The Handan Walk

Have you not heard of the young boy of Shouling?

且子獨不聞夫壽陵余子⋯⋯

He tried to study the walk of the Handan people.

⋯⋯之學行于邯鄲歟？

He not only failed to master the skill of that city…

未得國能……

…he also forgot how he had ordinarily walked beforehand.

……又失其故行矣。

He was only able to crawl his way back home and that was that.

直匍匐而歸耳。

Analysis

"...true wisdom can neither be learnt nor taught. It is a spiritual state, to which he who lives in harmony with nature attains."
Oscar Wilde (1854-1900), A Chinese Sage (A Critic in Pall Mall)