From: the.wise.one@abel.co.uk   
      
   Grab the Right Stocks   
      
   [during the Chin Dynasty, 221 BC to 206 BC]   
      
      
      
   At the end of 206 BC, the Chin dynasty was overthrown and the new order   
   not yet established.  While troops swarmed through the wrecked capital   
   city, generals and officers were busy directing their soldiers to loot   
   the grandiose imperial palace and the mansions of rich men.  Every   
   soldier laboriously carried gold or silver bullion, expensive jewelry,   
   and precious antiques.   
      
        However, one far-sighted commissioner named Hsiao Ho ordered his   
   subordinates to take over the Bureau of Information.  Instead of   
   treasures, his soldiers hauled away many cartloads of military maps,   
   social data, population charts, and important statistics.   
      
        Shortly after this devastating pillage, a bloody civil war broke   
   out.  Those recovered charts and maps displayed the importance of some   
   strategic locations and revealed many concealed caches of weapons and   
   stores.  Hsiao Ho's master, King Han, was greatly pleased with this   
   vital information, and highly praised this perceptive commissioner, who   
   later became the first appointed prime minister.  During this same   
   chaotic period, while most people focused on hoarding precious metals, a   
   clerk gathered in quantities of wheat and flour.  Soon came the   
   destructive civil war.  Farmers couldn't plant their wheat fields, and   
   food prices skyrocketed.  Grains became as valuable as gold.  This clerk   
   sold his stores bit by bit, and earned an immense profit.  Others,   
   holding gold bullion and jewelry, didn't know where to exchange their   
   wealth for food and starved to death.  Thousands of people perished.   
      
    From these two cases, we see that gold and valuables, which we   
   ordinarily cherish, are not necessarily the most important possessions   
   in a time of chaos.  Only a person with farsightedness and wisdom can   
   perceive a coming crisis and react accordingly.   
      
      
   from:   
   "Wisdom's Way: 101 Tales of Chinese Wit"   
   by Walton Lee   
   YMAA Publication Center, Massachusetts, 1997   
   Chapter 1: Look at the Whole Picture   
   pages 8-9   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)