黔驴技穷

The Guizhou Donkey Has Used Up All Its Tricks Long long ago, there was no donkey in Qian ZhongDao. (a place in GuiZhou province of China).A businessman who was busy body shipped one to there and finally left it at the foot of mountain because he found the donkey was useless . A tiger saw the donkey, amazed at its size and then regarded it as a

supernatural creature so the tiger hided itself into the wood and watched furtively to see what it was. Inch by inch, the tiger closed to it discreetly with a lot of uncertain and curiousness.

One day, the donkey brayed, the tiger shocked .So the tiger run away because it though the donkey would bit it. After a long time observation at a distance, the tiger think it was not that special. The more the tiger observed donkey, the less tiger afraid of the donkey. Tiger got nearer and walked around the donkey when it got used to the heehaw but it still dared not to attack the donkey. Little by little, the

tiger closed more nearly to donkey again in a more casual way, such as touching it, leaning on it, bumping at it and provoking it. This series of actions made the donkey so angry that it gave the tiger a kick. At this time, the tiger was very happy and though “What the donkey can do was nothing not more than this!” Then it leaped on the donkey, roaring, and gnawed at the donkey’s throat. The tiger went off after haven eating up the donkey.

You see from this fable that the donkey dead of lacking of skills. Nowadays, we used this parable to say one has used up his tether and appeared his weak essence.

This story was from a fable entitled “The Donkey in Guizhou” in THREE DISCIPLINES by LiuZongyuan of the Tang Dynasty.