King Wen was sightseeing at Zang when he saw an old man fishing. But his fishing was no fishing; not as though he was fishing for something but just always fishing. King Wen wanted to raise him up and put him in charge of government but was afraid high officials and family members would not tolerate it. He was tempted to give up and let it go, but he couldn't bear for the clans to miss this bit of heaven.
So in the morning he gathered his ministers and said, "Last night I had a dream. I saw a handsome man, dark complected with whiskers, riding a dappled horse with red hooves on one side. He shouted, "Lodge your government with the old Zang man and maybe your people can be healed!"
All the ministers looked startled and said, "It must have been your father!"
King Wen said, "Then let's consult a soothsayer."
The ministers all said, "It's the late king's order. Your majesty has no alternative. What is there to soothsay?"
In the end, they welcomed the old Zang man and gave him the government, but there were no reforms or new laws. After three years, when King Wen observed the state, the rank and file had broken up the large plantations and scattered the cliques. The high offices didn't flex their powers and people didn't feel the need to bring their own scales and measures when they entered the country. That the rank and file had broken up the large plantations and scattered the cliques, was because people identified with their superiors. That high offices didn't flex their powers, was because people worked together. That people didn't feel the need to bring their own scales and measures when they entered the country, was because other states had no second thoughts.
King Wen thereupon treated the old as a great teacher and, kneeling, asked him, "Can this government be extended to the whole world?"
The old Zang man looked at him drowsily and didn't answer. Floodily, he demurred. The question having been asked in the morning. by the evening he was gone and was never heard of again.
Yen Hui asked Confucius, "Did King Wen still have a ways to go? What did he need that dream for?"
Confucius said, "Shush! Don't speak. King Wen was all the way there. Why criticize? That was just a little improvisation."[1]