Abstract: In order to advocate “moral foolishness” this paper discusses the Daoist story about the “old man at the fort” (whose horse runs away and then returns with a whole herd of horses, a.s.f.) that appears in the Huainanzi. In my view, the story can be read as an allegory about what may be called the moralist mindset and thus presents a thoroughgoing as well as ironical and satirical criticism of such a mindset. The story is not so much about the tricky nature of fate, but primarily about the old man and his seemingly foolish inability to distinguish between good and bad. In other words, it is not so much about the shifting winds of change as it is about the human tendency to look at the world in moral terms. Read in this way, the main point of the story is the foolishness of not deeming things good or bad—a foolishness that, paradoxically, emerges as wisdom.
Hans-Georg Moeller( University College, Cork, Ireland)