
What is the sky? Lofty and unfathomable, embodying laws, commandments, cruelty, and indifference. What is the will of the heavens? Overlooking all beings, manipulating the winds and clouds, granting rewards and punishments at whim. The will of the heavens is unpredictable, and the heavens themselves are distant and unreachable.
To follow and obey the heavens might not yield its blessings; to defy and rebel against it could lead to uncertain fortune or disaster. The heavens imprison all like a deep well, while mortal beings wallow in the mire.
Yet, within this mire exists a simple, resolute frog at the bottom of the well. Guarding a faint glimmer of light in its heart, it clings to the modest belief that it might one day take a bite of the "swan's meat." Step by step, it struggles upward from the muddy depths of mortality.