What are the fables in "Warring States Policy"?

Many. . .

The fables in "Warring States Policy" are rich and colorful, and can be roughly divided into three categories: animal fables, social fables and historical fables.

The animal fables in "Warring States Policy" mainly use the method of anthropomorphism to organically combine the animalistic characteristics of animals with the social consciousness of certain people, implicitly embody certain political opinions and philosophies, and are naturally appropriate and appropriate. And it means a lot. For example, "snipe and clam fight" ("Yan Policy II"):

Zhao Qie attacked Yan, and Su Dai said to King Hui of Yan: "Now that I have come to Yishui, the clams are exposed, and The snipe pecked at its flesh, and the clam closed its beak. The snipe said, "If it doesn't rain today, and it won't rain tomorrow, then there will be dead clams." The clam also said to the snipe, "If it doesn't come out today, and it won't come out tomorrow, then there will be dead snipe." "The two are unwilling to give up. If the fishermen get it, they will attack Yan. Yan and Zhao have been supporting each other for a long time, and they have harmed the people. I am afraid that Qin will be the father of fishermen."

They seize each other's weaknesses and hold on to them, only seeing their own good side, regardless of the consequences. Through such imagination, people can draw lessons from general animal fights that can be used as a reference for human society. Another example is "Fox fakes tiger's power" ("Chu Ce Yi"), the cunning fox uses the tiger's lewd power to scare all the beasts in the mountains and flee, causing the tiger to mistakenly think that the fox is really the emperor of heaven who "gives him control over all beasts" and dare not eat it. "Warring States Policy" is used to explain that the reason why the princes are afraid of Chu general Zhao Xixie is because he has the powerful power of the King of Chu behind him. In later generations, it was extended into an idiom to satirize the bully behavior of slaves and warriors who relied on the power of their masters to bully the people.

There are also some fables, although they are not animals, but they also use anthropomorphic techniques. For example, in "Earth Dolls and Pottery Dolls" ("Qi Ce IV"), the author captures the characteristic that although earthen dolls decompose and eventually return to their native land when encountering water, pottery dolls float in all directions and do not know where they are going when they encounter water. This illustrates the role of a person (especially a ruler) in politics. You cannot leave your fundamental place, otherwise you will have nothing to rely on when wandering in a foreign country. This is profound and may have been a folklore at that time.

Social allegory is to exaggerate the stupid, ridiculous or unusual behaviors of certain types of people in society through caricature, making them extremely absurd, making them more concentrated, prominent and typical, thereby embodying profound education. significance. The name of the protagonist Wu in the story is just "someone", "someone" or "Song people" or "Chu people"; it may not be true, but similar phenomena do exist in life. It contains the same sarcastic effect as a joke, but it alludes to more common social problems, so it is different from ordinary life jokes and shallow jokes. More advanced social allegories, in addition to embodying the truth that the author wanted to explain at the time, often also have certain philosophical implications.

For example, "Qi Ce II" "adds insult to injury":

If there is a temple in Chu, the deceased will be given wine. The stranger said to each other: "Several people have not enough to drink, but one has more than enough to drink. Please draw a snake on the ground, and the first one to drink will drink." One person has a snake first, so he draws the wine and drinks it. He holds a mastiff in his left hand and draws a snake in his right hand. : "What I can do is enough." Unfinished. When a man's snake was grown, he took its jaw and said, "The snake has no legs. How can I give it legs?" Then he drank the wine. Those who are snake-footed will eventually lose their wine.

The purpose of the fable is that Chen Zhen persuaded the Chu general Zhaoyang that his high position and nobility could not be increased, and he must be satisfied, otherwise he would be in danger of death due to the loss of his title. However, its objective meaning is more general. It satirizes the kind of fools who make redundant actions regardless of objective reality, and reminds people that various things in the world have specific laws and cannot be transcended at will, otherwise they may be self-defeating.

Another example is "the opposite direction" ("Wei Ce IV"):

The king of Wei wanted to attack Handan, but when Ji Liang heard about it, he took the middle road and turned against him. , went to see the king and said: "Now I have come to see someone in Daxing. He faced the north and held his chariot, and told the minister: 'I want Chu.' The minister said: 'The king of Chu, will Xi face the north?' Said: "My horse is good." The minister said: "Although the horse is good, this is not the way of Chu." My charioteer is good. 'The better these people are, the farther away they are from Chu!' Now the king is eager to become the overlord, and he wants to trust the world. Relying on the greatness of the kingdom and the elite soldiers, they attacked Handan and respected the name of the vast territory. The more the king moved, the farther away he was from the king. It's still as far as Chu and heading north. ”

The original intention of the story is to oppose King Wei’s use of force to conquer the world, but readers can understand from it that everything must be done in the right direction, otherwise the greater the subjective effort, the further away from the goal you want to achieve.< /p>

Another example is the story of a bride who made a fool of herself when she entered the house as recorded in "Wei Ce of the Song Dynasty":

The people of Wei welcomed the bride.

The woman got on the carriage and asked the stallion, "Whose horse is it?" The charioteer said, "Borrow it." The bride said to the servant, "Get the stallion and wear it without whipping." When the carriage came to the door, he supported it and taught his mother to see him off, saying, "Destroy it." The stove is about to catch fire." When he entered the room, he saw the mortar and said, "It will hinder the coming and going." The owner laughed. All of these people need to speak; however, they will inevitably become those who laugh, and sooner or later they will be lost.

The object of ridicule is a fast-talking new daughter-in-law, but people can get inspiration from it that they must choose the right time to speak and do things. The philosophical meaning is also rich.

We call stories that use the words and deeds of some real historical figures and add fictional plots to convey deeper truths called historical fables. It is different from conclusive and reliable historical records, because some plots may have been modified by later generations, which is obviously unreliable. But it is different from ordinary folklore. The focus is not on the story itself, but on a certain opinion that the author wants to further explain. The words are here and the intention is there. Its function is not to find the historical basis for the debate, but to serve as a metaphor for reasoning. For example, "Zeng Shen killed someone" in "Qin Ce II". The author fabricated this story not to defend Zeng Shen, but to illustrate that rumors are terrible and public opinion is worth gold, reminding people, especially rulers, that public opinion should not be trusted. Another example is "Bole paid ten times the price of a horse at one glance" in "Yan Ce II". Bole is a famous horse physiognomy expert, and the horse that attracts his attention must be a good horse. The story says that Bole accepted bribes from horse sellers and deliberately reviewed the horses to increase the price. This may not be in line with Bole's true personality. However, the author's intention is not to criticize Bole or expose horse sellers, but to illustrate that with the recommendation of celebrities, mediocre people will double their worth. Of course, we can also learn from this the lesson of not worshiping false reputations and not recognizing people over goods. The purpose of the "frightened bird" in "Chu Ce Four" is not to praise the archer's more winning stunts, but to use a seriously injured bird that cannot be frightened anymore, as a metaphor for a fearful loser who refuses to accept an important task. "The Policy of the Western Zhou Dynasty" records that the famous general Yang Youji made hundreds of hits, and everyone praised him for his good deeds. A passerby only said, "You can teach shooting." Yang Youji was unhappy and asked him to teach him how to shoot. The man said, I can't teach you how to shoot an arrow, but I know that if you keep shooting without resting, you will be exhausted and miss a shot, all your efforts will be wasted. The main idea is to tell people to leave room for action.

Most of the fables in "Warring States Policy" have complete plots, clear beginning and end, and are relatively independent, and are not just rhetorical devices of comparison. The thoughts reflected in it are all realistic and close to social life. They are highly realistic and have clear themes that can be understood at a glance. They are not as wild and unpredictable as the fables of "Zhuangzi". The fables in "Warring States Policy" are mostly spoken orally, so they retain some traces of spoken language. They are simple, unembellished, and clear. Many fables evolved into idioms in later generations and are still in use today.

The earlier annotations of "Warring States Policy" include Gao Yu's annotations of the Han Dynasty and Bao Biaozhu of the Southern Song Dynasty. Later, there were "Correction of the Warring States Policy" by Wu Shidao of the Yuan Dynasty, Jin Zhengwei's "Supplementary Commentary of the Warring States Policy", etc. New annotations in recent years include Zhu Zugeng's Collection and Annotations of Warring States Ce, Miao Wenyuan's New Annotations and Annotations of Warring States Ce, and Guo Renmin's Collation and Annotations of Warring States Ce, etc. In recent years, the new edition of research works Zheng Jiewen's "On Ancient Politicians" is the more systematic and comprehensive. Literary commentaries of the past dynasties include "Warring States Policy Jade Pot Ice" compiled by Ming Jiao Hong and others, Ruan Zongli's "Warring States Policy Notes", Zhang Wenjuo "Warring States Policy Talk", Mu Wenxi "Warring States Policy Commentary", Chen Jiru "Warring States Policy Long Xiang", Zhang Xinghui of the Qing Dynasty wrote "National Policy Commentary", Chu Xin "Warring States Policy Selection", Gao Gan "Warring States Policy Notes", etc.