There are some sorts of people whose wisdom

Enables them to do duties in someone’s office

Or whose conduct secures peace and ordering

On someone else’s territories or whose merits

And virtues befit well the government so that

They are welcome to run other states’ affairs.

At that, such sorts of people prefer to look

On themselves and behave in the manner

Like the quail, and yet the other sort of men

Smile and laugh at them, taking their reserve

And modesty for cowardice and inability

To work for themselves while being exploited.

That sort of ‘others,’ though the whole world

Should praise them for that, will never

Cultivate themselves to greater endeavour;

And though the whole world should

Condemn them for that, will never exercise

Any perfection of their long-term course.

As for the men of a sort mentioned first,

Being so fixed in the difference between

The internal judgment of themselves

And the external judgment of the ‘others,’

They distinctly mark out the bounding limit

Of glory and disgrace. Here, alas, they stop.

Since their appropriate place in the world

Becomes indifferent to them, they do not

Plant themselves deeply in the right position

Suited to their qualities and skills by definition.

Let me give an example to make it clear.

In great antiquity, there was a man

Who rode on the wind and pursued his way

With an admirable indifference to all mundane

And external things, returning, however,

After several days of soaring, to his takeoff.

In regard to the things that are supposed

To contribute to happiness, that man was free

From all endeavours to obtain them, but

Though he had never stepped the earth,

There was still something for which

He had to wait, and that was the fair wind.

But suppose one who mounts on the ether

Of Heaven and Earth in their normal operation

And drives along the six elemental energies

Of the alternating seasons, enjoying oneself

In the illimitable—what has one to wait for?

Therefore, it is said, “A truly perfect man

Has no thought of his self; the spirit-like man

Has none of his merit; the sagely-minded man

Has none of glory and fame.” For this reason,

Sun-zi, the greatest military expert of ancientry

Preferred to deal with the rewardless generals

And troop leaders who could make their job

Done so well that nobody could notice efforts.