There was a person from the state of Song who was concerned that his sprouts would not grow tall and who therefore pulled them up a bit. He returned home looking exhausted and spoke to the people in his family saying:” Today I am tired out! I have just helped the sprouts grow taller.” His son rushed out and went to the fields to look at the sprouts; it turned out that the sprouts had all withered.
The people in the world who do not help their sprouts grow are few indeed! The people who think there is no advantage in nurturing them are the people who abandon them; these are the people who do not weed their sprouts. The people who want to help their sprouts grow are the people who pull them up a bit. The method of pulling them up a bit not only has no benefit, but on the contrary also injures them.