Successor

During the holiday, I skipped through the recently released annual report of a local bank.

I must say I have no interest what so ever to put my money on it, but a remark of the chairman - when he was asked when he would step down and pass the position to his son - caught my notice:

"When we really recover from the financial tsunami, and our net profit has returned to the 2007 level."

It sounds great, eh ? Just that a scene in Demi-gods and Semi-devils (天龍八部) of Jin Yong (金庸) came through my mind.

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During a family crisis, the King of Dali (大理) asked for the help from his close friend, who was a senior monk of a small temple.

The Buddhist agreed, but in return he requested the King to cut down the salt tax of the country, which was a heavy burden to many Dali people.

The King sighed, "You mentioned this some years ago. In fact I intended to cancel all salt tax when my younger brother take up the reign some years later - so that the Dali people would consider that a benevolent policy of the new king."

(The original text was: "五年之前，師兄命我免了大理百姓的鹽稅 ... 小弟意欲待吾弟正淳接位，再行此項仁政，以便庶民歸德吾弟。")

Another reason why the after-eighty generation has so much difficulty.