Too busy or overwhelmed with one's own problems to be able to help or care for others; unable to attend to others' needs due to one's own pressing concerns.
Era:
Early Modern
Frequency:
Story:
During the Spring and Autumn period, Confucius traveled around various states with his disciples. While resting in the state of Chen, his disciple Ran Qiu returned from the state of Lu and reported that the ancestral temple in Lu had caught fire.
Confucius predicted that the temples of Duke Huan and Duke Xi must have burned down.
Ran Qiu replied that the Master's foresight was divine, explaining that Ji Huanzi had just passed away, and the Ji household was in complete chaos, so preoccupied with their own affairs that they were unable to attend to anything else, let alone extinguishing the fire.