The Foolish Old Man Moves Mountains

Perseverance Personified

A ninety-year-old vows to move two mountains by generations of toil; heaven itself is moved to help.

The Foolish Old Man of the North Mountain, nearly ninety, decides that the Taihang and Wangwu peaks block his door and resolves to move them — shovel by shovel, generation after generation. When the Wise Old Man laughs at him, he answers: “My sons and grandsons will never run out, but the mountains will never grow taller; why should I despair?” Heaven, moved by such sincerity, orders the two sons of Kua’e to carry the mountains away, one to the far east of Shuofang and one to the south of Yong. The tale from the Liezi became China’s enduring parable of patient will: even heaven bends before a stubborn old man and his descendants.