Translated
【hú lún tūn zǎo】
Long, long ago, there was a doctor who knew a lot about eating fruit. One day, he was telling people on the street about the properties of pears and jujubes.
” Eating raw pears is good for the teeth, but detrimental to people’s spleen.” he said. ” But eating raw jujubes has the opposite affect. It’s good for people’s slpeen, but detrimental to people’s teeth.”
Then , a “smart” man came out of the crowd and said, ” I have a good idea to solve all this.”
When everyone heard this, they were shocked!
” Hey, what’s your idea? ” a man asked him.
” When eating a pear, just chew it with your teeth, and don’t swallow it. This way, you’ll let the pear protect your teeth, while causing no damage to your spleen. When eating a jujube, don’t use your teeth, just swallow it.This way, the jujube would benefit your spleen, while causing no damage to the teeth.”
After the doctor heard this, he said,
” If you swallow a jujube full, could you digest it? Would it be good for the spleen?”
The smart guy falls silent after hearing the doctor’s remark.
Hu Lun Tun Zao is an idiomatic phrase, meaning to learn something superficially without fully understanding it.
