All poems

战国战国 · 文 Prose

守株待兔·版本

Waiting for a Rabbit by a Tree Stump (A Version)

韩非

Han Fei

名篇A famous piece 寓言 allegory / fable 讽刺Satire

宋人有耕者。
田中有株，兔走触株，折颈而死。
因释其耒而守株，冀复得兔。

There was a farmer in Song.
In his field stood a stump; a rabbit ran and struck the stump,
broke its neck and died.
Because of this he let go of his plough and guarded the stump,
hoping to catch another rabbit.

Listen

Meaning

A farmer of the state of Song had a stump in his field. One day a rabbit ran, struck the stump, broke its neck and died. The farmer thereupon abandoned his plough and sat watch beside the stump, hoping to catch another rabbit. The version stops here, without the conclusion and without the ridicule that the rest of the passage adds.

宋国有个耕田的人。田里有一棵树的树桩，一只兔子跑过来撞在树桩上，折断了脖子死了。于是这个人便放下他的农具，守在树桩旁边，希望再捡到撞死的兔子。

Appreciation

[Plain Paraphrase] A farmer of Song had a stump in his field; a rabbit ran into it, broke its neck and died. He thereupon laid down his plough and guarded the stump, hoping to catch another. [Structure] The three-layer narrative is extremely short. It opens with the man and the field, moves to the rabbit, and then to the farmer's decision; the last three words are devoted wholly to the wish. There is no comment at any point. [Technique] The verbs do the work: 走, 触, 折 run through the episode at speed, so that the death is over in three beats. Then 释 and 守 are placed one before the other, so that the abandonment of the plough and the sitting down by the stump are made to look like two steps of a single decision. The last word 冀 holds the whole absurdity in three characters. [Feeling] What the reader supplies is the ridicule the text withholds. The version's ending leaves the farmer still waiting, and the reader knows the rabbits will not come — which is a way of making the satire the reader's own rather than someone else's.

【白话串讲】韩非写《守株待兔》：宋国农夫见兔子撞死在树桩上，“因释其耒而守株”——放下锄头专门等兔子。“兔不可复得，而身为宋国笑”——他后来什么都没等到，反被人嘲笑。他讽刺那些死守老经验、不知变通的人。【意象与手法】此版本删去了通行本「兔不可复得，而身为宋国笑」的收尾，止于「冀复得兔」，叙事到此戛然而止。这种截取使文本由「完整的讽刺寓言」变为「开放的叙事片段」：守株者的行为与心理已经完整呈现，讽刺意味却以「留白」的方式存于言外，读来更有余味，也给读者留下补足结局的想象空间。【情感与主旨】借守株者「释耒守株、冀复得兔」的痴态，讽刺把偶然当必然、妄想不劳而获的侥幸心理；虽删去点题之句，而「守株待兔」的荒唐已在叙事中自明，主旨不变而含蓄更深。【名句点睛】「因释其耒而守株，冀复得兔」是全段唯一完整的心理—行为句：「释耒」弃勤、「守株」坐等、「冀」字写贪，九个字把守株者的懒惰与侥幸写得纤毫毕现。

Background

This passage is taken from the《Wu Du》chapter of the Han Feizi, and compared with the ordinary version it omits the concluding words "the rabbit cannot be caught again, and the man became a laughingstock through the state of Song," stopping instead at "hoping to catch another rabbit." Han Fei, about 280–233 BC, was a scion of the royal house of the state of Han and the greatest of the legalist writers, a pupil of Xunzi alongside Li Si. He saw his own state growing weak under the gaze of the powerful Qin, presented memorials to the king of Han urging reform, and was never listened to; he then wrote the fifty-five chapters of the Han Feizi, of which the《Wu Du》, the《Shui Nan》and the《Gu Fen》are the best known. In the《Wu Du》he argues that "in high antiquity men competed in virtue, in the middle age they schemed with craft, in our age they contend with strength," and that the ruler must not keep to the ways of antiquity but must act according to the age; this fable is used there to mock those who would govern by the practices of the former kings. The omission of the ending may be because an anthology wanted the narrative and dropped the argument, or because a transmitted manuscript had a different reading; yet considered as a text it has the effect of leaving the fable as pure narrative, and the ridicule is left for the reader.

