During the Warring States period, a man from the state of Chu was crossing a river by boat. When the vessel reached midstream, his treasured sword slipped from its scabbard and plunged into the rushing waters. He lunged to grab it, but it was too late—in the blink of an eye, the sword vanished beneath the surging currents.
The other passengers on the boat were deeply dismayed, but the man from Chu remained unfazed, saying, "It's lost, so let it be lost. Let me first make a mark." With that, he pulled out a small knife and carved a notch on the side of the boat. The passengers, puzzled, asked, "What are you doing?" The man from Chu replied smugly, "This is where my sword fell, so I'm marking the spot."
The passengers on the boat still couldn't grasp his intention, assuming he was just joking, so they dropped the matter.
After the boat docked, the man from Chu went into the water to search for his sword based on the mark he had carved on the boat. After searching for a long time, there was no sign of the sword. He climbed back onto the boat, looked at the mark on the gunwale, and muttered to himself, "My sword fell into the water right here, and I even carved a mark—how could I not find it?"
Only then did the passengers understand why he had carved a mark on the boat's side, and they all found his action utterly ridiculous. After the sword fell into the river, the boat had already moved on, but the sword remained still. To search for the sword in such a way—wasn't that incredibly foolish?
This story satirizes those who cling to old ways and refuse to adapt to reality. Later generations coined the idiom "Carving a Mark on the Boat to Find a Lost Sword," using it to describe rigid, stubborn people who fail to adjust to changing circumstances.
Source: *Lüshi Chunqiu*, Chapter "Observing the Present"
Meaning of the Idiom: Later, the Chinese idiom "刻舟求剑" came to describe rigid, stubborn people who fail to adjust to changing circumstances.