| This story
took place more than 2,000 years ago,in the Warring States
period(475-221 B.C.).Tradition has it that in the State of
Song at that time there was a man who was famous for staying
by a stump waiting for more hares to come and dash themselves
against it.
He was a yong farmer,and his family had been
farmers for generations.Year after year and generation after
generation, farmers used to sow in spring and harvest in autumn,beginning
to work at sunrise and retiring at sunset.In good harvest
years,they could only have enough food to eat and enough clothing
to wear.If there was a famine due to crop failure,they had
to go hungry.
This young farmer wanted to improve his life.But
he was too lazy and too cowardly.Being lazy and cowardly over
everything,he often dreamed of having unexpected blessings.
A miracle took place at last. One day in late
autumn,when he was ploughing in the field,two groups of people
were hunting nearby.As shoutings were rising one after another,scared
hares were running desperately.Suddenly,a blind hare dashed
itself headlong against the stump of a dead tree in his field
and died.
That day,he ate his fill.
From that day on,he no longer went in for farming
again.From morning till night,he stayed by that miraculous
stump,waiting for miracles to take place again.
This story comes from"The Five Vermin"in The Works
of Han Feizi.Later generations often use the set phrase"staying
by a stump waiting for more hares to come and dash themselves
against it"to show grusting to chance and windfalls or
dreaming to reap without sowing.It is also used to show adhering
to narrow experiences and not being able to be flexible.
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