此「守株待兔·版本」截取自《韩非子·五蠹》，与通行本相较，删去了结尾「兔不可复得，而身为宋国笑」一句，止于「冀复得兔」。韩非（约前280—前233）为战国末期韩国宗室公子，法家思想的集大成者，与李斯同师事荀子。他目睹韩国在强秦虎视之下积弱不振，曾多次上书韩王主张变法图强，皆不被采纳，遂发愤著书，成《韩非子》五十五篇，其中《五蠹》《说难》《孤愤》等篇皆为后世传诵的名文。《五蠹》篇集中阐发其社会历史观：韩非认为「上古竞于道德，中世逐于智谋，当今争于气力」，社会在不断发展变化，治国者必须「不期修古，不法常可，论世之事，因为之备」，「守株待兔」寓言正用在这里，讽刺那些墨守先王成法、不知因时变通的守旧者。此版本之所以删去结尾，或因教材选录时取叙事主体而略议论，或因传世钞本原有异文，然就文本本身而言，止于「冀复得兔」使寓言保持纯粹的叙事形态，讽刺意味由读者自会——这正是「寓言」本义之所在：以故事寓理，理在事中，不必点破。

Art

This version has the pure shape of the pre-Qin fable, in which a story carries a principle without ever saying so. The whole piece falls into three layers. The first gives the man, the stump and the rabbit, and the verbs 走, 触 and 折 follow one another so quickly that the death is finished in three beats. The second, introduced by the single character 因, gives the farmer's decision: 释 his plough and 守 the stump are set against each other, so that the abandonment of the field and the sitting down by the stump appear as two steps of one movement. The third is three characters, 冀复得兔 — hoping to catch another — and the character 冀 alone sums up the whole inner life of the man. The most deliberate change, compared with the ordinary version, is the removal of the concluding remark. The received text ends with "the rabbit cannot be caught again, and the man became a laughingstock throughout the state of Song," which tells the reader what to think; this version stops at "hoping to catch another rabbit" and hands the judgement over entirely. On the level of the story the absurdity is already complete, and nothing needs to be added; on the level of the satire, the reader who reaches 冀复得兔 will think at once of how rarely a rabbit strikes a stump and how costly it is to give up the plough — and the ridicule is finished before the reader knows it has begun. This silence is stronger than any remark, and it is what the fable is: a principle embedded in a story, the principle present in the story itself and not spelled out.

此版本的文体与章法，是先秦寓言「以叙事寓理」的纯粹形态。全文三层：首层「宋人有耕者。田中有株，兔走触株，折颈而死」——五句交代人物、事件，动词「走」「触」「折」连用，写兔死之偶然，节奏急促；中层「因释其耒而守株」——「因」字一转，写出守株者弃耕就守的荒谬决定，「释」与「守」两个动词对举，弃实就虚、弃勤就懒；末层「冀复得兔」——三字收束，写其痴心妄想，「冀」字把侥幸心理凝于一端。与通行本相较，此版本最见匠心的改动在删去结尾议论：通行本以「兔不可复得，而身为宋国笑」卒章显志，讽刺由作者点明；此版本则戛然而止于「冀复得兔」，把评判权完全交给读者——叙事层面，守株者的痴态已完整呈现，不需补笔；讽喻层面，读者读到「冀复得兔」，自然想起兔撞株而死的千载难逢，想起放弃耕作的得不偿失，讽刺之意已在心中完成。这种「不言之言」的留白艺术，比直说更有力：寓言者，寓理于事，事尽而理见，正此之谓。故删去结尾非为减损，实为更纯粹地回归寓言的叙事本位。

Allusions

The culture of this version is compressed into four things: the farming, the plough, the stump and the rabbit. First, 耕者 and 耒: the state of the pre-Qin lived by its fields, the Shang Shu having said "if a farmer tills and reaps diligently," and the plough is the farmer's fundamental tool, so the man in the field is the picture of a dutiful labourer; when the man lets go of the plough he abandons his proper calling, and in a state that honours agriculture this is absurd in itself, without any need to argue the point. Second, 株: a stump is a dead and useless tree, and because a rabbit happened to dash itself against it, it becomes a symbol of profit won by chance; the gardener who hopes for more from a withered stump is the image of a ruler who hopes for more from obsolete laws — the withered stump and the outdated law are structurally the same thing, and this is the finest figure in the《Wu Du》for those who would govern by the ways of the former kings. Third, 兔: the rabbit is nimble and swift, and yet it died by running into a still stump; extreme movement met extreme stillness, and the accident is almost comic, which is what makes the waiting that follows absurd in turn. Fourth, 冀: it means hope, and what is hoped for is 复得兔, catching another — the promotion of a one-off coincidence into a repeatable rule, which is the common human weakness of treating chance as necessity. The later成语守株待兔 was condensed from this passage, and for two thousand years it has been used to mock those who expect to gain without labour and cannot adapt.

