In the northerhere is a fish, called the kun, I do not know how many thousand li in size. This kun ges into a bird, called the peng. Its back is I do not know how many thousand li ih. When it is moved, it flies, its wings obsg the sky like clouds.
When on a voyage, this bird prepares to start for the Southern O, the Celestial Lake. And in the Records of Marvels we read that when the peng flies southwards, the water is smitten for a space of three thousand li around, while the bird itself mounts upon a great wind to a height of housand li, for a flight of six months duration.
There mounting aloft, the bird saw the moving white mists of spring, the dust-clouds, and the living things blowing their breaths among them. It wondered whether the blue of the sky was its real color, or only the result of distahout end, and saw that the things oh appeared the same to it.
If there is not suffit depth, water will not float large ships. Upset a cupful into a hole in the yard, and a mustard-seed will be your boat. Try to float the cup, and it will be grounded, due to the disproportioween water and vessel.
So with air. If there is not suffit a depth, it ot support large wings. And for this bird, a depth of housand li is necessary to bear it up. Then, gliding upon the wind, with nothing save the clear sky above, and no obstacles in the way, it starts upon its jouro the south.
A cicada and a young dove laughed, saying, "Now, when I fly with all my might, tis as much as I do to get from tree to tree. And sometimes I do not reach, but fall to the ground midway. What then be the use of going up housand li to start for the south?"
He who goes to the tryside taking three meals with him es back with his stomach as full as whearted. But he who travels a hundred li must take ground riough for an ht stay. And he who travels a thousand li must supply himself with provisions for three months. Those two little creatures, what should they know?
Small knowledge has not the pass of great knowledge any more than a short year has the length of a long year. How we tell that this is so? The fungus plant of a m knows not the alternation of day and night. The cicada knows not the alternation of spring and autumn. Theirs are short years. But in the south of Chu there is a mingling (tree) whose spring and autumn are each of five hundred years duration. And in former days there was a large tree which had a spring and autumn each of eight thousand years. Yet, Peng Tsu {1} is known for reag a great age and is still, alas! an object of envy to all!
It was on this very subject that the Emperor Tang {2} spoke to Chi, as follows: "At the north of gta, there is a Dark Sea, the Celestial Lake. In it there is a fish several thousand li ih, and I know not how many ih. It is called the kun. There is also a bird, called the peng, with a back like Mount Tai, and wings like clouds across the sky. It soars up upon a whirlwind to a height of housand li, far above the region of the clouds, with only the clear sky above it. And then it directs its flight towards the Southern O.
"And a lake sparrow laughed, and said: Pray, what may that creature be going to do? I rise but a few yards in the air ale down again, after flying around among the reeds. That is as much as any one would want to fly. Now, wherever this creature be going to?" Such, indeed, is the differeween small and great.
Take, for instance, a man who creditably fills s