The story is simply that when Sima Guang was playing with other friends in the yard when he was a child, one of his friends was curious to see a big jar in the yard and climbed up to play. However, due to the narrow edge of the jar, the child's attention was not concentrated, and the little friend who climbed into the jar to play slipped into the jar without paying attention. At that time, the jar was full of water, and as soon as the child fell in, it was immediately covered. The rest of the children naturally panicked when they saw this scene and ran around calling for adults.
Sima Guang, who was still young at that time, was also very anxious, but he didn't run to the adults for help like others. He glanced around the backyard, then picked up a big stone from it and smashed it into the water tank. Under the external force exerted by the stone, the water tank broke a big hole, and the water in the tank immediately flowed out of the hole. With the decrease of water in the tank, children who fall into the tank are no longer uncomfortable because of the high water level. It can be said that young Sima Guang was very clever in such an emergency, but he was able to keep up with the crisis and then found a way to successfully rescue his friends. At that time, the story that he smashed a jar to save his friend was widely circulated, and some people even made it into a picture story. Today, the story of Sima Guang smashing a jar is often used to educate children.
The reason why it is clear that Sima Guang's smashing the jar really happened is because Shangguan, who was saved by Sima Guang, wrote this matter into the genealogy and passed it down from generation to generation. As for Ma Weidou's view that Sima Guang smashed an urn instead of a cylinder, there is also some truth. The urn is similar to a jar. The reason why Sima Guang smashed the urn instead of the jar was that the urn was easier to smash holes than the jar. As far as the difference in appearance is concerned, the urn is generally collapsed, the cylinder is open and the height is higher than the cylinder. As far as firmness is concerned, the wall of the urn is usually thinner than that of the cylinder, so it is easier to be broken.
Sima Guang was still young when he smashed the jar, which further determined that his strength would not be too great. And he was able to smash the jar at once as easy as blowing off dust, indicating that this jar may not be a real jar, but an urn with similar shape. It is also based on the difference between the two that Ma Weidou said? Is Sima Guang's jar smashing fake? The point of view.