What does 刻舟求剑 mean?

刻舟求剑 (kè zhōu qiú jiàn) literally means 'carve the boat to find the sword.' It describes someone who sticks stubbornly to an old method and ignores how the situation has changed.

Where does Marking the Boat to Find the Sword come from?

It comes from Master Lü's Spring and Autumn Annals (Lüshi chunqiu), compiled around 239 BCE by scholars gathered by Lü Buwei, chancellor of the state of Qin. The story is in the chapter Cha jin, 'Examining the Present', and its hero is a man from the state of Chu.

What is the moral of Marking the Boat to Find the Sword?

The world keeps changing, so our thinking and our methods should change with it. A mark on a moving boat can't show where the sword fell, just as old rules can't always solve new problems.

What idioms are similar to 刻舟求剑?

Similar Chinese idioms include 守株待兔 (waiting by a tree stump for another rabbit) and 墨守成规 (sticking rigidly to old rules). The opposite is 随机应变, adapting to circumstances as they change.

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Chinese idiom · 声匠改编 · 3:40

Marking the Boat to Find the Sword

A man drops his treasured sword in a river, carves a mark on the moving boat, and dives from the mark once it lands. The idiom ke zhou qiu jian, retold.

Narrator

The Man from Chu

The Old Boatman

The Little Girl

The Auntie

0:000:00

Other languages · 2 languages

🇨🇳 中文 🇺🇸 English

About this story

Marking the Boat to Find the Sword tells the story behind the Chinese idiom 刻舟求剑 (kè zhōu qiú jiàn), literally 'carve the boat, seek the sword.' It comes from Master Lü's Spring and Autumn Annals (Lüshi chunqiu), in the chapter Examining the Present (Cha jin): a man of Chu drops his sword into a river, marks the side of the boat, and dives from the mark once the boat stops. The book uses it to argue that a state cannot be run on old laws once the times have changed. This version adds an old boatman, an auntie and a little girl who watch the whole thing unfold.

What it teaches

Things change, so the way we do things has to change too. Clinging to an old plan after the situation has moved on, like the man staring at his notch, only wastes effort.

Suits

Ages 5 and up

Tips for telling it

Act it out at the table: drop a toy 'sword', slide a book 'boat' along, and your child will see at once why the mark doesn't work.
Play the man from Chu completely sure of himself when he carves the notch; it makes the ending funnier.
Pair it with Waiting by the Stump for a Rabbit (守株待兔), another idiom about someone stuck on something that will not happen again.

Questions people ask

What does 刻舟求剑 mean?: 刻舟求剑 (kè zhōu qiú jiàn) literally means 'carve the boat to find the sword.' It describes someone who sticks stubbornly to an old method and ignores how the situation has changed.
Where does Marking the Boat to Find the Sword come from?: It comes from Master Lü's Spring and Autumn Annals (Lüshi chunqiu), compiled around 239 BCE by scholars gathered by Lü Buwei, chancellor of the state of Qin. The story is in the chapter Cha jin, 'Examining the Present', and its hero is a man from the state of Chu.
What is the moral of Marking the Boat to Find the Sword?: The world keeps changing, so our thinking and our methods should change with it. A mark on a moving boat can't show where the sword fell, just as old rules can't always solve new problems.
What idioms are similar to 刻舟求剑?: Similar Chinese idioms include 守株待兔 (waiting by a tree stump for another rabbit) and 墨守成规 (sticking rigidly to old rules). The opposite is 随机应变, adapting to circumstances as they change.