Which fable tells people to be good at using wisdom?

Qian Zhongshu, a famous scholar in China, once said in the article "Reading Aesop's Fables": "Aesop's Fables can be read." Aesop's Fables is an ancient Greek fable, an immortal work, and its reputation even exceeds Homer's. Therefore, among ancient Greek writers, Aesop is a bright pearl, and Aesop has always been called the originator of western fables. His fable has a long history and is a masterpiece of ancient Greece. Plato, Aristotle, Marx and other philosophers, thinkers and politicians all spoke highly of this book. Its ideological content and literary value have great influence in the history of world literature and have unique artistic charm. However, its author has always been a controversial issue. Speculation is not a one-off work, but can be regarded as the collective creation of the ancient Greeks in a long historical period. Aesop's fable means "Aesop's fable", and Aesop may be one of the important authors.

Aesop's Fables, a masterpiece, has the unique nature and color of ancient Greek folk literature and has no strong political opinion. Most of them are summaries of life experiences and people's attitudes towards life, paying attention to moral education for readers, and retaining the characteristics of their folk fables: vivid and simple language; Fictional animal stories and character stories are short and interesting; The thoughts, philosophies and lessons contained in the story reflect the thoughts and feelings of the lower class civilians and slaves in ancient Greece. For example, Aesop's fables compare the oppressors to lions, wolves, poisonous snakes, crocodiles and foxes, and condemn their atrocities of harming the people. There are many stories in the fable, which also summarizes the experience and lessons of the social struggle of the Greek people. For example, the story "The Farmer and the Snake" advises people not to be kind to the enemy; Dog, Chicken and Fox tells people to be good at using their wisdom to defeat the enemy. Aesop's Fables also reflects the backward negative consciousness of civilian slaves, such as advocating lotte and contentment (saying that horses are happy donkeys) and compromising with the strong (reeds and olive trees). There is also the tortoise-rabbit race, which we are all familiar with, to persuade people not to be proud. The crow and the fox points out that vanity is harmful to people; Fox and monkey argue about their family background and satirize liars; For another example, chickens that lay golden eggs warn people that they should be satisfied.

As far as content is concerned, Aesop's fables can be divided into the following three categories:

1, alluding to social reality. Many stories in Aesop's Fables reflect the miserable situation of the poor, expose the cruelty of the rulers and express the dissatisfaction of the poor with those rich and heartless people. For example, The Debtor exposes the harshness, ruthlessness, greed and selfishness of pricing, and also depicts the tragic experience of the helpless poor: the poor are unable to pay their debts, and the creditors refuse to postpone paying their debts, so they have to drive out the only old sow and sell it. The well-known "Wolf and Sheep" constructs a robber logic through a vivid story: first, the wolf blames the sheep for muddling the water. Lamb replied: I stand on the shore and drink water. I am downstream, so it is impossible to muddy the upstream water. Seeing that the plan failed, the wolf took the second step: "But you scolded my father last year." The lamb said that he was not born at that time. Finally, the helpless wolf used his killer weapon: "No matter how you defend, I won't let you go anyway." Why can an unreasonable wolf eat innocent lambs? The wolf's hegemony and irrationality depend on his own force. In the law of the jungle era, strength means authority, meaning "legitimacy", and power is truth. Another example is Cats and Chickens, which accuses the ruler of cruelty and arrogance with bitter satire.

2. Show people's wisdom. In Aesop's Fables, there are many stories about life experience, which show the life experience and wisdom of working people. For example, some fables teach people how to choose friends and how to treat friends. "The thirsty crow" wrote that the crow flew to a pitcher with thirst. There is not much water in the pitcher. He tried his best, but he still couldn't drink it. So he pushed with all his strength, trying to push the jar down and pour out the water, but the pitcher couldn't move. At this time, the crow remembered the way he went to the pitcher to throw stones. With the increase of stones, the water in the pitcher gradually increased. Finally, the crow drank the water happily. The clever crow has become a classic example, enlightening future generations to use wisdom and pay attention to strategy when encountering difficulties, rather than being reckless. In the story of the crow and the fox, the crow became a symbol of credulity and stupidity. A crow is standing in a tree with a stolen piece of meat in its mouth. The fox passing by cheated the crow's trust with clever words, snatched the food from the crow's mouth, and finally viciously taunted the crow. The fox's cunning and deception have not been accused, but have become the capital of its wisdom worth showing off. Cunning, cheating and hypocrisy, which originally belonged to bad human nature, have always been regarded as the object of criticism in later literature, but in Aesop's Fables, it is just the opposite, showing the folk characteristics of Aesop's Fables, which reflects the living conditions of the bottom people without status, security and power. In The Wild Goat and the Shepherd, people are warned not to make friends with people who like the new and hate the old. Snakes and Water Snakes is a satire on the so-called "allies" who only talk but don't do practical actions. Some fables aim to teach people how to live and behave. For example, the fox and the leopard: the fox and the leopard argue about who is beautiful. The leopard boasted about his mottled patterns, but the fox replied, "I am much more beautiful than you." What I decorate is not my body, but my mind. " "The story says that the beauty of wisdom is better than the beauty of form. Tortoise and hare warned people not to rely on their own talents and conceit. " "The Joking Shepherd" shows that lying will eventually hurt yourself and will not come to a good end. The story of "Fox and Goat" warns people to look at the object of good deeds so as not to be deceived.

