刻舟求剑

很久以前，楚国有一个人坐船过河。船正在水面上向前走，他手里的剑忽然滑了下去。扑通！剑掉进河里，沉了下去。那个人赶紧拿出小刀，在船边刻了一个记号。旁边的人奇怪地问：“你在干什么？”“我的剑就是从这里掉下去的，”他说，“我先做个记号，等一下就知道去哪里找了。”船继续向前走。过了一会儿，船终于到了岸边。那个人马上跑到自己刻记号的地方，跳进水里，开始找剑。可是，他找来找去，怎么也找不到。当然找不到。船已经向前走了很远。可是掉进水里的剑，并没有跟着船一起走。这就是“刻舟求剑”这个成语的故事。今天，如果情况已经变了，一个人却还是照着原来的办法做事，我们就可以说他是在“刻舟求剑”。船上的记号没有动。可船早就不在原来的地方了。

Long ago, a man from the state of Chu was crossing a river by boat. As the boat moved through the water, his sword suddenly slipped from his hand. Splash! It sank into the river. The man quickly took out a knife and scratched a mark on the side of the boat. Someone nearby asked, “What are you doing?” “My sword fell into the water right here,” the man said. “I’m marking the spot so I can find it later.” The boat kept moving. At last, it reached the other side of the river. The man hurried to the mark he had made, jumped into the water, and began searching for his sword. But the sword was nowhere to be found. Of course it wasn’t. The boat had moved down the river. The sword had not. This old story gave us the expression kè zhōu qiú jiàn—“marking the boat to look for a sword.” Today, people use it when someone keeps using an old idea even though the situation has already changed. The mark was still in the same place on the boat. But the boat was no longer in the same place on the river.