Imitating Another without Success and Losing 邯鄲學(xué)步

Imitating Another without Success and Losing What Used to Be One'sOwn Ability

Tradition has it that more than 2,oooyears ago,there lived a young man in the Shouling area of the State of Yan.As his name is not known ,we just call him Shouling young man for convenience's sake.

self confident He was at a loss as to how to behave all the time.

His family members advised him to overcome this shortcoming,but he thought they were fond of poking their noses into his business and were unwilling to provide him with tuition fee.His relatives and neighbours sneered at him,saying that he would never be able to learn anything.Asthe days went by,he even began to doubt whether he should walk the way he did,for he felt more and more that his walking gestures were too clumsy and awkward.

One day,he met some people on the road who werechattingand laughing.One of themsaid that people in Handan walked most gracefully.And thatwas just what he was most concerned about,so he hurreed towards themand wanted to make further inquiries.To his surprise,when these people saw him,they stalked off laughing.

He could not picture to himself in what way their walking gestures were graceful,no matter how hard he racked his parents one day.He went to Handanwhich was far away to learn how to walk.

As soon as he arrived in Handan,he was dazzled to find that everything was novel.He learned from the children there how to walk,because he thought that the children's walking gestures were lively and pleasing to the eye.He learnd from the old people there how to walk,because he thought the old people's walking gestures were steady .He learnd from the women there how to walk,because he thought the women' swaying walking gestures were beautiful.That being the case with him ,in less than half a month he even forgot how to walk.As he had already used up his traveling expenses,he had to crawl back home.

Thisstory come from the article"Autumn Water"in The Works of Xhuang Zi(Zhuang Zi was a famous ancient Chinese philosopher of about 300B.c.).Later the set phrase"initating another without success and losing what used to be one's own ability"is used to refer to acts of copying others mechanisally in disregard of specififc conditions

相傳在兩千年前，燕國(guó)壽陵地方有一位少年，不知道姓啥叫啥，就叫他壽陵少年吧!

這位壽陵少年不愁吃不愁穿，論長(zhǎng)相也算得上中等人材，可他就是缺乏自信心，經(jīng)常無(wú)緣無(wú)故地感到事事不如人，低人一等——衣服是人家的好，飯菜是人家的香，站相坐相也是人家高雅。他見(jiàn)什么學(xué)什么，學(xué)一樣丟一樣，雖然花樣翻新，卻始終不能做好一件事，不知道自己該是什么模樣。

家里的人勸他改一改這個(gè)毛病，他以為是家里人管得太多。親戚、鄰居們，說(shuō)他是狗熊掰棒子，他也根本聽(tīng)不進(jìn)去。日久天長(zhǎng)，他竟懷疑自己該不該這樣走路，越看越覺(jué)得自己走路的姿勢(shì)太笨，太丑了。

有一天，他在路上碰到幾個(gè)人說(shuō)說(shuō)笑笑，只聽(tīng)得有人說(shuō)邯鄲人走路姿勢(shì)那叫美。他一聽(tīng)，對(duì)上了心病，急忙走上前去，想打聽(tīng)個(gè)明白。不料想，那幾個(gè)人看見(jiàn)他，一陣大笑之后揚(yáng)長(zhǎng)而去。

邯鄲人走路的姿勢(shì)究竟怎樣美呢?他怎么也想象不出來(lái)。這成了他的心病。終于有一天，他瞞著家人，跑到遙遠(yuǎn)的邯鄲學(xué)走路去了。

一到邯鄲，他感到處處新鮮，簡(jiǎn)直令人眼花繚亂。看到小孩走路，他覺(jué)得活潑、美，學(xué);看見(jiàn)老人走路，他覺(jué)得穩(wěn)重，學(xué);看到婦女走路，搖擺多姿，學(xué)。就這樣，不過(guò)半月光景，他連走路也不會(huì)了，路費(fèi)也花光了，只好爬著回去了。

故事出自《莊子·秋水》。成語(yǔ)“邯鄲學(xué)步”，比喻生搬硬套，機(jī)械地模仿別人，不但學(xué)不到別人的長(zhǎng)處，反而會(huì)把自己的優(yōu)點(diǎn)和本領(lǐng)也丟掉。

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