Once upon a time Viscount 46 Hsiang of Chao learned driving from Prince Yü -ch`i. All at once he started racing with Yü-ch`i. He changed his horses three times, but thrice he lagged behind. Thereupon Viscount Hsiang said: "You teach me how to drive, but the course is not as yet completed." "The course is completed," said Yü-ch`i in reply, "but the fault lies in the way it is applied. In general, what is important in driving is to fix the bodies of the horses firmly to the carriage and the mind of the driver to the horses. Then one can drive fast and far. Now, Your Highness, whenever behind, wants to get ahead of thy servant, and, whenever ahead, is afraid of lagging behind thy servant. To be sure, when one runs a race with others on the same road, he is either ahead of or behind others. Whether ahead or behind, if the mind of Your Highness is always concentrated on thy servant, how can Your Highness keep the horses under control? This was the reason why Your Highness lagged behind."
When Prince Pai Shêng was planning a rebellion, once after the office hour in the government he held his cane upside down and leaned on it. The tip of the cane, being so sharp, pierced through his chin. Therefrom blood flowed down upon the ground but he never noticed it. At the news of this accident, the Chêngs said: "When he forgot the pain on his chin, for what was it forgotten at all?" Hence the saying: "The farther one goes, the less one knows." This amounts to saying that if one's intelligence hits everything afar, what is missed will be at hand. Therefore, the saintly man has no definite destination, but can know both far and near. Hence the saying: "He does not travel, and yet he has knowledge." He can see both far and near. Hence the saying: "He does not see things, and yet he defines them." He inaugurates works in accordance with the times, accomplishes merits by means of resources, and employs the utilities of the myriad things to get profits out of them. Hence the saying: "He does not labour, and yet he completes."
King Chuang, for three years after he took the reins of government, issued no decree and formulated no policy. Therefore, one day the Right Commissioner of the Army, when attending on the Throne, made before the King an intimation, saying: "There is a bird which has perched or a hill-top in the south. For three years it has neither fluttered nor flown nor sung but kept silent without making any sound. What is the name of that bird?" In reply the King said: "For three years it has not fluttered in order thereby to grow its wings and feathers, and has neither flown nor sung in order thereby to look at the conditions of the people. Though it has not flown, yet once it starts flying, it will soar high up into the sky. Though it has not sung, yet once it starts singing, it will surprise everybody. Leave it as it has been. I, the King, understand what you mean." In the course of half a year, the King began to administer the state affairs himself, abolishing ten things, establishing nine things, censuring five chief vassals, and appointing six hitherto unknown personages to office, with the immediate result that the state became very orderly. In the meantime he raised an army to punish Ch`i and defeated them at Hsü-chou. Then he triumphed over Chin at Ho-yung and called a conference of the feudal lords in Sung, till he attained Hegemony in All-under-Heaven. Thus, King Chuang never did good in a small way, wherefore he accomplished a great achievement. Hence the saying: "The largest vessel becomes complete slowly, the loudest sound is rarely heard."
(Han Feizi >Chapter XXI. Illustrations of Lao Tzŭ's Teachings)
アメリカの古い自己啓発書に "The Message of a Master" (https://www.law-of-attraction-haven.com/support-files/message-of-a-master.pdf) (邦題『運命の貴族となるために』、『マスターの教え』)という本があって、 同書を要約するに、 「願い事は秘密にしろ」
( Chapter XI __Have I now given you the Law in its entirety? Well, in a sense, I have. Then again, I have not. To instruct one as to what to do is good, but to show one how to do it is better. It is not only necessary that we learn how to attain, but we must also learn how to maintain. I will, therefore, go further and give you an important requirement in successful achievement and that issecretiveness. __) 「世事や他人を批判したり嫉妬するな、エネルギーの無駄である」
(Chapter IV __Are you to recognize resistance in any guise? No. For, if you recognize it as a power opposed to your progress, you are resisting it, therefore you automatically acknowledge it as a power greater than you, for no lesser power can retard the progress of a greater one. That is plain. And going further, remember this great truth: Whoever or whatever you resist, be it in thought, word or action; be it in the form of criticism, envy, jealousy, hatred or otherwise, you must assuredly help, and you weaken yourself proportionately. Why? Because you have deliberately taken a portion of your precious life force so necessary to your progress, and transferred it to that person or thing. Have you not witnessed the case at times, of one becoming exhausted after a “fit of rage” over another? Exhaustion is depletion. And to deplete means to empty. Something went out. Yes, to the other person to his profit and the other’s loss. This is an example of the transfer of life force in a violent form. You are very fortunate in having learned this wisdom. Now, by all means, practice it.)