This allusion means that the guest sees the bow shadow in the cup and thinks it is a snake in the wine, so he just drinks it. That is, I got sick because of my own doubts. When I learned the truth, my doubts disappeared and I recovered. Later, I used a cup bow snake shadow or a bow snake shadow to refer to my doubts and fears caused by hallucinations, as a metaphor for being suspicious and worried about myself. A Qing poet Huang Zunxian's poem "Feeling Things" said: "The golden bow snake shadow contains hidden pain, and the cup bow snake shadow bears strange resentment." Zhao Yi's poem "Seventy Readings": "Seeing crabs in the water is still full of breath, and the bottom of the cup is suitable for snakes."
Once upon a time, there was an official named Yue. He has a good friend who comes to his house to chat whenever he is free. For a while, his friend didn't show up. Yue Guang missed him very much, so he went to see him. I saw my friend sitting on the bed, lying on the bed, his face sallow. Le Guang knew that his friend was very ill, so he asked him how he got sick. My friend faltered and refused to say anything. After repeated questioning, my friend said, "I was drinking at your house that day and saw a small snake with green skin and red flowers swimming in the glass." It was disgusting then. I don't want to drink. You advised me to drink again and again. Out of courtesy, I closed my eyes and drank. From then on, I always felt that there was a little snake running around in my stomach, always wanting to vomit and unable to eat. I have been ill for almost half a month. "Yue guang thought, how can there be a small snake in the glass? But his friend saw it clearly again. What happened? At home, he paced up and down in the living room (duó) to analyze the reasons. He saw a red carved bow in Zhang Qing on the wall, and his heart moved: Is this carved bow playing tricks? So he poured a glass of wine, put it on the table, moved several places, and finally saw the shadow of the carved bow clearly reflected in the glass. With the shaking of the wine, it swims like a small snake with green skin and red flowers. Le Guang immediately took his friend home in a sedan chair. Let him sit in the same position as last time, still fill him with a glass of last time's wine and ask, "What's in the glass? The friend looked down and immediately exclaimed, "Snake! Snakes! Another little snake with green skin and red flowers! " Le Guang smiled and pointed to the bow carved on the wall and said, "Look up, what is that? "When my friend looked at the carved bow and the snake shadow in the cup, he suddenly realized that he felt relaxed and his heart disease was completely gone.
When reading this story, we should notice that Le Guang asked his friend why he didn't come back after such a long separation: "When I was sitting in the front, someone gave me wine and I wanted to drink it. When I saw a snake in the cup, I hated it, and I got sick after drinking it. " The thought that "there are horns on the wall, lacquer painting is a snake" and "the snake in the cup is also a horn shadow" is the cause of the guest, and the treatment of his illness must be aimed at this cause. Therefore, "put wine first", let the guests "feel at home", and then tell them the reasons, so that the guests can understand their feelings and take control of their own illness. This idiom comes from this, also called "snake shadow cup bow", which means being suspicious, asking for trouble and making a false alarm.