Zhou Enlai's witty interpretation of the zodiac to an audience of foreigners
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It was said that Mr Zhou En-lai was once having a meal with his European friends.
A person by the name of Klaus passed an impolite comment when he was drunk.
“You Chinese carry the signs of pigs, dogs, and mouse at birth.
“I can’t understand what’s going on in the mind of your ancestors?”
At that point, the distinguished group of friends started to laugh. They started to toast each other rowdily.
The cultured and serene atmosphere was broken.
Some people believe that when someone
insults your ancestors, even if you don’t have a response to it, the
least you could do is to overturn the table against him.
Fortunately, nobody acted rashly or in violence.
For a while, not a single word was uttered. It was probably because they have not come across this situation before.
Then, Mr Zhou En-lai stood up and spoke to everybody in a calm and peaceful way.
“The Chinese ancestors were very wise. They arranged the twelve zodiac signs in pairs. Six pairs in a cycle.
In this way, they expressed their hopes and wishes for the generation that came after them.”
By then, the room was in complete silence. There were some sceptical looks among the audience.
Mr Zhou En-lai continued, ” The first pair of animals is the rat and cow.
“The rat represents wisdom and the cow represents diligence. Wisdom and diligence must operate in harmony.
“If there is wisdom but no diligence in applying it, it’s foolishness.
“On the other hand, if there is diligence but no wisdom, it’s an act of folly.
“That’s why wisdom and diligence must
go hand in hand. This is our ancestor’s first wish for us. The first
pair of animal also represents the most important hope.
“The second pair is the tiger and rabbit.
“The tiger represents courage and the rabbit represents carefulness. These two qualities must work closely together.
“In that way, it can have a better chance to achieve success.
“Without carefulness, courage becomes recklessness. Similarly, without courage, carefulness becomes cowardice.
“This pair of qualities is very important. That’s why it is the second pair.”
Mr Zhou En-lai looked at the audience
and then he added, “Therefore, when we demonstrate our carefulness,
please do not think that we do not have the courage to fight for social
justice.
“In truth, what our ancestor is
pursuing is wisdom through integrity, harmony and balance. It’s never
about a single hope or task.
When he saw that the audience was deep in thought, Mr Zhou En-lai continued, “The third pair is the dragon and snake.
“They represent strength and flexibility.
“Strength without flexibility becomes brittle. Without strength, flexibility becomes meaningless.
“That’s why strength with flexibility is an important lesson from our ancestor that has lasted through time.
“The next pair is the horse and goat.
“The horse represents the ability to gallop to success. The goat represents the ability to be considerate and have compassion.
“If a person only looks after himself
as he pursues his goal and with no consideration for others, he will
face obstacles from the people around him.
“Finally, he may not even be successful.
“However, if a person only looks
after others and seek only to be amiable, he will not have a sense of
direction. His goal will eventually be lost.
“That’s why the spirit of the horse
and virtues of the goat must be applied in harmony with each other. This
is our ancestor’s fourth wish for us.
“The next pair is the monkey and the chicken.
“The monkey represents agility.
“As for chicken, as there were no clocks in the days of old, it is needed to wake humans to start a new day.
“The chicken represents stability.
“The qualities of agility and stability must be tightly coupled together.
“If you have agility but no
stability, your best plan will not come to pass. However, if you focused
on having stability and refuse to change, you will not have a better
future.
“When
the two qualities are in harmony, on one side, there will be stability
in terms of having, for example, effective system and collaboration.
“On the other side, there will be a release of unrelenting creativity and innovation to achieve progress.
“When these two qualities operate in synergy, it is one of the basic imperatives to achieve success.
“Lastly, we have the dog and pig.
“The dog represents loyalty while the pig represents good nature.
“If a person is loyal but does not have a good nature, he will be blindly following others.
“On the other hand, if he has a good nature but does not have loyalty, he will have no people and principles to guide him.
“That’s
why whether its loyalty to a country, loyalty to a team, or loyalty to
an ideal, you need to ensure that good nature is tightly coupled with
and working alongside with it.
“In that way, you can have a deep-seated sense of loyalty that comes from the heart.
“This is why the Chinese believes that the outer core must be in alignment with the inner core (外圆内方,君子和而不同).
“At
the inner core, we must have a pure heart that subscribes to high moral
values. We must seek to live with ethos and positive principles.
“We must live up to our words and not do anything that will harm others.
“At the external core, we must be knowledgeable about the ways of the world. We must be wise in managing affairs around us.
“We need to focus on what matters in life and not be influenced by evil.
“We
need to live with integrity and in harmony with others and the
environment. We must not have any form of prejudice or seek to
discriminate against anyone.”
At the end of his speech, there was complete silence. They say that you can even hear a pin dropped.
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