Further Meditations on Chuang Tzu's Tortoise
Accompany text (for the blog): '"I have heard that there is a sacred tortoise in Ch'u that has been dead for three thousand years. The king keeps it wrapped in cloth and boxed, and stores it in the ancestral temple. Now would this tortoise rather be dead and have its bones left behind and honoured? Or would it rather be alive and dragging its tail in the mud?"' (Chuang Tzu, Basic Writings, trans. Burton Watson.)
