THE STORY is about a man who lived in the City of Hantan, the capital of the ancient Chinese state of Chao.
He wanted to be the greatest archer in the world so he devoted his life learning and honing archery skills to master the craft. He met two masters who taught him different techniques.
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| A postcard from china which I received in 2016 from a girl named Bowie. |
I like the story because it is an action-packed story that is full of humor and symbolism.
A line in the story says–
"The ultimate stage of activity is inactivity; the ultimate stage of speaking is to refrain from speech; the ultimate in shooting is not to shoot."
From the line above, the "activity" was shown in the first part of the story when the man learned physical and mental techniques and the "inactivity" was shown in the latter part when the man attained a higher level of understanding by which I think the author implicated that self-control or self-mastery is the greater power of the two.
During our class discussion, it was debated whether we think the second master deceived the man because in the end, the man seemed to have lost his interest in archery. He became such a “master” himself that never once did he pick up again bow and arrows in his life.
I do not want to believe the version of the man being deceived by the second master as I feel that it would have wasted the story if that is so. Rather in my mind, it symbolizes deeper sense of strength that once one becomes a master, proving yourself to being, negates the idea of being one.
As of writing this, I am thinking of the words knowledge and wisdom and how the latter is the ultimate lesson for us to learn.
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