Thereupon prince Hui was wroth, and was about to send a man to assassinate him. But the Captain-General heard of this, and cried out in shame, "Sire, you are ruler over a mighty State, yet you would seek the vengeance of a common man. Give me two hundred thousand warriors, and I will do the work for you. I will take his people prisoners, and carry off their oxen and horses. I will make the heat of the prince's mind break out on his back. Then I will seize his country, and he will flee. Then you can wring his neck as you please." When Chi Tzŭ heard this, he cried out in shame and said, "If you are building a ten-perch wall, and when the wall is near completion, destroy it, you inflict great hardship on the workmen. Alluding to the _corvée_ system of public works. The speaker was an official of Wei. Now for seven years the troops have not been called out. That is, as it were, your Highness' foundation work. Listen not to the Captain-General. He is a mischievous fellow." When Hua Tzŭ Also an official of Wei. heard this, he was very indignant and said, "He who argued in favour of punishing the Ch'i State was a mischievous fellow. And he who argued against punishing the Ch'i State was a mischievous fellow. And he who says that either of the above is a mischievous fellow, is a mischievous fellow himself." "Where then shall I find what to do?" enquired the prince. "In TAO alone," said Hua Tzŭ. When Hui Tzŭ heard this, he introduced Tai Chin Jen to the prince. A Sage of the Liang State. For Hui Tzŭ, see p. 8. "There is a creature called a snail," said Tai Chin Jen. "Does your Highness know what I mean?" "I do," replied the prince. "There is a kingdom on its left horn," continued Tai Chin Jen, "ruled over by _Aggression_, and another on its right horn, ruled over by _Violence_. These two rulers are constantly fighting for territory. In such cases, corpses lie about by thousands, and one party will pursue the other for fifteen days before returning." "Whew!" cried the prince. "Surely you are joking." "Sire," replied Tai Chin Jen, "I beg you to regard it as fact. Does your Highness recognise any limit to space?" "None," said the prince, "It is boundless." "When, therefore," continued Tai Chin Jen, "the mind descends from the contemplation of boundless space to the contemplation of a kingdom with fixed boundaries, that kingdom must seem to be of dimensions infinitesimally small?" "Of course," replied the prince. "Well then," said Tai Chin Jen, "in a kingdom with fixed boundaries Meaning the then empire of the Chous. there is the Wei State. In the Wei State there is the city of Liang. In the city of Liang there is a prince. In what does that prince differ from Violence?" In his pettiness. "There is no difference," said the prince. Thereupon Tai Chin Jen took his leave, and the prince remained in a state of mental perturbation, as though he had lost something.