What is the story and moral of "Carving the Boat and Seeking the Sword"?

The fable of "Carving a Boat to Seek a Sword":

During the Warring States Period, a man from Chu State took a boat to cross a river. When the boat reached the middle of the river, a Chu man accidentally slipped a sword he was carrying with him into the river. He quickly reached out to catch it, but it was too late, and the sword had already fallen into the river. The people on board felt very sorry for this.

But the Chu man seemed confident, and immediately took out a knife, carved a mark on the side of the ship, and said to everyone: "This is the place where the sword fell into the water, so I want to carve a mark." "No one understood why he did this, and they stopped asking him.

After the ship docked, the Chu people immediately launched into the water at the marked place on the ship to retrieve the fallen sword. The Chu people fished for a long time, but there was no sign of the sword. He felt very strange and said to himself, "Didn't my sword fall from here? I also carved a mark here, how can I not find it now?"

Listen When he said this, those people laughed and said, "The ship has been moving, but your sword has sunk to the bottom of the water and will not move with the ship. How can you find your sword?"

The moral of "Carving a Boat to Seek a Sword":

If a sword falls into the water, it will only sink to the bottom. This is common sense. After the boat has gone far, it is really stupid and ridiculous to still look for the sword under the boat that fell into the water long ago. If the ship is stationary and the sword sinks to the bottom of the water, it is possible to find the sword by carving a mark on the ship where the sword fell and following the mark into the water to look for the sword. Unfortunately, the sword sank to the bottom of the water and stopped moving, while the boat kept moving.

This objective fact is not reflected in the minds of people seeking swords. He thought that wherever the sword fell, he would look for it and he would find it. His understanding is inconsistent with objective facts, and the result will naturally be failure. It is very powerful to use such a metaphor to satirize people who cling to dogma.

This idiom contains two levels of truth. On the first level, if people's ideological understanding does not conform to objective reality, they will not succeed in doing things. On the other hand, objective reality is constantly developing and changing. If we regard old rules and regulations as a magic weapon to solve new problems, it would be a joke. The author's thinking is simple materialism and dialectical thinking.

Origin of the idiom "Carving a boat to seek a sword":

Origin: There was a Chu man who was wading into the river. His sword fell from the boat into the water. He suddenly struck the boat and said: "This is where my sword is. From the fall. "The boat stops, and the person it agrees with enters the water to find it." The boat has moved, but the sword cannot move. Isn't it confusing to ask for a sword like this? (Warring States Period·Lü Buwei's "Lu Spring and Autumn Period·Cha Jin")

Translation: There was a man crossing the river in Chu State. His sword fell from the boat into the water. He immediately carved a mark on the side of the ship and said: "This is the place where my sword fell." The ship stopped after it reached its destination, and the Chu man jumped into the water from the place where he had carved the mark. Find the sword. The ship has moved, but the sword has not moved. Isn't it confusing to look for the sword like this?