3, mocking the shortcomings of human nature. For example, the mole said that the mole was blind, but the little mole told his mother that he could see. Mother wanted to test him, so she put a small piece of delicious food in front of him and asked him what it was. He said it was a small stone. Mother said, "Ah, unfortunate child, you are blind and your nose is useless." . "The story is like this. Those who love to brag and talk big often boast that they can do great things, but they lose face in some trivial things." "Children and Chestnuts" is about a child who reaches into a bottle full of chestnuts and wants to catch as many as possible. But when he tried to reach out, his hand got stuck in the bottle mouth. He didn't want to give up some chestnuts and couldn't get rid of them, so he had to cry bitterly. Fables warn people not to be greedy, but to be content. "The donkey carrying salt" is about a donkey crossing the river with salt on his back and falling into the river. The salt was dissolved by water. He felt relaxed and happy when he stood up. Another day, he crossed the river with a sponge on his back, thinking that it would be easier to stand up if he fell again. So, he fell on purpose. Unexpectedly, the sponge absorbed water, so he couldn't stand up anymore and drowned in the river. The dissatisfied donkey finally lost his life. This fable warns people that enough is enough, and everything should not be too greedy, which will hurt themselves because of small losses. Another example is ants and cicadas, which ridicule people's laziness; Widows and hens, boys and hazelnuts warn people not to be greedy; Rats and weasels teach people not to be vain.

4. Affirm pragmatic thinking. Western jackdaw and the Fox in the West tells the story of a hungry western Western jackdaw who flew to a fig tree and found that the figs were small and green, so he stayed until they grew up. Seeing that Western jackdaw always stays there in the west, the fox asks why, and then says, "Oh, my friend, you are so confused. How can you live by hope? " . Hope can only be pursued by oneself, but it can't fill the stomach. "In this story, the western Western jackdaw and the fox symbolize two different personalities. Western jackdaw in the west is ideal, persistent and stupid at the same time. The fox is realistic, complex and clever at the same time.

Aesop's Fables is humorous and interesting, and its writing is easy to understand, but it is not elegant. Orthodox scholars think that this is just a vulgar joke of the villagers and dismiss it. This may be the reason why Aesop's Fables has been ignored by classical scholars for a long time, but Aesop's Fables has its own distinctive artistic characteristics.

1, a successful anthropomorphic technique. Fable is a fictional short story, and the author uses concrete stories to convey meaningful truth, which is meaningful and enlightening here. Fables are generally short, and the protagonist of the story can be a person, an anthropomorphic animal or plant or something else. In China's ancient fables, people appear more often. Aesop's Fables, on the other hand, successfully uses a lot of personification techniques. Such as wolves and lambs, turtles and rabbits, foxes and grapes. All animals and even plants are endowed with human thoughts, personalities and languages, making them think, act and speak like people in stories, thus forming a living world in front of us. Due to the successful application of personification, some animal stories have formed the general characteristics of typical images in the long-term circulation, such as rabbit timidity, wolf greed, fox cunning and so on. However, when we read Aesop's Fables, we can't look at the anthropomorphic images of different faces of the same animal with a fixed eye. For example, the fox in Fox and Goat is a sly image, but the fox in Fox and Leopard is the embodiment of spiritual beauty.

2. Excellent contrast technology. In Aesop's Fables, some fables use the method of contrast to highlight the theme of the fable. In The Race between the Tortoise and the Rabbit, the slowness of the tortoise and the quickness of the rabbit, and the indefatigability of the tortoise and the conceit of the rabbit form two sharp contrasts, which highlight the theme that only one can succeed through hard work and leave a deep impression on people. The Farmer and the Snake compares the kindness of the farmer with the evil of the snake. At first, the farmer showed pity for the snake, then he hated it, and finally he highlighted the theme with the farmer's sigh.

3. The structure of the article is compact. Most of the fables in Aesop's Fables are simple in structure, compact in plot and refined in language. Fables often tell a story concisely and objectively, and finally reveal the truth in one sentence.

Of course, not every fable is successful in art. For example, Hermes and the Craftsman is a joke. The story tells that Zeus ordered Hermes to spray all craftsmen with deceptive drugs. Hermes grinds the medicine and spreads it evenly on every craftsman. In the end, only the cobbler was left, but there was still a lot of medicine left, so he picked up the mortar and sprinkled it all on the cobbler. Since then, craftsmen have lied, and cobblers are the most important. This story applies to liars. Judging from this fable, the extra "lesson" is also far-fetched. Therefore, when we appreciate fables, we can only proceed from the fables themselves, not based on those "lessons".