You can tell how seasoned the whole pot of meat is by eating a piece of it. (嘗鼎一臠)

You can tell how seasoned the whole pot of meat is by eating a piece of it. (嘗鼎一臠)

 

 

Of all the kingdoms that existed at the end of China's Warring States period, the most powerful was the Kingdom of Qin.

 

The Prime Minister of the Qin Kingdom (Lu Buwei) summoned scholars from different kingdoms.

These scholars collected papers from various academic schools in China at that time and compiled them into a book.

 

The content of this book is very rich, with a total of more than 200,000 words.

There is a passage in that book.

 

The biggest difference between a person who understands the truth and other people is that those people can deduce what is happening in the distance from what is happening around them.

 

A person who understands the truth can deduce things that cannot be seen from what he can see.

A person who understands the truth can deduce what happened in ancient times from what is happening in modern times.

 

We should be people who understand the truth.

It's not difficult, let me give you some examples.

 

If you stay in a room, even if you don't go out, you can tell whether it's day or night by watching the light and shadow coming in through the window.

 

If you are in a room, even if you don't go out, you can still know that the weather is very cold by seeing that the water on the table is frozen, and you can infer that the river outside is also frozen.

 

If you are cooking a pot of meat and you want to try it to see if it tastes good, you don't have to eat the whole pot. You only need to eat one piece of meat to know if you like the taste of the pot of meat.

 

This idiom means that we can infer the whole or the thing from a thing or a part of a thing.

 

Dear friend, what inspirations or thoughts do you have after listening to this story?

Do you observe the things around you that you think are normal? Do you think it is difficult or easy to become a person who understands the truth?

I hope this story can give you some new insights.

 

                                    圖片出處為維基百科

嘗鼎一臠(You can tell how seasoned the whole pot of meat is by eating a piece of it.)

 

中國的戰國時代末年的所有王國中，最強大的王國是秦王國。

 

秦王國的宰相(呂不韋)召集了各個王國的學者。

這些學者們整理出當時全中國的各種不同的學術流派的論文並編輯成了一本書。

 

這一本書的內容非常的豐富，總字數超過了20多萬字。

這本書裡有一段話。

 

一個明白真理的人與其他人最大的不同點就是這些人可以根據自己身邊發生的事情去推論到遠方發生的事情。

 

一個明白真理的人可以根據看的到的事情推論到那些看不見的事情。

一個明白真理的人可以根據現代正在發生的事情推論到古代發生過的事情。

 

我們應該做一個明白真理的人。

這並不困難，我舉幾個例子。

 

如果你待在一間裡面，你就算都不出門，但你還是可以藉著觀察透過窗戶進入屋子裡面的光線與陰影，你就可以知道現在是白天還是晚上。

 

如果你待在一個房間裡面，你就算都不出門，但你還是可以藉著看見桌上的水已經結冰了，你就可以知道天氣非常冷，你可以推理出外面的河流都也結冰了。

 

如果你正在煮一鍋肉，你想試試看這鍋肉的味道好不好，你不用把整鍋肉全部吃完。你只要吃其中一塊肉，你就可以知道你喜不喜歡這一鍋肉的味道。

 

這句成語的意思是我們可以藉由一個東西或一件事情的一部分去推測到這個東西或這件事情的整體。

 

親愛的朋友，你聽完這個故事有怎樣的啟發或有怎樣的想法呢。

你會觀察你身邊那些你覺得平常的事物了呢?你認為成為一個明白真的人是一件困難還是容易的事呢?

我期待這故事能讓你產生一些新的收穫。

 

出處為呂氏春秋-慎大覽-察今

https://ctext.org/lv-shi-chun-qiu/cha-jin/zh