This story originated from Zhuangzi's homology theory. One year, when the harvest was not good, the monkey owner said to the monkey, "There is not enough food now, so we must save some food." How about eating three acorns every morning and four at night? The monkeys were very angry and shouted, "Too few! Why didn't you eat more in the morning than in the evening? "

The monkey keeper quickly said, "How about eating four in the morning and three at night?" The monkeys are very happy to hear this. They think they ate more in the morning than in the evening and won.

In fact, the total number of acorns has not changed, but the distribution method has changed, and the monkeys have turned anger into joy. Theorists who pursue fame and wealth and reality always try to distinguish different attributes of things, but they don't know that things themselves are identical. Finally, like a monkey, I can't help being blinded by fickle and fickle.

Extended data

In this story, the old man who keeps monkeys is the maker of rules, and monkeys are followers. The restriction of the original diet supply will definitely make monkeys feel disappointed and scared. Choosing "chop and change" means choosing to keep immediate interests.

Liezi compared the old man who raised monkeys to "saints" and monkeys to "fools". Sages manage fools with their wisdom and satisfy the superficial needs of fools by various means. At first glance, fools win more benefits for themselves, but in fact, the interests and powers that saints have and the specific goals they want to achieve have not been harmed at all because of superficial concessions.

Judging from the comments in the following columns, people's decisions are influenced by many psychological factors. Sometimes the decisions we make seem rational, but in fact they are all influenced by the current "satisfaction".