此版本虽只存叙事主体，其文化内涵却更为凝练，集中在「耕—耒—株—兔」四个物象上。其一是「耕者」与「耒」：先秦以农立国，《尚书》有「若农服田力穑」，耒是耕者的根本工具，耕者是安分守己的劳动者典型；守株者「释其耒」，意味着放弃根本之业，这在重农的战国语境中本身就构成价值上的荒谬，无需议论自见。其二是「株」：树桩是无用枯木，因兔之误撞而成为「偶然之利」的象征；守株者把希望寄托于枯株，正喻把治国之道寄托于过时的古法——「株」之枯朽与「法」之过时，在此形成同构，这是《五蠹》篇「以先王之政，治当世之民」的守旧派最传神的物化形象。其三是「兔」：兔为敏捷善走之物（成语「动如脱兔」），竟「走触株」而亡，极动撞极静，意外得近乎荒诞，正衬出下文守株等待之更加荒诞。其四是「冀」字的文化回声：「冀」训希望，而所冀者为「复得兔」——把一次性巧合升格为可重复的规律，正是人类「把偶然当必然」的普遍心理弱点；后世成语「守株待兔」即由此凝成，历代用以讥讽坐享其成、不知变通者，其作为「寓言—成语」的双重身份，使这则短故事的讽喻力历两千余年而不衰。

Commentary

The worth of this version lies first in the particular view it offers of the fable as a genre: it shows that the power of a fable lies not in stating its moral but in the story itself. The received version ends with "a laughingstock through the state of Song" and makes the satire explicit, which is the classic pattern of concluding with the point made; this version stops at "hoping to catch another rabbit," and the reader has to supply the outcome — no further rabbit, and the man left a figure of fun — so the ridicule is not announced but performed by the reader at the moment the book is closed. The two endings have their separate merits: the received one is a fable for argument, and its last line is like the eye of a dragon, serving directly the argument of the《Wu Du》that men should not follow the codes of antiquity; this one is a fable for narrative, and being free of argument it comes closer to a folk tale, and the satire belongs to the reader. In the history of ideas, the three layers preserved here — an accident, a wrong judgement, a stubborn waiting — are the common structure of everything that the phrase 守株待兔 describes, whether one gambles for money, seeks merit by luck, or clings to obsolete institutions; so although this version has no ending, its meaning is plain enough. In the history of literature, the coexistence of the two versions shows the ecology of the pre-Qin fable as it was transmitted, in which versions differed in length and detail, and it invites the reader to notice that the same story, cut differently, has a different flavour. The value of textual criticism for the understanding of classic texts lies in just this.

此版本的价值，首在提供了一种理解寓言文体的特殊视角：它证明「寓言」的力量不在点题，而在叙事本身。通行本以「身为宋国笑」收束，讽刺指向明确，是「卒章显志」的经典范式；此版本止于「冀复得兔」，读者必须自己补出结局——兔不可复得、守株者终成笑柄，讽刺不是被告知的，而是被读者在合上书页的瞬间自己完成的。这种「留白式寓言」与通行本「点破式寓言」各有其长：点破者如当头棒喝，适用于论说文的论证需要（《五蠹》原文正需以寓言佐证「不法常可」之论）；留白者如余音绕梁，更见叙事艺术的含蓄之美。就思想史言，此版本所存的三层叙事——偶然事件、错误判断、痴心等待——正是人类一切「守株待兔」式行为（赌博求财、侥幸图功、泥古不化）的共同结构，故虽无结尾，寓意自明；就文学史言，此版本与通行本并存，恰好展示了先秦寓言在流传过程中「详略互见」的版本生态，也提示读者：同一故事，剪裁不同，韵味迥异——这正是版本学对理解经典的价值。

