Exemplars

In early China, monkeys served as symbols of willful ignorance and cognitive rigidity...

The way to handle monkeys—human or otherwise—is just to let them have their way, if there is no harm in it, rather than insisting on one’s original plan. This is “going along with things.” We see many of these socially adept exemplars in the text, including a skillful tax collector, who is empty of schemes and responsive to the emotions and needs of those he encounters.

Edward Slingerland in Trying Not to Try: Ancient China, Modern Science, and the Power of Spontaneity

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