Chengyu

刻舟求剑 (kè zhōu qiú jiàn)

Characters

刻 kè: Mark

舟 zhōu: Boat

求 qiú: Find

剑 jiàn: Sword

Story

Once upon a time during the 周 (Zhōu) Dynasty, a man from the 楚 (Chǔ) State travelled on the Yangtze River. The man was so engulfed by the heavenly river valley landscape before him that he carelessly dropped his sword into the river. He immediately pulled a knife from his pocket and carved a mark on the boat where his sword fell.

Afterwards, he said to the other passengers, “This is where my sword fell”.  Someone yelled, “Hurry! Go find your sword!”.  The man calmly responded, “No need, I already made a mark”.  As the boat continued sailing, another passenger remarked, “You may never find your sword”.  The man smiled and replied, “Don’t worry, the mark is still there”.  Almost every passenger was now shaking their heads.

Finally, the boat docked.  The man hurriedly jumped into the water where he left the mark.  He searched and searched and searched, but found nothing.  Now, the man was doubly confused – for not finding his sword and hearing laughter around him.

Lesson

I don’t know who is more foolish – the thief in the 掩耳盗铃 (yăn ĕr dào líng) story or this man who dropped his sword.  Anyways, 刻舟求剑 (kè zhōu qiú jiàn) refers to those who maintain the old ways of seeing things even though the times have changed.  In other words, “stuck in the old ways”.

Actually, this proverb describes a way of thinking that occurs commonly among businesses and people.  For instance, established businesses have gone bankrupt because they failed to adjust to the technology of current times – the downfall of a photographic film company because of their unwillingness to transition from film to digital comes to mind.  Another example is when grandparents mention the “good old days”.  For me, no thanks – I prefer my octa-core AMOLED touchscreen smartphone over my grandparents’ 1 Kg walkie talkie any day.  刻舟求剑 (kè zhōu qiú jiàn) indeed.

Research

Beliefs can be hard to change.  Cemented by biases in thinking such as confirmation bias and motivated ignorance, beliefs become entrenched over time as contradictory evidence is ignored and supporting information is sought.  Specifically, beliefs that people strongly identify with such as political and religious stances are the most resistant to change (1).  For example, Kaplan et al. (2016) found that it was relatively easy to change people’s minds on facts such as Albert Einstein’s achievements.  However on ideological topics such as abortion and immigration, the participants remained firm.

Brain imaging has revealed why ideological beliefs are hard to change.  Specifically, Kaplan et al. (2016) found that political arguments activated the Default Mode Network (DMN).  DMN structures include brain regions that process information related to the self and others (eg. posterior cingulate cortex and medial prefrontal cortex) and regions involved in memory formation and prediction (eg. hippocampus).  Further, regions involved in negative emotions were activated (eg. amygdala).  Conversely, non-ideological statements activated regions involved with thinking flexibly (eg. orbitofrontal cortex and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex).  Interestingly, reduced activation in these same regions were found in people with OCD or addictions – both characterized by rigidity in thinking (2, 3).

Overall, the brain processes ideological messages such as on politics and religion differently than plain facts.  Specifically, ideological messages activate brain regions involved with self-identity and negative emotions.  Thus, ideological beliefs are hard to change because challenges to them are seen as personal insults.  Now, the man in the 刻舟求剑 (kè zhōu qiú jiàn) story may have a damaged orbitofrontal cortex, but normally the brain is still wired with 刻舟求剑 (kè zhōu qiú jiàn) tendencies.  From ignoring a friend’s advice on a