In the days of the Yellow Emperor, there was a Minister of Laws who believed that there was nothing perfect in this world, until the day he had a daughter. She was beautiful and intelligent and affectionate. There was not one hair on her head that he would change. ‘For my perfect daughter, I need a perfect man,’ he told the people. So he passed a new law: only a man who could draw a perfect circle could marry his daughter. Many men tried. And every man failed. Then came the day when there was only one man left who had not yet tried. He was in the dungeon, being punished for failing to show respect to the many laws of the country. The man in the prison said: ‘If you let me out, I will draw six perfect circles.’ His daughter was lonely for a husband so the Minister let him out. ‘Take me to the edge of the Lake of Bottomless Calm in West Tianting,’ he said. The prisoner, the Minister of Laws and his daughter gathered at that place. The man dived from the edge of the cliff into the Lake of Bottomless Calm and disappeared. At the point he entered the water, they saw six perfect circles radiating outwards. Blade of Grass, we think of laws as things made by man. But who made the laws of nature?
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From: ‘Some Gleanings of Oriental Wisdom’ by CF Wong
Nury Vittachi Mr Wong Goes West. A Feng Shui Detective Novel
Allen & Unwin 2008 p1