Prosody

Form Pre-Qin fable prose (a narrative fragment)先秦寓言文（叙事片段体）

Rhyme It does not rhyme, but the length of the clauses regulates the rhythm: the first five clauses are quick, in lines of four to seven characters with a burst of verbs, and the last clause is slow, in nine characters with two beats, giving a sharp contrast of quick and slow that matches the narrative's rhythm of an accident followed by a long watch.不押韵，而以句式的长短变化调节节奏：前五句急促（四至七言短句，动词连发），末句舒缓（九字两逗一顿），形成「疾—缓」的鲜明对照，正合「意外突至—痴等长守」的叙事节奏。

Tone pattern The whole passage is carried by the tone of narrative: the first five clauses are like straight historical record, level and quick in voice; then, at "Because of this he let go of his plough and guarded the stump, hoping to catch another rabbit," the voice turns from narration to the description of a state of mind, and the four words "hoping to catch another rabbit" are drawn out slowly and stop, like a sigh, leaving something unsaid.全段由叙述语气贯穿：前五句如史笔直录，声调平实急促；末句「因释其耒而守株，冀复得兔」语调一转，由叙述转入对人物心理的摹写，「冀复得兔」四字缓缓收住，如一声叹息，留下言外之意。

Reading note Because this version omits the concluding remark and keeps only the narrative, its sound has an unfinished, suspenseful quality that has its own charm. The passage falls into two beats. The first, "A farmer of Song had a field; in the field stood a stump; a rabbit ran and struck the stump, broke its neck and died," has five short clauses: "A farmer of Song had a field" opens flat like a board being set down, "in the field stood a stump" is a pause, "a rabbit ran and struck the stump" hurries, and "broke its neck and died" falls like a hammer, so the sound stops abruptly on the word "died" and completes the first pause. The second beat, "Because of this he let go of his plough and guarded the stump, hoping to catch another rabbit," lets the character 因 draw out slightly, like a turning of thought; "let go of the plough" is a pause, "and guarded the stump" a further stop, and "hoping to catch another rabbit" is breathed out slowly, like a camera that has moved slowly from the running rabbit to the man sitting watch, where the rhythm turns from quick to slow and the voice from movement to stillness, and finally rests on the word "rabbit" with a long echo. Read with the ordinary version beside it, the excellence of this one appears at once: that version adds twelve characters after "hoping to catch another rabbit" — "the rabbit cannot be caught again, and the man became a laughingstock through the state of Song" — and closes the passage with a cold judgement, the sound turning from slow to cold and completing the curve of narrative followed by remark; this one stops at "hoping to catch another rabbit," and the sound rests where the hope is held up: the reader seems to see the man still sitting watch, and no rabbit will ever come again. This "the sound stops but the meaning does not" leaves a longer flavour in reading, and the two versions together show the different sound-effects of the same fable under the two treatments of stating and leaving unsaid.此版本删去结尾议论，仅存叙事主体，其音韵节奏因此呈现出「未完成的悬念感」，别有一种声情魅力。全文分两拍：第一拍「宋人有耕者。田中有株，兔走触株，折颈而死」——五句皆短，「宋人有耕者」如平铺起板，「田中有株」一顿，「兔走触株」音节急促，如兔之奔，「折颈而死」四字如重锤落地，声情在「死」字上戛然而止，完成全段的第一次停顿；第二拍「因释其耒而守株，冀复得兔」——「因」字轻轻一拖，如思绪一转，「释其耒」一顿，「而守株」一停，「冀复得兔」缓缓吐出，如镜头从奔跑的兔缓缓摇到蹲守的人，节奏由疾转缓，声情由动转静，最后停在「兔」字上，余韵袅袅。若与通行本对读，这一版的妙处立现：通行本在「冀复得兔」后还有「兔不可复得，而身为宋国笑」十二字，以冷峻的评议收束全篇，声情由缓转冷，完成了「叙事—评议」的完整曲线；此版本则止于「冀复得兔」，声情停在希望的悬置处——读者仿佛看见守株者还在蹲守，而兔子再也不会来，这种「声止而意不止」的留白，使朗读时的余味反而更深长。两版并存，恰可见同一寓言在「点破」与「留白」两种处理下的不同声学效果。

Line by line

宋人有耕者。田中有株，兔走触株，折颈而死。

There was a farmer in Song. In his field stood a stump; a rabbit ran and struck the stump, broke its neck and died.

宋国有个耕田的人。田里有一棵树桩，一只兔子跑过来撞在树桩上，折断了脖子死了。开篇五句交代人物与偶然事件，为守株行为铺设前提。

There was a plowman of Song. In his field stood a tree stump; a hare came running, dashed against it, broke its neck and died.

