70．子部 bady; boy

折break off箭arrow教teach子children

折箭教子is an ancient fable.

Once upon a time, there was an old man who was very ill and could not do any farm-work in the field. He had three sons, but they quarreled constantly and could not get things done together. The old man knew that he was going to die very soon, so he called his three sons to his bedside. He gave each son an arrow and asked them to break the arrow in half. Needless to say, each broke their arrow easily. Then the old man gave them a bundle of arrows, and asked them to break the bunch. The three sons each took a turn to try and snap the bundle, but none of them succeeded. With that the old man closed his eyes and died. The three sons wondered why their father’s final task had been to snap arrows. The third son, who was very smart, realized that his father wanted them stop quarrelling and unite as one strong whole so that through cooperation they could get more done.

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