The episode between Chen and Cai is the tradition's account of its founder at his lowest, and it is preserved rather than smoothed. Confucius and his followers, travelling between states in search of a ruler who would employ him, were cut off — later accounts say besieged — and ran out of provisions; the followers became too weak to stand. Zilu, the blunt and impulsive disciple, came to him visibly angry and asked whether the gentleman also has to endure destitution. Confucius answered that the gentleman endures destitution, and that when the small man is destitute he gives way entirely. Sima Qian and the Zhuangzi both expand the scene, and the Zhuangzi has Confucius playing his zither and singing through it. It is quoted constantly in Chinese and Korean writing about integrity under pressure, and its force comes from the fact that Confucius's political career was, by any measure he would have accepted, a failure.