Water can carry a boat, but it can also overturn it. This is Xunzi's famous saying. The knife cuts bread and fingers. It means that rulers are like ships and people are like water. Water can not only make the ship sail safely, but also capsize, engulf and sink into the water. It means that if things are used properly, they will be beneficial, and vice versa.

Source: Xun Zi's Mourning for the Duke in the Warring States Period: "Zi Yue:" and Qiu Wen Yue: "The monarch, the boat also; Shu Ren, water also. The knife cuts bread and fingers. "You use this to think about danger, so the danger won't come?" "

Confucius said, "And I have heard people say,' You are like a ship; People are like water. The knife cuts bread and fingers. "If you consider danger from this aspect, how can you not feel dangerous?"

Extended data:

Xunzi's main idea is:

Xunzi criticized all the schools, but praised Confucius' thought as the best idea of governing the country. Xunzi claimed to be the heir of Confucius, especially the "foreign Wang Xue" who inherited Confucius.

From the standpoint of epistemology, he critically summarized and absorbed hundred schools of thought's theoretical viewpoints, formed a unique view of nature, morality and social history, and summarized the pre-Qin philosophy on this basis.