In ancient times, there was a family in Chu State. After offering sacrifices to their ancestors, they are going to give a pot of wine as a sacrifice to those who help with their work. There are many people who help with things. If everyone drinks this pot of wine, it will not be enough. If you drink alone, you can drink more than enough. How to divide this pot of wine?
Everyone is quiet. At this time, it was suggested that everyone draw a snake on the ground. Whoever draws quickly will have this pot of wine for him to drink. Everyone thinks this method is good and agrees to do it. So, draw a snake on the ground.
A person draws quickly, and finishes it in the blink of an eye, so he picks up the hip flask and asks for a drink. But he looked back at the others. They weren't finished. I thought to myself, they draw so slowly. He said proudly, "You draw so slowly! It's not too late for me to draw more feet for the snake! " So he held a hip flask in his left hand and drew a snake's foot in his right hand.
Just as he was talking, another person had finished painting the snake's feet. The man immediately grabbed the hip flask from his hand and said, "Have you ever seen a snake? Snakes have no feet. Why do you want to add feet to it? So the first person to draw a snake is not you, it is me! "
The man raised his head and gulped down the wine.
Step 2 steal the bell from your ear
"A book without a name, in order to avoid people's ridicule, this is very different from the ostrich's opinion.
What is the difference? "-from the story in A Letter to Jiang Degong.
In the Spring and Autumn Period, Zhao, a nobleman of the State of Jin, was defeated. Someone took the opportunity to steal from Fan's house and saw a big clock hanging in the yard. This clock is made of exquisite bronze with exquisite shapes and patterns. The thief was very happy. He wanted to take this beautiful clock home. But this clock is big and heavy, so it cannot be moved. There is only one way he can think of, and that is to break the clock and move home separately.
The thief found a big hammer and threw it at the clock desperately. There was a loud bang and he was stunned. The thief panicked and thought, this is bad. Isn't this clock equivalent to telling people that I stole the clock here? In desperation, he jumped on the bell and tried to cover it with open arms, but how to cover it? The bell is still echoing in the distance.
The more he listened, the more afraid he became. He involuntarily withdrew his hands and covered his ears hard. "Hey, the bell is getting smaller and I can't hear it!" The thief was very happy. "wonderful! Cover your ears and you won't hear the bell! " He immediately found two cloth balls, plugged his ears and thought:
No one can hear the bell now. So I let go and hit the bell. When the bell rang, it spread loudly to far away places. People heard the bell rush in and caught the thief.
Step 3 carve a boat for a sword
During the Warring States period, there was a man from the State of Chu who was very rigid in his work. He did what was written in the book, and even learned how to do it when others were doing it. He never wanted to make a change. ?
On one occasion,?
Carve a boat for a sword. He passed the mountain forest and saw a woodcutter chopping wood. Suddenly, the woodcutter was careless. The axe flew out of his hand and fell into the valley. The woodcutter unhurriedly made a conspicuous mark where the axe fell, then went down the hill from the path, and compared with the L mark on the hill, he quickly found the axe in the grass. The Chu people worship the woodcutter very much.
This Chu man loves fencing and always carries a sword with him. One day, he crossed the river by ferry. He stood by the boat, and the scenery on both sides of the river was dazzling. When the boat sailed into the river, intoxicated by the beautiful scenery, he accidentally let the sword slide into the river. ? [2]
I saw him staring at where the sword fell. Others advised him to jump into the river to salvage, but the Truman smiled and shook his head. In front of his eyes, he saw a scene of a woodcutter carving marks. Then he said quietly, "Don't panic! I have my own magical method. "
I saw that he carved a deep mark on the side of the boat where he dropped his sword with a knife and said to himself, "This is where I dropped my sword!" " "When the boat moved on and the boatman stopped, the Truman stood up, took off his clothes calmly and jumped into the water from the mark engraved on the side of the boat.
He fished in the water, but couldn't find the sword, so he surfaced, stroked the mark on the side of the boat and muttered to himself like a sleepwalker, "My sword obviously fell from here, why can't I find it?" ?
This poor man of Chu is still talked about by people today. Is this his luck or his misfortune? At least, we are fortunate to know this story.
Source: Lu Chunqiu Cha Jin: "A Chu man waded in the river, and his sword fell into the water from the boat. They grabbed their boat and said, "My sword fell." Stop the boat. Ask the contractor for it. "?
4, cup bow snake shadow
There are two versions of this story. One version is that one summer, the county magistrate invited Du Xuan, the official in charge of clerical affairs, to drink. The banquet was set in the hall with a red bow hanging on the north wall. Due to the reflection of light, the shadow of the bow is reflected on the glass.
