Appreciation of the original text and translation of "Stone Beasts in the River" by Ji Yun

Original text of "Stone Beast in the River":

A temple in the south of Cangzhou is close to the river stem. The mountain gate collapsed in the river, and the two stone beasts sank together. When he was more than ten years old, the monks raised money to rebuild the temple and asked for stone beasts in the water, but they couldn't find it. I thought I was going downstream with the current, so I took several small boats and dragged iron palladium, but I searched for more than ten miles without finding any trace.

A lecturer set up a tent in the temple. Hearing this, he laughed and said: "You guys can't study physics. How can you carry it away if it is not a tree? The stone is hard and heavy, and the sand is loose and floating. It is buried in the sand." Go up, gradually sink and deepen your ears. Looking for it along the river, isn't it true? "Everyone agrees that it is true.

An old river soldier heard this and said with a smile: "Whenever a stone is lost in the river, it should be found upstream. The stone is hard and heavy, and the sand is loose and floating. Water cannot wash away the stone, and its backlash force will The sand will be bitten under the stone to form a hole, which will gradually become deeper and deeper. When the stone is halfway up, the stone will be thrown into the hole. If it is bitten again, the stone will turn around again, and then it will flow back up. "Excuse me, if you go down to the bottom, you will be in trouble; if you are in the place where you are looking, won't it be more troublesome?" As he said, the result will be found several miles away. However, there are many things in the world that only know one thing but don’t know the other two. How can we make assumptions based on reason? (Reprint: Repost) Translation and annotation of Stone Beasts in the River

Translation

There is a temple near the river bank in the south of Cangzhou. The temple door collapsed in the river, and two stone beasts Let's sink here together. After more than ten years, the monks raised money to rebuild the temple and then searched for the stone beast in the river, but failed to find it. The monks believed that the stone beast had flowed downstream along the current. So I rowed a few small boats, dragged the iron palladium, and searched (downstream) for more than ten miles, but found no trace of the stone beast.

A lecturer who taught in the temple heard about this and said with a smile: "You people can't reason about things. This (stone beast) is not a piece of wood." , how can it be carried away by the surging flood? The nature of stone is hard and heavy, and the nature of sand is soft and floating. The stone beasts are buried in the sand, sinking deeper and deeper. It is not (seeming) crazy to follow the river to find the stone beasts. "?" Everyone was convinced that (this statement) was an accurate statement.

An old river soldier heard the lecturer's point of view and said with a smile: "Any stone that falls into the river should be found in the upper reaches of the river. Because of the hard and heavy nature of the stone, The nature of the sand is soft and frivolous, and the water flow cannot wash away the stone. The force of the backwash of the water flow will inevitably erode the sand and form a hole under the stone where it meets the water. When the hole extends to half of the bottom of the stone, the stone will inevitably collapse. Dumped in the hole. If washed again like this, the stone will turn again and keep turning like this, so it will go upstream in the opposite direction. It is crazy to look for the stone beast in the lower reaches of the river. "Wouldn't it be more crazy to look for the stone beasts where they sank?" As a result, we followed his instructions and found the stone beasts a few miles upstream.

In this case, there are many situations in the world where we only know superficial phenomena and do not know the underlying truth. Can we make subjective judgments based on a certain truth?

Note 1. Cangzhou: Place name, present-day Cangzhou City, Hebei Province. 2. Lin: close. It also means "to face". 3. Hegan: riverside. (River: refers to the Yellow River, which once flowed through Cangzhou in history.) Qian, waterside, river bank. 4. Shanmen: the gate of the temple. 5. Ruin: Collapse. 6. And: together. 7. Shen Yan: Sunk in this river. Yan, also a word, here, there. 8. Yue: passed, passed. 9. More than ten years old: more than ten years. Sui: year. 10. 棹: noun as verb, rowing a boat. 11. Looking for stone beasts in the water: Looking for stone beasts in the river. Seek, seek. 12. Finally: finally, to the end. 13. Drag: drag, pull. 14. Iron palladium: agricultural tools, used for weeding and leveling soil. Palladium, pass "rake". 15. Setting up accounts: giving lectures and teaching. 16. You can’t study physics: You people can’t study the truth of things. My dear, you. Investigate, speculate. Physics, the principles and laws of things. 17. Right or wrong wood persimmon: This is not a wood chip. Yes, this. Persimmon, peeled wood chips. 18. How can it be: How can it be. 19. For: Be. 20. Surge: flood. Violent, sudden (hurry, big). 21. Annihilation: buried. 22. Dian: means "epilepsy", crazy. 23. Everyone is convinced that (this statement) is accurate and accurate. To: (think) to be. 24. River soldiers: refers to the soldiers who guard the river defense. In the Qing Dynasty, there was a river governor, who had military camps dedicated to river management. 25. Gai: Because. 26. gnaw: the original meaning is "bite", here it means erosion and erosion. 27. Kanxue: Pothole.

