Taoist Temple
By the dim candlelight, the gaunt middle-aged man sat before the desk, his gaze somewhat vacant.
Zhang Dai was still turning it over and over in his mind.
"Punishing private gain has endured through the ages, but warning against public embezzlement has never been heard of!"
"The nation fails because the heavenly winds have fallen into decay. Is this the public embezzlement of the court and the Emperor?"
"Under public embezzlement, the people cannot live, and every trade withers away. Thus, warning against public embezzlement stands above private embezzlement; only after that comes the moral influence of the officials!"
"To raise the ruler above Yao and Shun, then make the customs pure once more... So that was it... So that was it..."
"Without warning against public embezzlement, everything is like marking a boat to find a fallen sword, or carrying firewood to put out a fire!"
"Is this the Great Way of the sages?"
"This is the Way of the saints?"
His face grew paler and paler.
"Could I have been wrong?" he muttered to himself.
No one answered.
Nor did he need anyone else to answer.
"Ever since I was young and began reading, it was not as though I had never wished to spread great virtue across the world."
"To raise the ruler above Yao and Shun, then make the customs pure once more—countless worthies of old charged forward one after another. Though I may not reach their heights, my heart yearns toward them... This heart, this wish, I have held since childhood. Yet I never spoke it aloud; I put it into practice within my heart."
His eyes remained blank as he watched the intertwining, swaying candle flames.
Within the candlelight, it was as though he saw himself more than thirty years ago, still a