「开篇五句是全段叙事的地基，以最简省的笔墨交代人物、地点与事件。『宋人有耕者』一句先立起人物：『耕者』是安分务农的劳动者，作者特意点明其身份，正是为下文『释其耒』的荒唐行为准备反差——最勤勉的人一旦生了侥幸之心，也会放下锄头去等兔子，讽刺因此更具普遍性。『田中有株』交代环境：田间有树桩，本是农家寻常景象，无人在意，却因即将发生的意外而成为全文的机关。『兔走触株，折颈而死』是转折性的事件：『走』『触』『折』三字连用，写兔之奔、撞、死一气呵成，节奏急促，如目睹其状；而『折颈而死』之惨，反衬出这次收获纯属巧合——兔子撞树而死，千载难逢，这一事件越是偶然，下文守株者的等待便越是荒谬。句法上五句皆短，主谓宾俱全，无一处形容修饰，如史笔直录，冷静到近乎冷酷：韩非不渲染、不议论，只把事实摆出，让读者在平静的叙述中自行体味其中的荒诞与讽刺。」

The opening five sentences are the narrative's ground, the briefest brush setting out person, place, event. 'There was a farmer of Song' first setting the person: 'the plowman' a law-abiding husbandman, the author marking his identity precisely to prepare the contrast below - the most diligent man, once chance enters his heart, will lay down the hoe to wait for hares, the satire the more universal. 'In his field stood a stump' the setting: a stump in the fields, a common farm sight, none minding, yet through the accident to come become the whole's device. 'A hare ran and struck the stump, broke its neck and died' the turning event: 'ran,' 'struck,' 'broke' the three verbs together, the hare's racing, striking, dying in one breath, the rhythm urgent, as if witnessed; and the pathos of 'broke its neck and died' set off against the gain's pure chance - the hare striking the tree and dying, once in a thousand years, the more accidental the event, the more absurd the waiting below. In syntax the five sentences all short, subject-verb-object complete, not one epithet, like a plain record of history, calm to the point of coldness: Han Fei not elaborating, not arguing, only the facts laid out, letting the reader in the calm narrative savor the absurdity and the satire himself.

因释其耒而守株，冀复得兔。

Because of this he let go of his plough and guarded the stump, hoping to catch another rabbit.

于是这个人便放下他的农具，守在树桩旁边，希望再捡到撞死的兔子。末句写守株者的行为与心理，是全段的点睛之处。

So he laid down his plow and watched by the stump, hoping to catch another hare.

「末句是全段的收束，也是守株者痴态的集中呈现，九个字写尽三层转折。第一层是『因』字：承上启下，写出从偶然事件到错误决策的瞬间转换——一次意外的收获，便让耕者彻底改变了生活轨迹，『因』字下得轻巧，讽刺却重逾千钧：多少人正是这样，因一次侥幸的成功而放弃了根本的努力。第二层是『释其耒而守株』：两个动作对举——『释』是放下赖以生存的农具，『守』是守着不可能再来的兔子，一弃一守，弃实就虚、弃勤就懒，耕者的身份在动作中悄然改变，由劳动者变为等待者。第三层是『冀复得兔』：『冀』训希望，是全段唯一的心理用字，把守株者的内心世界洞开——他把一次巧合当成了规律，把偶然当成了必然，满怀希望地等待奇迹重演。这一层的讽刺在于：『冀』愈是恳切，愈见其愚。全段止于此句，戛然而止，不写守株的结果——这正是此版本与通行本最大的不同：结局留白，让读者在笑过之后，自己补出『兔不可复得』的必然，讽刺因此不是被说出的，而是在读者心中自行完成的。」

The closing line is the passage's close, and the concentrated showing of the watcher's folly, nine words writing three layers of turn. The first layer, the word 'thereupon': bridging above and below, writing the instant's turn from accidental event to wrong decision - one unexpected gain, and the plowman's whole course changed, the word 'thereupon' laid lightly, the satire heavy as a thousand catties: so many men, thus, abandoning root effort for one lucky success. The second layer, 'laid aside his plow and watched the stump': two actions set against - 'laid aside' dropping the tool by which he lives, 'watched' guarding the hare that cannot come again, one abandonment one watching, abandoning the solid for the void, the diligent for the lazy, the plowman's identity quietly changing in the actions, from laborer to waiter. The third layer, 'hoping to get another hare': 'hoped' meaning hope, the passage's only word of mind, laying the watcher's heart bare - he took one coincidence for a law, the accidental for the necessary, waiting full of hope for the miracle's repeat. This layer's satire: the more earnest the 'hope,' the more foolish he shows. The passage stops on this line, short, not writing the result of the watching - precisely this version's greatest difference from the received text: the ending left blank, letting the reader, after laughing, supply for himself the necessity of 'the hare could not be got again,' the satire therefore not spoken, but completed in the reader's own heart.

