Who Taught Whom?

Today we have a wise tale from China.

Duke Huan, a nobleman and scholar, sat on a balcony studying one of the nation's great books. On the ground below was one of the servants of his estate, a maker of wheels (for in those ancient days all the wheels were wooden and had to be carved by hand). P'ien was his name. Laying aside his hammer and chisel, P'ien went up the steps and said, "Your Honor, I wish to ask what words you are reading."
"They are the wise words of the sages," said the duke.
"Are those sages alive?" asked P'ien, who had no education.
"They are dead," was the reply.
"Then," said P'ien, "what you are reading is nothing but the cold left-overs of those old men."
"Why should you, a wheelmaker, have anything to say about the book I am reading?" asked Duke Huan. "If you can explain yourself, very well; if you cannot, you deserve to die."
The wheelwright said, "Your servant (meaning himself) will look at the thing from the viewpoint of his own art. When I make a wheel, if I carve gently, it is easy on me but the product is not good. If I carve roughly, violently, that is hard on me and the wheel turns out crudely. But if the movements of my hand are neither too gentle nor too rough, the picture in my mind takes birth on the wheel. I can't tell anyone how to do this: there is a knack to it. I cannot teach that knack to my son, nor can he learn it from me.
"I am seventy years old and in my old age I'm still making wheels in this way. Now those ancient sages of yours have gone and their knack has gone with them; it was impossible for them to pass that on. So, what you, my master, are reading is nothing but their cold left-overs!"

The narrator of this story continues:
The world prizes books, thinking that they explain the Tao, the mystery of life. But books are only a collection of words. Words carry truth, but those ideas are the result of something else. Nobody can say in words what that something else is. So, what we look at and see are only the outward form and color, and what we listen to and can hear are only names and sounds. How foolish it is for people to think that form and color, name and sound, are enough to explain the Tao, the secret of life. They do not convey It's real nature! That is why in China we have this age-old saying: "The wise do not speak and those who speak are not wise."

[Now, P'ien spoke; then was he wise or unwise?]

Worse and Worse!

When a king named Yao ruled China, Po Ch'eng was appointed governor of one of the states. Then the king died and the throne passed to his son; the son died rather early and it passed to the grandson, Yu. At that time Po Ch'eng resigned his post and became a farmer. Knowing he had been a good governor, Yu went to see him, thinking to get him back in the country's service. Yu bowed low to Po Ch'eng out of deep respect, then stood up and asked him:
"When my grandfather Yao ruled the kingdom you used your talents well; why have you left your dignity behind and have come here to plow?"
"You see, " Po Ch'eng replied, "when Yao ruled the land, people urged one another to do what was right without rewards. They also avoided doing evil without threats of punishment from him. Now you use both rewards and punishments, and in spite of that the people do not behave well. From this time on their virtue will gradually decay; the disorder of future ages will begin. Why don't you, Your Majesty, go away and not interrupt my work." And he began again to plow, not looking back.