Once upon a time, there was a hunchback called Hunchbacked Kuo. He was skilled at planting trees. Every tree that he planted grew tall and strong, and bore juicy and plentiful fruit. 

Someone asked him why only he could plant so well, to which he replied, "I merely allow the trees to grow naturally and undisturbed. "Hunchback Kuo said,  “But when others plant trees, the tree roots are curled up and directly buried in the soil, and the soil is either too tightly packed or too loose. After planting the tree, they keep coming back to check, touch, and some even grab and shake the trees, to see how they are growing. Though they seem to care about the trees, they are actually hurting them instead. ” 

The person then asked, “Your way of planting trees is so effective. Can it be applied to governing people? ” 

Hunchback Kuo shook his head and said, “I only know how to plant trees. I am not familiar with how to govern people. However, where I am from, the officials issue orders and decrees very frequently. On the surface, it seems like they care about us. But they keep calling us away from work, to tell us the importance of hard work. After listening to them talk the whole day, we don’t even have time to eat, let alone work. I guess this is somewhat similar to the principle of planting trees! " 

從前，有個駝子名叫郭橐駝，他很會種樹，他所種的樹，每一棵都長得又高又大，果子也結得比平常多。

有人問他為什麼只有他才種得好，他說：「我只是讓樹木按照自己的方式自然長大罷了。」 郭橐駝說：「但是別人種樹，是讓樹根捲曲地直接埋進土裡，而且土不是弄得太緊就是太鬆。種好之後，又動不動就來看看、摸摸，有的甚至會抓樹、搖樹，看它到底長得怎麼樣。這樣雖然是關心它，但其實根本就是傷害它啊。」

那個人又問：「你種樹的方法這麼有效，能不能用到治理百姓上？」

郭橐駝搖搖頭說：「我只知道怎麼種樹，治理百姓我就不清楚了。但是在我住的地方，看見官員們喜歡不斷地公告命令，表面上看起來好像是很在意百姓的生活，可是他們一天到晚把大家召集起來，又要我們認真工作，常常這樣，我們連吃飯的時間都沒有了，又怎麼能要求我們努力工作呢？這大概就有點像種樹的道理吧！」