirit of the tree appeared to him. It approached and said "What is it you intend to compare me with? Is it with fine-grained wood? Look at the cherry-apple, the pear, the orange, the pumelo, and other fruit bearers. As soon as their fruit ripens they are stripped and treated with indignity. The great boughs are snapped off, the small ones scattered abroad. Thus these trees by their own value injure their own lives. They cannot fulfill their allotted span of years, but perish prematurely because they destroy themselves to attain the admiration of people. Thus it is with all things. Moreover, I have labored for ages to be useless. Many times I was in danger of being cut down, but at long last I have succeeded and become exceedingly useful to myself. Had I been of use to the people, I would not have grown to this height. Moreover, you and I are both living beings, so how can we judge each other? Is a useless man who has wasted his entire life in servitude even able to understand the uselessness of a tree that is not in servitude?
When the carpenter awoke, he went to his apprentice and told him about the dream. The apprentice said, "If the tree wanted to be useless, how did it become a sacred tree?'
"'You don't understand." replied his master. "It merely took refuge in the temple to escape from the abuse of those who do not appreciate it. If it had not become sacred, many people would have wanted to cut it down. Also, the methods it uses to survive are far different from that of others, and to criticize it by commonly known standards is to miss the point completely."
