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刻舟求劍 in Chinese / Japanese...
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Mark the boat to find the lost sword / Ignoring the changing circumstances of the world
刻舟求劍 is an originally-Chinese proverb that serves as a warning to people that things are always in a state of change.
Thus, you must consider that and not depend on the old ways or a way that may have worked in the past but is no longer valid.
This idiom/proverb comes from the following story:
A man was traveling in a ferry boat across a river. With him, he carried a treasured sword. Along the way, the man became overwhelmed and intoxicated by the beautiful view and accidentally dropped his prized sword into the river. Thinking quickly, he pulled out a knife and marked on the rail of the boat where exactly he had lost his sword.
When the boat arrived on the other side of the river, the man jumped out of the boat and searched for his sword right under where he'd made the mark. Of course, the boat had moved a great distance since he made the mark, and thus, he could not find the sword.
While this man may seem foolhardy, we must take a great lesson from this parable: Circumstances change, so one should use methods to handle the change. In modern China, this is used in business to mean that one should not depend on old business models for a changing market.
This proverb dates back to the Spring and Autumn period (770–476 BC) of the territory now known as China. It has spread and is somewhat known in Japan and Korea.
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Below are some entries from our dictionary that may match your 刻舟求劍 search...
| Characters If shown, 2nd row is Simp. Chinese |
Pronunciation Romanization |
Simple Dictionary Definition |
刻舟求劍 刻舟求剑 see styles |
kè zhōu qiú jiàn ke4 zhou1 qiu2 jian4 k`o chou ch`iu chien ko chou chiu chien |
More info & calligraphy: Mark the boat to find the lost sword / Ignoring the changing circumstances of the world |
The following table may be helpful for those studying Chinese or Japanese...
| Title | Characters | Romaji (Romanized Japanese) | Various forms of Romanized Chinese | |
| Mark the boat to find the lost sword Ignoring the changing circumstances of the world | 刻舟求劍 刻舟求剑 | kokushuukyuuken kokushukyuken | kè zhōu qiú jiàn ke4 zhou1 qiu2 jian4 ke zhou qiu jian kezhouqiujian | k`o chou ch`iu chien kochouchiuchien ko chou chiu chien |
| In some entries above you will see that characters have different versions above and below a line. In these cases, the characters above the line are Traditional Chinese, while the ones below are Simplified Chinese. | ||||
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