| A Foolish Old Man Moves Mountains |
| 2. | Two mountains, Tàiháng 太形 and Wángwū 王屋, measure seven hundred lǐ 里 around and were ten thousand rèn 仞 high. They used to be located south of Jìzhōu 冀州 and north of Héyáng 河阳. |
| 3. | North of the two mountains there lived an old man of nearly ninety called Yùgōng 愚公 (which meant “Foolish Old Man”). His house faced the mountains, which inconveniently blocked the path of anyone who went in or out. |
| 4. | So he assembled his family and proposed: “Let’s work together and try to flatten the mountains and create a path to south of Yùzhōu 豫州 and on to the bank of the Hàn 汉 River. What do you think?” |
| 5. | Everyone agreed, but his wife voiced some doubts: “You don’t have the strength even to remove a little hillock like Kuífù 魁父. How do you expect to handle Tàiháng and Wángwū mountains? Furthermore, where would you dump the earth and rocks?” |
| 6. | “We can dump them in the Bóhǎi 渤海 Sea, or throw them into the Yǐntǔ 隐土 area,” everyone cried. |
| 7. | So Yùgōng set out with his son and grandson —the three of them— carrying shoulder poles. They broke up the rocks and dug up earth, and they carried it all in baskets to the edge of the Bóhǎi Sea. |
| 8. | Yùgōng had a neighbor named Jīngchéng 京城, who had died leaving a widow and a little son, who was just of an age to get his adult teeth, and who rushed to help them. They worked winter and summer, returning home only once. |
| 9. | Now there lived at a bend in the river a certain Zhìsǒu 智叟 (which meant “Wise Old Man”), who laughed at their efforts and told them to stop. He said, “How can you be such a fool?! You are old and weak, and can’t even pluck a blade of grass on the mountains, so how could you deal with earth and stones?!” |
