Once upon a time, there was a king whose favorite thing was hunting. His chancellor’s favourite saying was “everything works out for the best”.
One day, the king happily went hunting on the prairie. While chasing a leopard, he was accidentally bitten off his finger by a leopard. After returning to the palace, the more the king thought about it, the more unhappy he became. When the prime minister knew this, he offered wine to the king and said with a smile, “Your Majesty! Better to lose a piece of meat than lose a life! Take it easy. Everything worked out for the best!” The king heard, stuffy for a long time unhappiness finally found the opportunity to vent. He stared at the prime minister and said, “Hey! How dare you! Do you really think everything is the best arrangement?”
The prime minister found that the king was very angry, but he did not care about it: “Your Majesty, really, if we can transcend ourselves, it is the best arrangement for us to gain or lose at the moment.”
The King said, “If I put you in prison, is that for the best?”
The prime minister smiled and said, “If so, I am also convinced that this is the best arrangement.”
The king said, “Would it be best if I told my guards to drag you out and cut you down?”
The chancellor continued to smile, as if the king were talking about something that had nothing to do with him. “If so, I am also convinced that this is the best arrangement.”
The king flew into a rage and struck the king with his big hand. Two guards came near at once. The king said, “You have taken the prime minister out and beheaded him at once!” The guard was stunned, not knowing how to react for a moment. The king said, “Hurry up. What are you waiting for?” The bodyguard woke up like a dream, stepped forward to set up the prime minister, and went outside the door. The king suddenly felt sorry for himself. He cried out, “Hold on, arrest and lock up!” The prime minister turned to him with a smile and said: “This is also the best arrangement!”
With a wave of the king’s hand, the two guards carried the prime minister out.
After a month, the king recovered from his wounds and planned to go out inwardly with the prime minister as before. However, thinking that he had ordered him to be put in prison, he could not put down his pride for a moment to release the prime minister. With a sigh, he went out alone.
Walking, came to a remote mountain, suddenly from the mountain rushed down a group of wild men with red yellow face paint, a couple of times tied him up, back to the mountain. The king then realized that today was the full moon, and a primitive tribe in the region would come down from the mountain every time the moon was full, looking for victims to sacrifice to the goddess. He moaned. It was really hopeless. In fact, I really want to tell the barbarian: “I am the king here, let me go, I will reward you gold and silver!” But his mouth was stuffed with rags, and he could not even speak.
His face was even whiter when he saw that he was led to a large boiler, taller than a man, with the wood burning. The high priest appeared and stripped the king of his clothes to reveal his delicate dragon body. The high priest marveled that such a perfect offering could be found now!
It turns out that the goddess of the full moon to be sacrificed today is the symbol of “perfection”. Therefore, it does not matter if the sacrificial goods are a little ugly, a little dark, a little short, but must not be broken. At that moment, the high priest suddenly noticed that the king’s left little finger was missing, and he could not help swearing for a long time through gritted teeth. Then he gave the order: “Drive this waste away, and find another!” The king was overjoyed and ran back to the palace. He immediately ordered the release of his prime minister and held a banquet in the imperial garden to celebrate his life and his freedom.
The king toasted to the prime minister and said, “Prime Minister, what you said is absolutely true. Sure enough, everything is the best arrangement! If the leopard hadn’t bitten me, I’d be dead today.” The prime minister returned the king with a smile and said, “King Hexi has experienced life to a higher level.” After a while, the king suddenly asked the prime minister: “I escaped with my life. It is true that ‘everything is the best arrangement’, but you have been in prison for a month for no reason. How can you say that?”
The prime minister took a sip of wine slowly and then said, “Your Majesty! It is indeed the best arrangement for you to keep me in prison! If I were not in prison, who else would accompany you on your incognito tour? When the barbarians find the king unfit to sacrifice to the goddess of the full moon, who will be thrown into the big boiler to be boiled? Who else is there if not me? Therefore, I want to toast to you for putting me in prison. You have also saved my life.”
“Everything is the best arrangement” is a kind of open-minded attitude towards life.