Mountain Tales: The Hoarding Bird

Once there was a woodcutter who heard that deep in the mountains there lived birds that kept hidden treasure, and so he went looking for them. At the far end of the mountain, where there was nowhere left to go, he came upon heaps of gemstones. Beside them perched two birds, one a raven and one a swallow, and to his astonishment they spoke in human voices. Swallow asked Raven, "This is neither fodder nor grain. What good is there in guarding it?" Raven replied, "I would give it to all people under Heaven, so there would be no more divide between rich and poor, so all might live in halls of jade and wear robes of cloud-brocade." Swallow asked again, "A worthy thought. Why then stop short of it?" Raven sighed. "In the past, when the birds carried stones out of the mountains, the poor fought to seize them, even turning on their own kin. The rich, seeing birds that bore such stones, cast nets and loosed arrows, caging them for sport." At this, both birds fell silent. After a while, Swallow spoke again. "If you know it cannot be done, why tell me of it?" Raven answered, "To carry jade is to invite trouble. Better to hide it and wait for the right time. You leave in spring and return in autumn, and so have earned trust. You do not shrink from wind and rain, and so have earned constancy. Because you keep faith and remain steadfast, I entrust this to you." Swallow said, "People know only that you keep your treasure to yourself. They do not know that you are waiting for the right time to bring it forth. Your body is worn down, your name diminished, and still the world mocks you. Do you truly accept this?" Raven spread its wings and lifted its head. "People say Raven is a Mohist. And if one truly walks the Mohist path, what need is there to care for praise or blame? What the human heart wants, the Mohists provide. If people want grain, we forge plows and build wooden oxen to feed the world. If people want wine, we brew fine spirits; if they want meat, we raise fat hogs to nourish all living things." Hearing this, the woodcutter was astonished and hurried home to tell the tale. The next day he returned with his neighbors, but found only an empty valley, hushed and still, with birdsong rising and falling above. The gemstones and the wondrous birds were both gone, vanished like smoke.