身不願養胃
Man’s body is a perfect and wonderful thing. His hands are strong to
do; his feet are strong to walk; his nose judges whether things are
good to eat; his ears hear clearly; his eyes help him to see all the
things of the world and to study books; his brain can think great
thoughts. And so we call the body of man a perfect thing.
But one day the different parts of man’s body quarreled among
themselves about the work. Many complaints were brought against the
stomach. The hands and feet said, “We work all day and yet we are
nothing. Do you know whom we work for?”
The eyes said, “We find many chickens, fish, eggs, and much rice and
tea for the stomach. He takes all and does no work for it. He does not
even think. And though he never does anything for us, we are always
working for him.”
Then they all agreed to refuse to work longer for the stomach. They
said, “To-morrow we will tell the heart and have him judge [24] who is
to be blamed.”
So the next day the tongue told the brain about it, and the brain said,
“I will see the judge to-night.”
When the heart heard the story he said, “Yes, you are right. If all of
you lie down and refuse to help the stomach; if you do not give him any
rice or meat for food, or any tea for drink, he will learn then that he
can not live without you.”
In a little time the stomach wanted food and said to the hands, “Give
me a piece of fish, some rice, and a cup of tea.” The hands were quiet
and said nothing.
Then the stomach said to the feet, “Will you go out and have Men-Yen
bring me a bowl of chop-suey-meen? [25] I am hungry.”
The feet answered, “No, sir, we will not work for you any more.” And
they lay down.
The stomach cried for food, but all said, “We do not care; we will not
work for him.”
After a while the eyes found they could not see well; and in the
theater hall next door the drums drummed hard, but the ears could not
hear. The heart-judge said, “How is it now with the stomach?” The brain
answered, “We are not working for him, nor helping him any more, and I
believe he is going to die. I fear that I, too, will die and that all
the others will die. I do not believe we have done right in deserting
the stomach. Do you not think it best to tell the feet to go out and
bring the stomach some chop-suey-meen? If he had that, he might help us
again. We shall all surely die unless we have his aid.”
But the unwise judge said, “Let him get his own food; let him do his
work for himself.”
“He can not do that,” said the brain. “He lives in a place with great
walls around him, so he can not get out. The hands and the feet have
always brought his food to him.”
The judge said, “Has he spoken about it to-day?”
And the brain answered, “No.”
So they agreed to leave the stomach to himself one day longer.
But that night they were all found dead together, for they could not
live without each other.
This fable was told by the Chinese general, Tsii, to the Chinese
emperor, about twelve hundred years ago. The emperor had been angry at
a province of his own people and wished to send this general, with
soldiers, to kill them. But the general would not go, and in his
argument with the emperor he used this fable to illustrate his reasons
for objection and to show the necessity of each part to all. This fable
was translated into Japanese in 1891 and the Japanese have added the
following Ee-sze (meaning):
The stomach means the emperor. The hands, eyes, feet, all parts of the
body, represent the people. Again, the stomach is like a mother, the
other parts being the children.
So each one of the people must do something for his nation and Emperor.
Each child must do something for the family and the mother. These
things must be, if the nation is to be powerful, or if the family is to
be strong and united.