When Du Xuan saw it, he thought it was a snake crawling in the glass, and suddenly he was full of sweat. However, the county magistrate was his boss and specially invited him to drink. He dared not stop drinking, so he took a few sips. When the servant poured the wine again, he apologized and left.
After returning home, Du Xuan became more and more suspicious that he had just drunk the wine with snakes. He felt that the snakes following the wine were crawling in his stomach. He feels unbearable pain in his chest and abdomen, and it is difficult to eat and drink water. The family quickly asked the doctor for treatment. But he took a lot of medicine and his condition still didn't get better.
A few days later, Chen Ying went to Du Xuangu on business and asked him how he got sick. Du Xuan talked about the snake in his cup when he was drinking that day. Chen Ying comforted him and went home. He sat in the hall and thought over and over again, wondering why there was a snake in Du Xuan's cup.
Suddenly, the red bow on the north wall caught his attention. He immediately sat down where Du Xuan sat that day, picked up a glass of wine and put it in its original position. There was a bow in the glass. If you don't look carefully, it really looks like a snake crawling.
Chen Ying immediately ordered a carriage to pick up Du Xuan, let him sit in his original position, told him to observe the shadow in the glass carefully, and said, "The snake in the glass you mentioned is only the reflection of the bow on the wall, and there is nothing strange. Now you can rest assured! " When Du Xuan found out what had happened, his doubts disappeared immediately, and his illness soon recovered.
There is also a saying that there was a man named Le Guang in the Jin Dynasty who liked making friends very much and often invited friends to drink and chat at home. One day, Leguang cooked a good dish to entertain the guests. The hall is full of flowers, which is very lively. Guess boxing and drinking.
A guest was drinking and accidentally caught a glimpse of a small snake swimming in the glass, but because of the feelings of many guests, he bravely drank the wine. Later, his friend left without explaining the reason. This made Le Guang feel very puzzled: Why did he suddenly leave without drinking?
After several days, Le Guang didn't see this friend. Yue Guang missed him so much that he went to see him himself. Who knows this friend has been ill for several days, very ill. Le Guang asked strangely, "You were fine when you were drinking a few days ago. How did you get so sick at once? "
At first, the friend faltered and said nothing. Later, under the repeated questioning of Le Guang, this friend told the truth: "You treated me warmly that day, and everyone was very happy. After a few drinks, I suddenly found a snake in my cup. It was crawling slowly. I feel scared and disgusted.
But I appreciate your kindness, so I managed to drink that glass of wine and left. When I got home, I felt sick all over. I always feel that there is a little snake in my stomach. In this way, I can't afford to get sick. "
After learning about his illness, Le Guang finally remembered that there was a bow hanging on his wall. He guessed that the snake mentioned by this friend must be a bow shadow reflected in the glass, so he invited the guests home again and asked his friends to raise their glasses. As soon as the man raised his glass, the shadow of the bow on the wall got into the glass again, like a swimming snake. He was dumbfounded. At this time, Le Guang pointed to the bow hanging on the wall.
He said: "It's all at work. The snake in the cup is the shadow of this bow! " "Later, Le Guang took the bow down from the wall, and the little snake in the cup really disappeared. My friend suddenly realized and said happily, "Oh, I see, the snake in the cup is actually the shadow of the bow on the wall! ""His friend became suspicious, and the stone on his heart was removed, and he recovered.
Either way, we want to tell people that in many cases, people are suspicious and troubled by themselves, and diseases caused by such doubts and fears can relieve their psychological state of fear and tension through "deep thinking", so as to eliminate the disease and restore health.
5. Smith
In the dense forest, there is a tiger looking for food. A fox ran past the tiger. The tiger pounced and caught the fox.
The fox rolled his eyes and asked the tiger at the top of his lungs, "Do you dare to eat me?"
"Why not?" The tiger froze.
"God sent me to take care of your animals. If you eat me, you disobey God's command. I see how brave you are! "
The tiger was blindfolded and let go of its claws.
The fox wagged his tail and said, "I'll show you all the animals and show you my prestige."
The tiger followed the fox to the depths of the forest. The fox swaggered along, shaking his head and tail. The tiger looked around incredulously.
The wild boar, deer and rabbit in the forest were puzzled when they saw the fox swaggering over, which was very different from usual. Look behind the fox, ah, a big tiger! Beasts, large and small, were scared away.
The tiger believed it. In fact, he was cheated. It turns out that the fox scared away all the animals by the tiger's prestige.