Study

Word focus

耒 The plough, the wooden tool with which the field was tilled, and by extension the farmer's calling; to give it up is to abandon the root of one's living, which in a state that honours agriculture is absurd before any remark is made about it. 「『释其耒而守株』之『耒』，是全文物质世界的关键词，也是理解守株行为荒谬性的钥匙。耒是先秦耕者的主要农具，形如双齿木叉，用以翻土，是农耕时代最基本的劳动工具（《周易·系辞》：「斫木为耜，揉木为耒」），与后世之犁一脉相承。在重农的战国语境中，耒是生计之本、勤劳之征：持有耒者，是自食其力的耕者；释耒者，则意味着放弃劳动、脱离本业。韩非选『耒』而非其他物件，正取其双重象征——既是安身立命的工具，又是勤劳美德的化身：守株者『释其耒』，等于亲手放下安身之本、抛弃勤劳之德，其荒谬不需议论，已在物象的选择中自明。后世『释耒』一词遂成弃农、弃勤的代称，陶渊明《归去来兮辞》『农人告余以春及，将有事于西畴』之持耒躬耕，恰与守株者之释耒坐等构成正反两例：同为农人，一勤一惰，一实一虚，可见『耒』这一物象在中国文化中承载的耕读伦理。」

冀 To hope; in 冀复得兔 it holds the whole of the man's inner life in one word, because it shows the promotion of a single coincidence into a repeatable expectation, which is the foolishness the fable exists to mock. 「『冀复得兔』之『冀』，是全段唯一的心理动词，也是刺穿守株者内心的一针见血之笔。『冀』训希望、希求，在先秦典籍中多用于郑重而恳切的期愿（《楚辞》『冀幸君之一悟』），韩非用以写守株者的期待，愈显郑重，愈显荒唐：他把全部希望寄托于『复得兔』——让一次千载难逢的巧合再次发生。此字的讽刺锋芒有三：其一，它写出侥幸心理的机制——把偶然当必然、把特例当规律，一次意外收获便滋生出对奇迹的持续期待，这正是人类赌博心理的原始模型；其二，它与『守』字呼应——因冀而守、为冀而等，冀是动机，守是行为，动机之贪与行为之痴互为表里，一个『冀』字使守株者的形象由『可笑』升为『可悲』；其三，它是韩非批判的靶心——韩非认为人情好利而恶劳，守株者正是把『好利』推向极端的标本，其冀望的对象不是劳动所得，而是不劳而获，正犯了法家『以力得富，以事致贵』的价值大忌。九字之句，因这一个『冀』字，讽刺顿深。」

守 To watch, to guard, to sit patient by; in 守株 it names the action that replaces work, and it is the very thing that the fable holds up to ridicule. 「『守株』之『守』，是全段行为的题眼，也是『守株待兔』成语的核心动词。『守』训守卫、看护，本义是坚守不放（《说文》：「守，守官也」，引申为持守），用于此处，写守株者牢牢守在树桩旁，如守城、如护宝，把一棵枯死的树桩当成命根子。此字的讽刺力在于「以重写轻」：『守』本是郑重其事的行为，用来守护的却是毫无价值的枯株，郑重与荒谬的错位，正是喜剧的源头；而『守』的对象由『耒』（根本之业）变为『株』（无用之物），一守一弃之间，价值秩序彻底颠倒。更深一层看，『守』在先秦语境中还有「持守不变」之义（《论语》『守死善道』），韩非此处的『守株』，正是对『守旧』的绝妙讥讽——守着过时的成法不知变通，正如守着枯死的树桩等待奇迹，『守』字一词双关，把法家反守旧、主变通的主张寓于寓言之中。后世『守株』『株守』皆由此凝成贬义，如黄宗羲『株守一先生之言』，其讽喻力千年不衰。」