"Son is not a fish" expresses that people's subjective feelings are different, and at the same time, different people's subjective feelings can not be connected, so we should not impose our own subjective will on others. "

"Zi Fei Yu" illustrates "Do not do unto others what you would not have them do unto you", warning people not to speculate on others with their own subjective ideology. This quote is from a conversation between Zhuang Zi and his fellow villager Huishi. Zhuangzi was on the Hao Shui Bridge when he saw the swimming fish swimming under the bridge and thought they were happy. Huishi therefore questioned, saying that Zhuangzi was not a fish, so he did not know whether the fish were happy or not.

Source

The whole sentence is "If a man is not a fish, he does not know how happy a fish is", which is from "Zhuangzi. Autumn Water".

Originally

Zhuang Zi and Huizi traveled on the Hao Liang. Zhuang Zi said: "Leuciscus leuciscus swims calmly, is the joy of the fish?" Huizi said: "Zi is not a fish, an (how) know the music of the fish?" Zhuangzi said: "son is not me, an (how) know I do not know the joy of fish?" Huizi said: "I am not a son, I do not know son carry on; Zi solid non-fish also, the son does not know the music of the fish, full." Zhuangzi said: "Please follow its roots. Zi said 'you an (where) know the fish music' cloud, both known I know and ask me. I know of the Hao Shang also."

Translation

Zhuang Zhou and Huishi were walking on the Bridge of Water of Dreams. Zhuang Zi casually said:"Those fish in the river swim with ease and freedom, they are so happy!" Huishi asked, "You are not a fish, so how do you know how happy they are?" Zhuangzi replied, "You are not me, how do you know that I do not know the joy of fish?" Huishi asked again, "I am not you, so naturally I do not understand you; but you are not a fish either, so you must also be incapable of understanding the joy of fish!" Zhuangzi replied peacefully, "I beg to return to the beginning of the conversation; just now you asked me, 'Where did you learn that fish are happy?' , which suggests that you asked me after you already knew that I understood that fish are happy. Then let me tell you that it was on the banks of the waters of Hao that I learned that fish are happy."

Moral

The saying, "If the son is not a fish, how can he know the joy of the fish?" has a threefold meaning.

Firstly, it is a metaphor to show that people who are different from each other are not able to communicate with each other, and there is no way for them to communicate with each other, because it is hard to force them to do so, and of course, the fish have their own joys, and you have your own sorrows.

Secondly, the situation and experience between people are not the same, do not "watch yourself". This is true of the joyful freedom of watching fish, and it is also true of discerning people. This mistake is often the most common one, but unfortunately it is not recognized by most people.

To judge others by oneself is to judge them by one's own mind, by one's own experience, learning, opinions, and ideas. Interests, hobbies, experience, learning people tend to be easier to talk to (there are exceptions), easy to see each other's strengths, and may even expand each other's strengths. Different types of people have a limited degree of closeness, and may also produce exclusionary psychology, unintentionally downplaying the other's strengths and exaggerating the other's weaknesses. There are many examples of viewing people by themselves in Chinese history. In the Three Kingdoms, Zhuge Kongming made such a mistake. He felt that he and Maji were of the same temperament and flavor, so he exaggerated Maji's merits and ignored his shortcomings, resulting in the loss of Jieting and the failure of his northern expedition.

The use of personal good and bad as a criterion for judgment often results in major losses; the use of personal good and bad as a criterion is prone to expanding the advantages of the preferred person and exaggerating the shortcomings of the detested person, for example: when liking a person, the shortcomings of the other party as an advantage, and once disgusted with the other party, they will reduce the other party to nothing such a knowledge of the law of nature is prone to pro-villain, far away from the wise ministers, which will make the family uneasy, the country is not a country, the company's good situation in a moment, the company will not be able to find a way out of this situation. The good situation of the company in the thought of a break.

Third, the ancients said this sentence when the use of the word is a harmonic word, so it becomes "son is not Yu, how do you know the joy of Yu", meaning very plain, the hearts of people apart from the belly, a person has a person's wish, you can not fully understand, so your sadness, your joy belongs to yourself, is not taken away from other people want to not go.

Current Opinion

The son is not a fish, and know the joy of fish: in fact, even if it is a fish, but also do not necessarily know the joy of being a fish. And look at the world mediocre public, and how many people know the joy of being a human being?