趙人患鼠，乞貓於中山，中山人予之。貓善捕鼠及雞，月餘，鼠盡而其雞亦盡，其子患之，告其父曰：“盍去諸？”其父曰：“是非若所知也，吾之患在鼠，不在乎無雞。夫有鼠則竊吾食，毀吾衣，穿吾垣墉，壞傷吾器用，吾將饑寒焉。不病於無雞乎？無雞者弗食雞則已耳，去饑寒猶遠，若之何而去夫貓也？”
A man from Zhao was bothered by mice and looked for a cat in Zhongshan, where someone gave one to him. The cat was good at catching mice and chickens. After a month, the mice were all gone; so were his chickens. With great concern, his son told him [about it], saying, “Why not get rid of it?” The father said, “You don’t understand. My problem lies in mice, not in the lack of chickens. When there are mice, [they] steal my food, destroy my clothes, tunnel through my walls, and spoil my utensils, so that I will starve and freeze. Isn’t that much worse than having no chickens? When there are no chickens, [I] just don’t eat any chicken, and that’s far from starving and freezing. Why would [I] get rid of the cat!”
* From Liu Ji 劉基 (1311-1375), Yulizi 郁離子 (Shouyue pian 守約篇 edition, preface dated 1875): 1.44b-45a: https://ctext.org/library.pl?if=gb&file=82910&page=97.
"Ximao tu" 戲貓圖 by Shang Xi 商喜 (fl. 15th century)
Image credit: National Palace Museum, Taipei
A proud hunter with her trophy
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