Taoist Parables: The Chinese Farmer & The Useless Tree (Advanced)

ESL/EFL Level: Advanced (C1/C2)
Lesson Topics: Taoism (Daoism), philosophy, striving
Skill Focus: Speaking, Vocabulary, Reading, Listening
Approximate Class Time: 2.5 hours
Lesson Plan Download: taoist-parables-advanced-lesson-072026.docx
Lesson Overview:

  • Foreword: At five pages, this is one of our longer lessons. As always, please delete the activities from the lesson that you'd rather not cover.
  • Students first warm up with questions on spirituality, Taoism, and Stoicism, which pertain to the first parable.
  • The lesson's first input is the Taoist parable of the Chinese farmer. (Note that it also contains Stoic themes.) The text, at 162 words, cautions against passing hasty judgment on life's events. It could also be understood as promoting a detachment from life's outcomes.
  • The parable is followed by four comprehension questions.
  • Students then discuss two warm-up questions about utility related to the second parable.
  • The second input is the parable of the useless tree. The story promotes the Taoist virtue of inaction and warns against needlessly striving for utility.
  • Again, the parable is followed by four comprehension questions.
  • Students then match 13 vocabulary items from phrases in the passage to definitions. This is followed by an exercise which requires students to ask questions to each other using some of the new words.
  • The lesson has two debate topics on the value of spirituality and whether having utility means being exploited.
  • The next speaking activity is a roleplay scenario between a newly converted Taoist and his wife. The Taoist must try to persuade the wife to give up their life of striving and move to the countryside.
  • Afterwards, students are given some time to research and present a parable from their culture.
  • As an additional philosophical activity, students are asked to come up with a list of five principles for life in groups.
  • Returning to the focus on Taoism, students then match the phrases in several Taoist sayings. Afterward, they discuss their meanings.
  • As an additional component, the next segment presents six idioms related to depression. After matching the idioms to definitions, students roleplay a scenario in which they try to cheer the other up using the new vocabulary. (Omit this segment if you feel the lesson's vocabulary load is already sufficient.)
  • Next, students review a short writing note on the use of semicolons in the passage.
  • After famous quotations, students review vocabulary and the lesson's collocations.
  • Finally, the lesson ends with a few final discussion questions.

A penciled drawing (AI-Generated) of the useless tree.

ADVANCED (C1/C2) Lesson on Two Taoist Parables

Warm-up

  1. Are you a spiritual person? If so, what spiritual practices do you do?
  2. Have you ever studied Taoism (Daoism) or Stoicism? If so, what do you know about them?
  3. In your life, have you been lucky or unlucky? Why do you think so?

Membership is required to view this post. Please support EnglishCurrent by becoming a member today. Members, please log in.

This lesson plan was created by Matthew Barton of EnglishCurrent.com (copyright). Site members may photocopy and edit the file for their classes. Permission is not given to rebrand the lesson, redistribute it on another platform, or sell it as part of commercial course curriculum. Claude was used to generate answer keys and some famous quotations. For questions, contact the author.

Comprehension Question Answer Key:

  1. (Open-ended: assess for coverage of key plot points: the horse runs away, returns with wild horses, the son breaks his leg taming one, the son is spared from military recruitment because of the broken leg. The farmer responds "Maybe" to each event.)
  2. (Open-ended: core lesson is that events cannot be simply judged as good or bad luck, since every outcome may lead to unforeseen consequences. Students' personal examples will vary.)
  3. (Open-ended: personal response. No fixed answer. Encourage students to identify the moment they assumed the outcome was clear and what happened next.)
  4. (Open-ended: students might argue that caring less about outcomes would reduce anxiety and suffering, or conversely that ambition and desire for specific results drive human progress and motivation. On the second part, most will agree it is extremely difficult in practice even if appealing in theory.) (Open-ended: assess for coverage of key plot points: the carpenter dismisses the oak as useless, the tree appears in a dream and argues that its uselessness has allowed it to survive and grow old, while useful trees are cut down before their time.)
  5. (Open-ended: core lesson is that what appears useless or unproductive may have hidden value, and that striving to be useful can actually lead to suffering or an early end.)
  6. The oak tree uses them as a contrast to make its argument: useful trees are harvested, broken, and destroyed before their time precisely because humans find them valuable. Their usefulness is ultimately what kills them.
  7. "Bring it on themselves" means to be the cause of your own misfortune through your own actions or qualities. (Open-ended for the example: possible answers include celebrities who lose privacy because of their fame, politicians brought down by their own ambition, or businesses that collapse under the pressure of rapid growth.)
  8. (Open-ended: students might argue that the parable encourages people to resist society's pressure to be constantly productive, or that it validates a quieter, less ambitious life. Others might argue the parallel breaks down since humans, unlike trees, have responsibilities to others.)

Vocabulary answer key: 1-b, 2-k, 3-m, 4-j, 5-d, 6-l, 7-h, 8-e, 9-c, 10-f, 11-i, 12-a, 13-g

Collocations: 1-a, 2-h, 3-b, 4-d, 5-g, 6-f, 7-e, 8-c

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *