守株待兔

Staying by a Stump Waiting for More Hares To Come and Dash Themselves Against It This

storytook place more than 2,000 years ago,in the Warring States period（475-221 B.C.）.

Traditionhas 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 retiringat sunset.In good harvest years,they could only have enough food to eat

and enough clothingto 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

lazyand cowardly overeverything,he often dreamed of having unexpected blessings. A

miracle tookplace at last.One day in late autumn,when he was ploughing in the field,

two groups of peoplewere huntingnearby.As shoutings were rising one after another,

scared hares were runningdesperately.Suddenly,a blind hare dashed itself headlong against

the stump of a dead tree inhis field and died. That day,he ate his fill. From that day on,

he no longer went in forfarming again.From morning till night,he stayed by that

miraculous stump,waiting for miraclesto take place again. This story comes from"The Five

Vermin"in The Works of Han Feizi.Latergenerations often use the set phrase"staying by a

stump waiting for more hares to come anddash themselves against it"to show grusting to

chance and windfalls or dreaming to reapwithout sowing.It is also used to show adhering to

narrow experiences and not.