Any living object grows invariably from small to large while any massive accumulation must have started small far back in time. Therefore, it can be said that any difficult job must begin from the easy part and any enormous undertaking must originate from a tiny beginning. Hence, to keep good control of things at hand, it is important to start with managing their small details. That is the reason why one should “start planning for a hard job with its easy part and start undertaking a big task bit by bit.” A dam a thousand zhang(approx. 20 meters) long can collapse by an ant hole and a building a hundred chi(approx. 10 meters) tall can be burned to ashes by fire escaping from a chimney crack. (Hanfeizi)

So a building a hundred xun(approx. two hundred meters) tall can be burned to ashes by fire escaping from a chimney crack and a dam a thousand miles long can collapse because of an ant hole. Ancient people begin to take precautions when dangers are still negligible and try to eliminate them in their nascent stage so as to protect what matters most. (The History of the Jin Dynasty)