told his story. Lao-tzŭ replied, 'How is it that you only know your son to be crazy, and appear quite unconscious that everybody else in the world, by confusing right and wrong, injury and advantage, is suffering from precisely the same disease? I assure you that there is not a single sane man among them. Now, the craziness of one person is not sufficient to impoverish a whole family; that of a single family is not sufficient to impoverish a whole village; nor that of a village to impoverish a state, nor that of a state to impoverish the whole empire. And if the whole world went completely crazy, who would there be left to suffer by it? While supposing the whole world to be in the same mental condition as your son, it follows that it is you who are crazy, and not he?'"
As Kuei-fei finished reading, the Emperor laughed heartily, not because of the wit of the story which he had heard many times but because of the droll way in which she had recited it. Yang Kuei-fei was well versed in elocution. She had a way of inflecting her words that was irresistible to him.
Ming Huang motioned her to come closer to him. She did so at once. His eyes were sparkling with laughter. Fondly he stroked her breasts.
"Tell me, who was this man Yang who accosted the crazy boy's father? Was he a distant ancestor?"
"Maybe," she said.
"Must the Yang family interfere with everyone in the Empire?"
300
