From A Chinese Garden of Serenity, Epigrams from the Ming Dynasty 'Discourses on Vegetable Roots' (1959), translated by Chao Tze-chiang:
Whether time is long or short, and whether space is broad or narrow, depend upon the mind. Those whose minds are at leisure can feel one day as long as a millennium, and those whose thought is expansive can perceive a small house to be as spacious as the universe.
From A Chinese Garden of Serenity, Epigrams from the Ming Dynasty 'Discourses on Vegetable Roots' (1959), translated by Chao Tze-chiang:
When a man of insight appreciates the music of a lyre, calligraphy, poetry, or painting, he nurtures his mind with them; but a worldly man delights only in their physical appeals. When a noble-minded man appreciates mountains, rivers, clouds, or other natural objects, he develops his wisdom with them; but a vulgar man finds pleasure only in their apparent splendor. So we know that things have no fixed attribute. Whether they are noble or ignoble depends upon one's understanding.
From A Chinese Garden of Serenity, Epigrams from the Ming Dynasty ‘Discourses on Vegetable Roots’ (1959), translated by Chao Tze-chiang:
Natural scenery—such as the azure mists on the hills, the ripples on the water, the shadow of a cloud on a pond, the hazy gleams among the grass, the expressions of blossoms under the moon, or the graceful manners of willows in the wind, all of which are existent and yet non-existent, half real and half unreal—is most agreeable to the human heart and most inspiring to the human soul. Such vistas are the wonder of wonders in the universe.
