In
an ancient time, there was an emperor who was struggling with
how to govern his empire. There were three questions which
continuously came up for him:
When is the best time to do things?
Who are the most important people?
What are the most important pursuits?
The emperor heard of a wise hermit in the forest within his
empire. He set out with several of his guards to find the
hermit. Upon finding the hermit's hut in a clearing in the
forest, the emperor instructed his guards to remain in the woods
and wait for him while he spoke to the hermit.
The hermit was tending his vegetable garden as the emperor
approached. The emperor greeted the hermit and asked him the
three questions that were troubling him. The hermit listened
intently but remained silent, continuing to dig in the garden
with a spade until he was clearly exhausted from the task. When
he saw that the hermit was too tired to keep digging, the
emperor offered to dig for him, and asked him to ponder the
three questions at his leisure.
The hermit handed the spade to the emperor, who then dug and
cleared a great deal of ground in the garden. All the while the
hermit did not utter a word. Finally, the emperor grew very
tired, stopped digging, and asked the hermit for the answers to
the three questions again. The hermit did not respond.
Shortly thereafter, they heard a loud rustling in the bushes.
Then a man came staggering towards them, bleeding heavily from a
sword wound in his stomach. The emperor caught the man just as
he was about to fall. The hermit helped the emperor move the
wounded man into the hut and put him in a bed to rest. The
emperor then cleaned the man's wound and bandaged it using a
piece of silk cut from his robe.
All three men spent the night in the hermit's hut. In the
morning, the emperor awoke to find the wounded man feeling
strong enough to stand. Whe the man saw that the emperor was
awake, he dropped to his knees and cried out "Please forgive me
emperor!" "Forgive you for what? You have done nothing to
require my forgiveness" replied the emperor.
The man told the following story, "You and your armies conquered
our province years ago. You killed my brother in the war, and
took my family's land. I have been plotting to kill you in
revenge ever since. I followed you yesterday through the forest,
and was waiting for you to return to your palace to ambush you.
Your guards found me and wounded me before I escaped them. You
could have let me die, but instead you saved my life. That is
why I beg for your forgiveness!"
The emperor thought about this briefly and replied, "Upon
hearing your story, I am very sorry for the grief that I have
caused you. War is terrible. I shall return your land, and we
shall be enemies no longer." The man was very grateful and the
two men vowed to put their past differences behind them. The
wounded man then left the hermit's home to return to his own.
The emperor felt relief, but the three questions still nagged
him. He thanked the hermit and told him that he would continue
to find someone who could answer his three questions:
When is the best time to do things?
Who are the most important people?
What are the most important pursuits?
The hermit laughed loudly, "You just experienced the answers to
your three questions!" When you first met me and asked me the
three questions, that very moment was the most important time to
ask the questions. The most important person for you at that
time was me, and the most important task was to help me tend my
garden. Then when the wounded man came to us, the best time to
take action was just then. He became the most important person
at that moment. The most important pursuit was to tend to his
wound, otherwise he would have died. When you heard the story of
the loss of his brother and his land, you knew that the to take
action was at that moment, and the most important task was to
end the hostility towards each other.
