parable
47 篇The Horse and the Goat | 鞭马与鞭羊
Mozi uses the analogy of whipping a swift horse versus a goat to explain to his disciple that he ...
34 阅读The Long Reins | 马不千里
A disciple boasts of his horses' speed but is told his long reins prevent true progress, illustra...
34 阅读Broken Idols | 破碎的偶像
A monk and a Taoist priest repeatedly move their respective idols to the left, each claiming prec...
28 阅读The Skull's Dream | 髑髅之梦
Zhuangzi dreams of a skull that extols the freedom and eternal peace of death, rejecting any noti...
31 阅读Tuning an Instrument is Like Governing a State | 调琴如治国
The story uses the metaphor of tuning a stringed instrument to illustrate the importance of disti...
32 阅读The Unguent of Song | 不皲之药
Hui Zi destroys a giant gourd he finds useless. Zhuang Zi responds with a parable about a family ...
29 阅读The Fish in the Dried Rut | 涸辙之鲋
Zhuang Zhou uses a parable about a dying fish needing immediate help to criticize Marquis Jianheh...
37 阅读The Beadle of Changwu | 长梧封人
A frontier beadle shares a farming analogy with a disciple of Confucius, contrasting the poor res...
32 阅读Zhuangzi Fishing | 庄子钓鱼
Zhuangzi declines an offer to become Prime Minister by using the allegory of a sacred tortoise, s...
33 阅读The Tree and the Goose | 山木与雁
Zhuangzi uses the paradox of a useless tree surviving and a useless goose being killed to illustr...
31 阅读The Unused Gourd | 不材之药
Hui Zi destroys a giant gourd he finds useless. Zhuang Zi, through a parable about a chilblain sa...
26 阅读The Carrot, the Egg, and the Coffee Bean | 胡萝卜、鸡蛋与咖啡豆
A mother uses a kitchen experiment with carrots, eggs, and coffee beans in boiling water to teach...
35 阅读The Mark on the Water | 刻舟求银
A man loses a silver bowl at sea and marks the spot on the water, foolishly searching for it mont...
29 阅读The Big Sea Fish | 大海鱼
A Qi man dissuaded Lord Tian Ying from fortifying his fiefdom by telling a parable of a mighty se...
34 阅读Lin Hui Abandons the Jade | 林回弃璧
A wise man fleeing danger chooses to save his newborn son over a priceless family heirloom, expla...
27 阅读The Big Catch | 钓大鱼
A nobleman uses fifty oxen as bait to fish in the East Sea. After a year of patience, he catches ...
29 阅读The Pot Calling the Kettle Black | 五十步笑百步
King Hui of Liang boasts of his governance to Mencius but wonders why his population doesn't grow...
31 阅读The Hardest Task in a Stable | 马棚里最难做的事
Duke Huan of Qi asks about the hardest stable task. Minister Guan Zhong explains that fence-build...
32 阅读The Old Beggar-Woman | 老乞妇
A kind boy invites a shivering old beggar-woman to warm herself by his fire, but when her clothes...
25 阅读The Boy and the Apple Tree | 男孩与苹果树
A story about unconditional love and sacrifice between a boy and an apple tree that gives everyth...
32 阅读