The original sentence comes from Lu Chunqiu Chajin, written by followers of Lv Buwei organization during the Warring States Period. The original sentence is like this:
There was a man crossing a river in Chu, and his sword fell from the boat into the water. He made a mark on the side of the ship with his sword and said, "This is where my sword fell." . The ship stopped at the destination, and the Chu people jumped into the water from the marked place to find the sword. The ship has sailed, but the sword has not moved. Isn't it very confusing to look for the sword like this?
The original intention is this:
A man from Chu crossed the river by boat. His sword fell from the boat into the water. He quickly marked the boat with a knife and said, "This is where my sword fell." The ship stopped at its destination, and the man went into the water to find the sword along the mark engraved on the side of the ship. The ship has gone a long way, and the sword is still in its original place. Isn't it silly to find a sword in this way?
I also sorted out the difficult notes in the article to help better understand:
(1) involves: crossing.
(2) Person: refers to the person of ...
(3) Its: his, pronoun.
(4) from: from.
(5) falling: falling.
(6) in: in, to.
(7) suddenly: in a hurry, right away.
(8) Deed: through "editing", carving with a knife, carving.
(9) Yes: demonstrative pronoun, here, here, like this.
(10) Wu: Mine.
(1 1) 1. Cancel the sentence independence between subject and predicate.
(12) Falling place: the place where the sword fell. Fall: fall
(13) Qi: He, a pronoun.
(14) seeking: seeking, seeking.
(15) Zhi: sword, pronoun.
(16) Yes.
(17) However, the tide turns.
(18) If: like it.
Here it is.
(20) Not confused: Isn't it very confused? Confused, stupid, confused ... "Tribal tiger" is a euphemism.
(2 1) Stop: Stop, indicating that the ship has stopped.
Cha Jin explained that it is necessary to assess the situation according to the time and not stick to the ancient law: from the perspective of development, he explained to the rulers of Qin that the formulation of laws and regulations should proceed from the social reality at that time and keep pace with the times with the changes of the objective situation. The full-text sentences are neat, lively, repeated around the center, with arguments and broken sentences. At the same time, fables are interspersed to make the article look full of momentum and lively.
Later generations extracted this idiom from this passage, which contains the following meanings:
It is common sense that a sword will sink only when it falls into the water. It's ridiculous to look under the bottom of the boat for a sword that has long fallen into the water when it's far away. If the ship is stationary and the sword sinks to the bottom of the water, mark the place where the ship fell, and you can naturally find the sword. But the sword sank to the bottom of the water and stopped, but the ship moved on.
This objective fact is not reflected in the mind of the sword seeker. He is bent on finding the sword where it fell, and he will find it. His understanding is inconsistent with the objective facts, and the result is naturally failure. It is very powerful to use such a metaphor to satirize people who cling to dogma.
This story contains two truths:
One is that if people's ideological understanding does not conform to the objective reality, they will not succeed in doing things.
On the other hand, objective reality is constantly developing and changing. If we regard the old rules and regulations as a magic weapon to solve new problems, we should also make jokes. The author's thoughts are simple materialism and dialectics.