The Invocator of the Ancestors, dressed in his black, square-cut robes, peered into the pigpen and said, “Why
should you
object to dying? I'm going to fatten you for three months, practice austerities for ten days, fast for three
days,
spread the white rushes, and lay your shoulders and rump on the carved sacrificial stand — you'll go along with
that,
won't you? True, if I were planning things from the point of view of a pig, I'd say it would be better to eat
chaff and
bran and stay right there in the pen. But if I were planning for myself, I'd say that if I could be honored as a
high
official while I lived, and get to ride in a fine hearse and lie among the feathers and trappings when I died,
I'd go
along with that. Speaking for the pig, I'd give such a life a flat refusal, but speaking for myself, I'd
certainly
accept. I wonder why I look at things differently from a pig?”
— Chuang Tzu, Basic Writings (Columbia University Press,
1964,
tr. Burton Watson)
