A Critique of Illustrated Records on the Evolution of Mohist Hydraulic Mechanisms:
This work pursues completeness at the expense of thought, dwelling on the minute while lacking any broader vision. It records in full the various mechanisms developed over the course of a hundred years; there is no need for excessive analysis, for the shifts in principle and method already reveal themselves.
Yet water is a thing of change, not something confined to one moment or one place. If one does not act, so be it. But if one does, one must reckon with the four seasons, mark out square and round, link lands across ten thousand miles, and bring order to the eight reaches of the realm.
In ages past, Yu the Great tamed the floods of the world and left methods to later generations. We today have inherited the wisdom of the ancients, and we also have the aid of mechanical arts. If we fail to found an undertaking worthy of all ages, then have we not read our myriad books in vain? It is something we should strive to emulate.
Letter