【守株待兔】

 【守株待兔】🐇

Waiting for a windfall

(Waiting for a rabbit to run

into a tree stump)

Han Fei, a philosopher from the Warring States period,

expounded that a ruler should govern the people according to the times, establishing appropriate policies and facilities.

One should not blindly follow ancient methods, assuming that the policies of ancient sages are necessarily good, regardless of their suitability to the current society.

He gave an example to illustrate this point: 

In the state of Song, a farmer was working in his fields when he saw a rabbit run by.

The rabbit, perhaps too startled, didn't see ahead and crashed into a tree, breaking its neck and dying. 

The farmer thus obtained the rabbit without any effort.

He thought that if he could always get rabbits this way, he wouldn't need to work hard anymore.

So he threw away his tools and waited by the tree every day for rabbits to come to him. 

As a result, he never got a rabbit again and became the laughingstock of the entire state of Song.

Therefore, governing a country with old methods, like this rabbit-waiting man, will ultimately be futile.

Later, this story was condensed into "waiting for a rabbit to bump into a tree stump," which is used to describe being rigid and conservative, or to describe wishful thinking of getting something for nothing, or waiting for the goal to come to you on its own.

rabbit __ __ June __ ___. Q1, ( ) tree ➊草 ➋花 ➌樹

Q2, ( ) rabbit ➊牛 ➋兔 ➌狗

Q3, ( ) farmer ➊農夫 ➋漁夫 ➌樵夫