法苑珠林 46.8

46.8

The Xiuxing daodi jing says: Formerly there was a king who selected a wise and discerning person from the entire country to be his assisting minister. Wanting to test him and learn what he was like, the king charged him with a severe offense and commanded his ministers and officials to fill a bowl to the brim with oil and make him carry it, walking from the north gate to the south gate, and out twenty li from the city to a park named Joyful Sport, ordering that he be brought there. If even a single drop fell, they were to behead him immediately without needing to ask permission. At that time, the assembled ministers received the king's grave order, filled the bowl brimful with oil, and gave it to that man. Holding it with both hands, he was filled with immense sorrow and dread. Even though there were carriages and horses and onlookers filling the road, though he saw right and wrong, he did not turn aside. Even though his relatives, wife, and children pressed forward, the man concentrated his mind and looked neither to the left nor to the right. Even though the whole country's spectators bustled in confusion, his mind remained upright and he did not see the crowds. Even though there was a fair maiden peerless in the land pressing near with song and dance, so that all who saw her were delighted, the man carried the bowl single-mindedly, his resolve unmoved and unswerving; nor did he look or falsely give rise to the slightest thought, but carried the bowl with focused refinement, paying no heed to their words. Thereupon he uttered a verse: