The Foolish Old Man Who
Removed the Mountains
An Ancient Chinese Fable
There was an old man who
lived in Northern China long, long ago
and was known as the Foolish Old Man of
North Mountain.
His house faced south and beyond his doorway stood
the two great peaks Taihang and Wangwu,
obstructing the way.
With great
determination, he led his sons
in digging up these mountains, hoe in hand.
Another greybeard, known as the Wise Old Man,
saw them and said derisively, “How silly of you to do this!
It is quite impossible for you few to dig up
these two huge mountains.”
The Foolish
Old Man replied,
“When I die, my sons will carry on;
when they die, there will
be my grandsons,
and then their sons and grandsons, and so on to infinity.
High as they are, the mountains cannot grow
any higher
and with every bit we dig, they will be that much lower.
Why can’t we clear them away?”
Having refuted the Wise Old Man’s wrong view,
he went on digging every day, unshaken in his conviction.
God was moved by this, and he sent down two
angels,
who carried the mountains away on their backs.
