The Path Is Made by the FruitPyroculinary Founding Epic
Prelude : Sing, O Fire
桃李不言 下自成蹊
The peach and plum trees do not speak, yet a path forms beneath them.
『史記』 「李將軍列傳」
Sing, O fire.
Fire that cooked the meat and had it shared, and by that sharing made a band into people.
The wanderer came from a shouting market.
There the artisan sold his pride for a pittance, and the buyer counted the hour instead of the thing.
He left that market carrying a single small ember. He went in search of a market people would seek out without being told.
Canto I : Setting Sail
What the wanderer drew was a market without a warehouse.
Nothing stored, so no walls; no walls, so no end. From a small grill to a ship that crosses the sea, everything touching life by the fire could stand there.
Before setting sail, he swore an oath before the fire.
Never hide the flaws of a thing. Merchants may add firewood, but they cannot buy the scales.
On the old market days, people came before goods. In this market too, words stand in front and goods support them from behind.
Law I : People come first, and goods follow.
Canto II : Between Two Currents
On one side was a whirlpool that bought everything up and piled it high. On the other was a rock that took the money and turned away.
The wanderer made his way between them.
Orders go to the seller, and the seller ships the goods. Payment passes through the market, but never rests in its vault.
The market keeps only its share for opening the way. The wanderer's own goods knock on the same door, pay the same share and face the same judgment.
Law II : The market only brokers.
Canto III : The Shouting Sea
Cheap today only, ending soon, hurry, the sea cried out. The ships that followed those cries broke upon the reefs.
The wanderer did not turn his bow.
This market has no points, no sales, no events that shake the price. The honest trader of the old market used the same scales for everyone, and those scales called the customers in.
The price of a group buy is not a cut price but a price made by the people who gathered. The artisan sets it, and the market never asks it lowered.
Law III : Everyone pays the same price.
Canto IV : The Door Closed and Opened
Once, the wanderer built a door that opened knowledge only to those who paid. That same night he tore it down.
The moment knowledge has a door, the market stops sharing fire and starts selling it. An ember does not shrink for being shared.
Every word, study and rating in this market is open to everyone.
The membership fee is not the price of a monopoly but the price of keeping everything open. A gathering is not a day when prices fall but a day to learn the craft.
Law IV : Knowledge is open to all.
Canto V : The Isle of Forgetting and the Silent Wood
The artisans who ate the fruit called cleverness forgot the work of their own hands. The packaging grew larger than the goods, the voice louder than the hand.
The wood the wanderer reached was quiet. The peach and plum trees said nothing, yet a path ran beneath them.
蹊 is a path made by feet (足). Footsteps of those who came gather into a road.
The finest marketing is customer satisfaction.
What the market measures is not clicks but the people who return, and the things still lighting a fire a year later. The screens are built like the wood. One photo, one text, one price, one button.
Law V : Satisfaction is the only advertisement.
Canto VI : The Five Harbors
At the first harbor arrive new goods that have passed verification.
At the second harbor gather those who buy together. When the number is reached they sail; when it is not, no one's money leaves.
At the third harbor the market does not sell but connects. It connects only when the buyer pays less than buying alone.
At the fourth harbor used things arrive again. The price of a used thing is a rating no one can dress up.
The hands of the fifth harbor clean sleeping grills and set them before the fire again.
The small grill and the ship that crosses the sea stood under the same rules.
Law VI : Every door follows the same rules.
Canto VII : Those Who Laid Down Their Names
The wanderer said to those on board: throw into the sea the name tags that carry your titles, companies and fortunes.
Before the fire you are called only by a name you chose yourself, a nickname. No business cards are exchanged. The hand that tends the fire and the heart that shares the meat become your card.
But where things are sold, the seller's name and responsibility are shown. A nickname erases rank; it is not a mask to hide an interest.
Law VII : Before the fire, we meet by nickname only.
Canto VIII : Return to the Hearth
When he laid the ember in the hearth on the hill, the fire rose high.
The one who sold, the one who bought and the one who cleans gathered around the same fire and shared the same meat. The market became a festival.
In the circle before the fire there was no head seat. Every place stood the same distance from the fire.
When the fire dies down, people return to being sellers and buyers. Yet the memory of meeting without rank makes the next day's trade a little more honest.
Law VIII : In the circle before the fire, there is no head seat.
Postlude : The Eight Laws
Before the hearth, the wanderer read the eight laws aloud.
- People come first, and goods follow.
- The market only brokers.
- Everyone pays the same price.
- Knowledge is open to all.
- Satisfaction is the only advertisement.
- Every door follows the same rules.
- Before the fire, we meet by nickname only.
- In the circle before the fire, there is no head seat.
The detailed articles of the laws are engraved in the Platform Charter. The song tells where the laws came from, and the charter keeps them.
Now the wanderer does not speak. Like the peach and plum trees, he only bears fruit.
The path will be made by the feet that come.