Stories of Chinese word and term (13)

矛盾 spear vs. shield, this story was from a book named 《韩非子》. A man selling weaponry at the market. At the beginning he said, “My spear is the best one, in the world. It will pierce any shield in the world.” After a while, he started to promote his shield, “My shield is the best one in the world, for no spear can pierce my shield.” At this moment, a passenger asked, “What if using your spear to attack your shield?”

This story telling us that every word must cooperate what you have said. Otherwise, contradiction will appeared. In fact the English word ‘contradiction’ translate into Chinese is 矛盾.

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