Some people are always bragging of their conduct:
“Confucious or the Duke of Chou could not match my talents!”
Yet look at their heads, stubborn and stony!
See their bodies, ungainly and stiff!
Pull them by a rope and they refuse to move,
poke them with an awl and they won’t budge.
There they stand, like Mr. Yang’s stork,
born, I’m afraid, to be as dull as clods!
Han-Shan