Taoist Story: The Story of the Useless Tree - Intermediate Slow Chinese Ep.7

In this episode of Slow Chinese Bedtime Stories, we’ll listen to a Taoist story from Zhuangzi called “The Useless Tree” (无用之木).

A carpenter sees a huge tree and thinks it is useless. But the tree has a very different idea about what it means to be useful.

Why did the tree survive while other, more useful trees were cut down?

And what can this story teach us about success, freedom, and the pressure to become “useful” in life?

This episode is for intermediate Chinese learners. Listen to the story, follow along with the free Chinese + Pinyin + English script, and learn some simple Chinese while exploring an old Taoist idea.

Find the script for free: https://ardenxwei.substack.com/p/slow-chinese-bedtime-stories-ep7?r=6sbdzb&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web