Skip to content

Order by December 10 for delivery before Christmas. Shop gifts

If the water isn't deep, it can't carry a big boat.

Zhuangzi, Zhuangzi 1 (Enjoyment in Untroubled Ease)

The source

"If the water isn't deep, it can't carry a big boat." Zhuangzi said it in Zhuangzi 1 (Enjoyment in Untroubled Ease). Translated from the original Chinese by Spartan Surfers.

"且夫水之積也不厚,則負大舟也无力。"

Original Chinese, Zhuangzi 1 (Enjoyment in Untroubled Ease). Chinese: Zhuangzi text via zh.wikisource; chapter title after Legge 1891.

Who said it

Zhuangzi (c. 369–286 BC). Taoist storyteller of the butterfly dream, the useless tree and the cook who never dulled his knife.

Questions

Who said "If the water isn't deep, it can't carry a big boat."?
Zhuangzi (c. 369–286 BC). Source: Zhuangzi 1 (Enjoyment in Untroubled Ease).
What is the original Chinese?
且夫水之積也不厚,則負大舟也无力。. Translated from the original Chinese by Spartan Surfers.

Filed under Water.

More from Zhuangzi