Pulling Up Sprouts to Help Them Grow
"Cong qian zài sòng guó, long ago, in the kingdom of Song, there lived a hard-working but impatient farmer. Tending his wheat fields from sunrise to sunset, he labored through storms and blistering sun, hoping to provide food for his family. Yet though he watered each seed, weeded each row, and frightened the hungry birds away, he grew frustrated with the slow progress of his crops. 'There must be something I'm not doing right,' he fretted to himself, 'some secret that will help them grow more quickly.'
"One sunny day, walking beside a row of tender seedlings to check on them, he discovered one that had fallen over into the irrigation ditch. He gently lifted up the sprout and replanted it on top of the row, covering the dangling roots with a few clods of dirt.
"He stood up, put his hands on his hips, and surveyed the row. Much to his delight, the replanted sprout now stretched high above the other seedlings, to the exact height he had hoped they'd all be.
" 'Hēi, yõu le!' he exclaimed. 'I've got an idea! Why don't I pull up all the sprouts and replant them?' Hastening to the next plant, and then the next, and the next, he worked his way up and down each row, tearing the seedlings from their hold in the soil, placing them on top of the row, and mounding the dirt around them. He smiled and hummed as he worked, happy that his crops would be taller than those of his neighbors.
"Finally, under the starlight, well past dinnertime, the farmer headed back to the village after replanting his last seedling. Exhausted but satisfied, he smiled broadly as he greeted his wife and children. He took off his dõu lì — his farming hat — and announced, 'I am a happy man. I have figured out the secret of making crops grow faster. We now have the tallest plants in all the kingdom.' His family gazed at him proudly.
" 'Tomorrow,' he said to his eldest son, 'You must put your studies aside and come to the fields to see our good fortune.'
" 'Of course, Father,' replied the son. 'I greatly look forward to it.'
"And without even eating dinner, the happy but tired farmer went straight to bed.
"The sun had arced high in the sky by the time the exhausted farmer awoke the next day. The farmer's son, however, had dutifully walked to the field to see the result of his father's work. There, much to his horror, row after row of brown, withered seedlings lay crumpled in the heat, their roots dried out by the sun."
