It means: water can carry a boat and also overturn it.
Original: the monarch, the boat is also; Shu Ren, water also; The knife cuts bread and fingers.
The monarch is like a boat, and the common people are like water. They can either hold up or hold up the boat.
Extended data:
A historical example of "water can carry a boat, but it can also overturn it"
1, Huang Chao, at first the people supported him to overthrow the ruling class at the end of the Tang Dynasty, but after Huang Chao hit Chang 'an, he was burned, killed and looted and abandoned by the people.
2. Wang Mang usurped government. When Wang Mang was a Fu, he won the support of the court and the masses, but when he usurped government and proclaimed himself emperor, he was opposed by scholars and ordinary people and died soon.
3. During the Li Zicheng Uprising, Li Zicheng overthrew the Ming Dynasty under the banner of "the king who broke through failed to pay the grain". But the rebellion was decadent, plundered the people and was overthrown.
Water can carry a boat, but it can also overturn it.