28. Nonstop: Don’t stop. Already: Stopped. 29. Throw back: dump. 30. Such as this: Like this. 31. Sui: So. 32. Su flow: countercurrent. 33. Gu: Of course. 34. Such as: according to, according to. 35. However: In this case, then. 36. But: only, only. 37. Make assumptions based on reason: make subjective judgments based on a certain principle. Conjecture, judge subjectively. 38. 椤: The modal particle at the end of a sentence expressing a rhetorical question. 39. Er: That’s all. 40. One: superficial phenomenon. 41. Second: Fundamental truth. The meaning of the article "Stone Beasts in the River"

"Stone Beasts in the River" is an article written by Ji Yun (jǐyun, also known as Xiaolan). It is selected from "Guwan Tingzhi", Volume 16 of "Yuewei Thatched Cottage Notes" , the main content is that a stone beast fell into the river. Due to the momentum of the water and the weight of the stone beast itself, the stone beast must be found upstream from where it fell.

The meaning of the article is that when considering a problem, you should analyze the reasons from the outside to the inside and come up with the correct fundamental solution.

Reading Tips: The occurrence of many natural phenomena often has complex reasons. We cannot only know one but not the other and make subjective judgments based on common sense. It should be analyzed correctly and considered comprehensively, like the old river soldier in the article, who not only considers the specific gravity of the stone beasts, but also correctly analyzes the interaction between the impulse of the water and the stone beasts, and then analyzes the impact of the recoil generated by this interaction on the shape of the river bed. local changes. Only in this way can we draw the correct conclusion.

It illustrates these principles: 1. When encountering problems, you should not make subjective inferences and seek truth from facts. 2. Practice brings true knowledge. 3. Practical experience is sometimes more important than book knowledge. At the same time, it also enlightens us: when encountering problems, we should use our brains to think more, analyze various factors, and try to make as few jokes as possible, only knowing one but not the other. Phenomenon of stone beasts in the river in classical Chinese

Different meanings in ancient and modern times 1. Qian: Ancient meaning: shore. Jin Yi: Do it. 2. Er: ancient meaning: nothing more. Today's meaning: one of the five sense organs, used to listen to sounds. 3. Physics: ancient meaning: the principles and laws of things. Today's meaning: a discipline. 4. And: ancient meaning: together. Today's meaning: parallel. 5. Read: Ancient meaning: experience. Today's meaning: reading. 6. Is: pronoun, this, this. Today's meaning: expresses judgment (mostly correct, but not entirely). 7. Dan: Ancient meaning: But, only. Today's meaning: Indicates a turning point, but, but. 8. Qiu: Ancient meaning: to search. Today's meaning: request, request, pursuit. 9. Already: ancient meaning: stop. Imayoshi: Already. 10. Such as: ancient meaning: like this. Modern meaning: if 11. Gai: Ancient meaning: roughly. Today's meaning: something with a covering effect; covering from top to bottom.

The word has multiple meanings 1. For: how can it be carried away by the sudden surge (for: the preposition "be"), it must be a cave with the sand under the stone facing the water (for: the verb "to become") Everyone accepts the truth (as: verb "think it is" or "is") 2. Heavy: The monks raised money to rebuild (heavy: read chong, re-) because the nature of the stone is strong and heavy: (read zhong, the weight is larger, as opposed to "light" )

Poetry: Poems about Stone Beasts in the River Author: Ji Yun of the Qing Dynasty Poetry classification: Classical Chinese, theory, philosophy