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Hard Work Can Turn An Iron Rod Into A Needle
铁杵成针
tiě chǔ chéng zhēn
Li Bai (李白) was one of the greatest poets in China's Tang Dynasty, which is often considered China's ‘golden age’ of poetry. Approximately 1,100 poems attributed to him remain today, including thirty-four in the popular anthology, 'Three Hundred Tang Poems'.
Legend has it that Li Bai was originally the God in charge of poetry in Heaven, but he offended the Heavenly Emperor and thus was exiled to Earth where he became a son of a rich merchant.
Brilliant and talented as he was, little Li Bai disliked studying and often skipped class to play. One day, when he was fishing by a river, he saw a white-haired old woman grinding an iron rod on a big stone.
Out of curiosity Li Bai came up and asked: "What are you doing, Ayi? "
"I'm grinding this iron rod," the old women said kindly, but did not stop her work.
"Why are you doing that?" Li Bai asked.
"I want to make a sewing needle," was the reply.
"What?!" exclaimed Li Bai, surprised, "You want to grind such a thick rod into a tiny needle? It is impossible!"
"Anything is possible, as long as you stick to it." The old woman looked at Li Bai, her eyes shining with intelligence, "I know it may take me decades to make a needle from this rod, but it doesn't matter. As long as I persevere in grinding, I will definitely make a needle. Remember there is nothing you cannot achieve as long as you stick to it."
Li Bai was deeply moved by the old woman's words. He went back to his school and from then on he studied diligently and became a great poet and scholar.
Later, Li Bai travelled to Tai Mountain (Tai Shan), where he visited the temple of Bi Xia Yuan Jun (a goddess in Chinese myth). He found the statue of the goddess looked very familiar. That night he dreamed that he saw the old woman again. She introduced herself as Bi Xia Yuan Jun and told Li Bai that many years ago she saw him neglect his studies, so she turned into an old woman and taught him a lesson.
The saying Hard Work Can Turn An Iron Rod Into A Needle, tiě chǔ chéng zhēn, refers to being extremely talented but realising that it requires hard work and dedication to fully develop that talent.
Set in Zanzibar in 1910, it is the story of two people from different worlds falling in love. Susan immerses herself in Zanzibar. Asim falls in love with this woman from the nation that killed his wife. Susan is a spy. Asim is the chief advisor to the Sultan of Zanzibar. Germany and France are holding secret negotiations to form a Pan European alliance, which would isolate Britain and destroy her power. Susan and Asim are caught up in all this and their love is finally dashed on the cold, hard reality of international high politics.
Kaixin – You may diss-agree with Stephen Roach, but you can’t dismiss him. He is an acknowledged economic expert on Asia in general and China in particular. He also has no axe to grind being Asia Chairman of a major American Bank; except possibly not wanting to see America shoot itself in the foot.
‘US politicians did not want to accept their responsibilities for the unemployment rate, which was close to 10 percent, so they preferred to blame someone else, he said.’
I have been saying this for some time. The politicians in the ‘west’, America in particular, were happy to benefit from trading with China through the 1990’s. They preened themselves and told their constituents how brilliant they were at engineering such prosperity with low inflation.
What utter bullshit, as the Global Financial Crisis demonstrated.
It was all based on importing low cost widgets from China and that gigantic ponzi scheme from Wall Street that turned American houses into tulips.
The pollies can’t now go to said constituents and fess up. Wall Street is keeping its head down and trying to figure out another ponzi scheme. Indeed, that is the only thing that is certain to happen. Wall Street will figure out another ponzi scheme and the great unwashed will fall for it ………. again.
Probably something to do with carbon trading I suspect.
Actually, I doubt that pollies understand what has happened. So, not being prone to looking in mirrors, they look elsewhere. Everyone in America knows the Chinese are getting uppity, so who better to blame. Pollies all need a simple message to recite.
“The yuan is undervalued and that is the cause of all your troubles,” is a simple message. One the American pollies have grasped as firmly as they grasp their collective …..
It also has a simple solution; one the pollies can be seen to be doing something about. So they jump up and down and make a big noise. Noise, is often mistaken by pollies for action.
If it is such a problem now, then it should have been seen way back when. Why didn't the pollies do something about it then? Easy, they were too busy preening themselves in unearned glory.
If Stephen Roach is right, then that whisp of gun smoke won’t be coming from the pollies guns, it will be coming from that small hole in their foot.
Kaixin – I don’t think American pollies care about Chinese exporters. They probably haven’t grasped that many are actually American companies. Beside, at the moment American pollies are only thinking about the health reform bills.
US 'profited' from Chinese buying
Magnified trade deficit also leaves great room for exports to China, ministry says
Managing Director of The Carlyle Group, David Rubenstein, predicts that China will surpass the U.S. as the dominant economy by the year 2035, in a ViewPoints interview with Deputy Managing Editor Alan Murray.
Kaixin – No you don’t have any knowledge. If the laws are such a problem then why are RIO and Chinalco forming a business relationship?
I almost did not include this article as it is a load of ill-informed nonsense. When will ‘The Australian’ get a journalist who knows something about China?
Beijing's quiet trial shows two may again be better than one
Kaixin – A well thought out article. I do not agree with some of the language, of course, ‘infamous one-child policy’. It is only infamous in the eyes of those who oppose it, both in the ‘west’ and within China. The educated people in China we speak to, while not liking it, support it. They point out that un-checked population growth would have bought greater misery to China.
They point to India and wonder what will happen there. For the people we speak to, it is a reason not to import western democracy to China.
They will be happy if population growth can be checked without the one child policy. Indeed, my brother-in-law had the debilitating experience for a Chinese male of having his son aborted as it was an unplanned second child. He still understands and supports the need to implement such a policy.
;)
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