Pendragon: Ancient Chinese Wisdom

Chinese Proverbs

(translated from ancient manuscripts)

Add legs to the snake only after you have finished drawing it.

If you lift a stone, take care that you do not drop it on your foot.

Listen to all; pluck a feather from every passing goose; but follow no one absolutely.

Flies do not visit the egg unless it is cracked.

Govern a family as you would cook a small fish.

Kill the chicken BEFORE it eats your bait grain.

Do not look for a woman you think you can live with. Look for a woman you can't live without.

Falling into a ditch makes you wiser.

Do not accept your dog's opinion that you are a wonderful person.

Even a frog in a well shaft can see the sky.

A weasel comes to say "Happy New Year" to the chickens.

You don't stop playing because you grow old. You grow old because you've stopped playing.

When eating bamboo shoots, remember the man who planted them.

Without rice, even the cleverest housewife cannot cook.

A man who stands on a hill with his mouth open will wait a long time before a roast duck drops in.

Though your horse has wandered away, he may someday bring a whole herd back to you.

A sly rabbit will have TWO openings to his den.

You can control the picnic, but you can't control the weather.

If you steal a bell, keep your ears covered.

All crows are equally black.

The other ducks do not like the loudest duck.

You will not find ivory in a dog's mouth.

Once you climb up onto a tiger's back, it is hard to get down.

To the world you may be one person, but to one person you may be the world.

As vicious as a tigress is, she never eats her own cubs.

Distant waters do not put out the fires that are nearby.

A dog will not forsake his master merely because his master becomes poor.

You all laugh at me because I'm different.
I laugh at you because you're all the same.

The three stupidest things ever said by human beings:

1. George Custer: "Hey, guys, looks like they're all dead! Let's go down and count the bodies."

2. Saddam Hussein: "Now we will know if God is really on our side."

3. Me: "Hey, fellas, she'd never do that! She LOVES me."

An original poem by Robin Artisson
(entitled "Untitled"):

He said that everything should be "Zen."
He said we'd be born all over again.
So when there is death, should we grieve?
Will you keep coming back? Who makes you leave?
What is the sound of one hand slapping?
What is the sound of my ass chapping?
I try my best to make everything Zennish
But I'm drawing a blank ... from start to finish.