Hu Li: It is going to rain. Master Dong: Yes, it is going to rain. I have heard that a fox knows the wind from…
Hu Li: It is going to rain.
Master Dong: Yes, it is going to rain. I have heard that a fox knows the wind from its den, and a mouse knows the rain from its hole. I suppose you must be either a fox or a mouse.
Hu Li: You know me?
Master Dong: No. But I have been waiting for you... waiting for you to come and kill me.
Hu Li: Are you not afraid of death?
Master Dong: No, I am afraid of death. But there is something I fear far more than death itself. I believe you feel the same, do you not?
Hu Li: Oh? Then what is it you fear?
Master Dong: You should know, though I am a scholar of Confucianism, I have also studied the Hundred Schools of Thought.
Hu Li: Why?
Master Dong: Because I wanted to find a Great Way, a path that could bring true and lasting peace to the world.
Master Dong: I studied Legalism. Yet, the First Emperor used harsh laws to rule the six directions, cracking the whip across the realm. His majesty shook the four seas, but the people never found joy.
Master Dong: Then I studied Daoism. In the early Han Dynasty, they ruled through the ways of Huang-Lao, letting the people run free like unbridled horses without guidance, but the powerful and wealthy never restrained their greed.
Master Dong: I also studied Mohism. But the Mohists preach universal love and non-aggression; they suppress human desires and sacrifice themselves for the benefit of others. How many in this world can truly achieve that?
Hu Li: So you believe that among the Hundred Schools, only Confucianism is the Great Way?
Master Dong: Confucianism? No, it is not.
Hu Li: Then what exactly is this Way you are searching for?
Master Dong: I had a dream. I dreamed of a world two thousand years from now.
Master Dong: In that world, Confucianism serves as the spine, establishing eternal moral fortitude; Mohism serves as the blade, protecting the lives of the common people; Legalism serves as the ruler, balancing the boundaries of all things. The Hundred Schools merge into one stream, and the hearts of all people are united. There is no fear of famine, and no suffering of war and separation.
Hu Li: You want to merge the Hundred Schools! Are you not afraid of being spat upon by your own Confucian peers?
Master Dong: Just now, you asked me what I fear. Now I can answer you. I fear that this is merely a dream.
Master Dong: The morning mushroom knows not the turning of the moon; the summer cicada knows not the passing of the seasons. One who has not seen the high mountains cannot comprehend the flat plains; one who has gazed upon the vast ocean can hardly be captivated by a trickling stream.
Master Dong: A decade can plan for temporary prosperity; a century can plan for the rise and fall of a dynasty; a millennium can plan for the continuation of a culture. My friend, you and I stand in the eternal flood of time. Why not cast our gaze across a thousand years, and plan for an era that spans ten thousand?
Hu Li: How do you intend to do this?
Master Dong: To bring peace to the world, the Royal Way must unify the Hundred Schools. But this act will inevitably clash with the Mohist ideal of universal love.
Master Dong: Therefore, I brazenly seek to borrow a thousand years from the Mohists on behalf of the world. For the next two thousand years, the first millennium shall belong to Confucianism, and the second shall return to Mohism. Thus, the world shall reach the Great Harmony.
...
Hu Li: And how do you intend to borrow it?
Master Dong: By asking the Mohists to die.