Egglaying, Cackling, Etc
Xie Yi

There were twohens in a coop. one was fond of cackling while the other liked to keep quiet.As it is customary for a hen to cackle after laying an egg, the chicken raiseraccordingly credited the cackler with all the eggs that had been laid. As aresult, he became so partial to his favorite bird that he fed her with everycockroach he caught. With the passing of time, however, it became known thatthe cackler had in fact laid very few eggs while the non-cackler kept layingone egg a day. Every time, as soon as the latter laid an egg, she quit the coopquietly, leaving the former standing by the newly-laid egg shouting and yellingher head off.

Once, when Ichatted with a friend about this, he thought what I had in mind was not thehen, but men in general. As a matter of fact, our forefathers long ago alreadydrew an analogy between the hen and a human, as witness the Chinese idiom “Nohen crows at dawn” (meaning “No woman is to usurp man’s power”) in The Book ofHistory: Mu Shi. It is true that there are among us many who stick to theirposts and quietly immerse themselves in hard work day and night, creatingenormous material wealth for the state and achieving one success after anotherfor the people. Like the above-mentioned good layer, they eat simple food, butlay eggs, often without making a fanfare. There are among us, however, anotherkind of people who, armed with a glib tongue, indulge in incessantself-glorification and, like the above-mentioned cackler, hold on to the coopwithout laying any egg. Some few even go so far as to brazenly claim credit forwork that was done by others.

The proper way toevaluate a person is of course by watching whether or not he “lays eggs” not bylistening to him singing his own praises. When a braggart lays one egg, he willtalk in such a way as if he had laid ten eggs. When he puts in a tiny bit ofwork, he will talk as if he had done ten times as much. He will naturally findfavor with a muddleheaded boss who trusts his ears more than his eyes. Thebraggart will thus find himself quickly climbing up the social ladder. As tothose engrossed in “laying eggs”, because they are reserved and content to livein obscurity they gain little public attention, let alone recognition. They aregiven no “cockroaches” to eat. They do not even have a “shelter for egglaying”.

It is in one’snature to be either noisy or quiet. As something ingrained, it cannot becompletely changed overnight. But life is short while the probe into themysteries of the universe is long and unlimited. If we indulge in empty talkand trickery day and night, how can we have time and energy for serious studyand tackling key problems confronting the country on its new Long March towardsmodernization? The most important thing is to stand fast to the “coop” and“lay” more “eggs” for this nation of 900,000,000 people.