When Zhuang Zhou heard this, he was so angry that the colow of his face changed. But he told the official this story: When I came here yesterday, on the way I heard a voice calling 'Help!' I turned my head and saw a small crucian carp in the dried-up carriage ditch."
I went over and asked: "Little crucian carp, why are you calling for help?"
The little crucian carp answered: "I am a subject of the Dragon King of the East China Sea. Unfortunately I fell down here. Can you give me a little water to save my life?"
I said: "All right, I am just going to the south to sell ideas to the kings of the States of Wu and Yue. I will ask them to stir up the water of the Xijiang River to welcome you. Will that do?"
When the crucian carp heard this, it got angry and said: "When I lose the water which is always with me, I cannot survive. Now, I want only a little bit of water so that I can survive.Yet you say such things. Then you'd better go to the salt-fish shop to look for me."
莊周家境貧窮。一次,他去監(jiān)河侯那里借糧食,監(jiān)河侯說(shuō):“好吧!等到年底,我收到了老百姓的稅金時(shí),就借給你三百金,行嗎?”
莊周一聽(tīng),氣得臉色都變了,但是他卻對(duì)監(jiān)河侯講了這樣一件事情:我昨天來(lái)時(shí),半路上聽(tīng)到‘救命’的呼喊聲。我回過(guò)頭來(lái),看見(jiàn)干涸的車溝里有條小螂魚。
我走過(guò)去,問(wèn)它: “小娜魚,你為什么喊救命?”
小鯉魚回答說(shuō):“我是東海龍王的臣子,不幸落到這里。您能夠給我一些水來(lái)救我活命嗎?”
我說(shuō):“好吧!我正好要去南方游說(shuō)吳國(guó)和越國(guó)的國(guó)王,那我就請(qǐng)他們激起西江的大水來(lái)迎接您,可以嗎?”
卿魚聽(tīng)了,氣得不得了,說(shuō):“我失去了常跟我在一起的水,就無(wú)法生存下去了?,F(xiàn)在,我只要得到一些水,就能夠生存下去;你卻說(shuō)出這樣的話。好吧,你不如趁早到咸魚店里去找我吧!”