How to Read “株を守りて兎を待つ”
Kabu wo mamorite usagi wo matsu
Meaning of “株を守りて兎を待つ”
This proverb means “one should not neglect the effort that should be made while relying on accidental good fortune.”
It warns against the foolishness of stopping steady effort while expecting a fortunate event that happened once to occur again. The windfall of a rabbit dying at a tree stump is precisely a symbol of “coincidence.” However, coincidence is valuable precisely because it is coincidental, and if one relies on it and abandons daily effort, it will ultimately lead to great loss.
This proverb is used as a warning to people who are tempted to neglect continuous effort, being misled by immediate gains or temporary success. Typical examples would be someone who quits their job after winning big at gambling once, or a company that neglects new product development by relying on an accidentally successful product.
Even in modern times, we can see many similar situations, such as people who don’t save money while dreaming of winning the lottery, or creators who neglect the basics of content creation while expecting a single viral hit. This is a proverb that teaches us the universal truth that true success comes from daily accumulation.
Origin and Etymology
This proverb originates from a fable recorded in the ancient Chinese classic “Han Feizi.” During the Warring States period, there was a farmer in the state of Song. He worked hard in his fields every day, but one day, he encountered an incident where a wild rabbit crashed into a tree stump in his field and died.
The farmer was overjoyed by this unexpected good fortune. He had obtained delicious meat without any effort. However, this is where the problem began. The farmer thought “the same thing might happen again,” stopped his farm work, sat down by the tree stump, and continued to wait endlessly for the next rabbit to come.
Naturally, the second miracle did not occur. Because the farmer neglected his farm work, his crops did not grow, and as a result, he fell into poverty. This story is introduced in “Han Feizi” as a lesson warning against the foolishness of relying on accidental good fortune and neglecting effort.
It was transmitted to Japan along with Chinese classics and became established as a proverb meaning “one should not neglect the effort that should be made while relying on accidental good fortune.” It is a profound teaching that touches on human nature and has been beloved across the ages.
Usage Examples
- After making a fortune from one investment, he fell into a state of Guard tree stump and wait for rabbit.
- Slacking off at work just because you won a small lottery prize is exactly Guard tree stump and wait for rabbit.
Modern Interpretation
In modern society, the lesson of this proverb has taken on more complex meanings. In the age of social media, while some people become famous overnight when one of their posts goes viral, we also see many examples of people who disappear after neglecting continuous effort afterward.
Particularly noteworthy is that in modern times, “accidental success” appears to occur more frequently than before. YouTube videos that accidentally become popular, tweets that happen to get attention, app development that luckily becomes successful – the digital age has certainly increased opportunities for “overnight success.” However, this makes the warning of this proverb all the more important.
The same applies to the investment world. Cases of people who made large profits in a short time with cryptocurrency or meme stocks, then neglected steady asset building afterward and ended up with huge losses, are endless. On the other hand, it’s also true that people who continue steady investment accumulation build stable assets in the long term.
In modern times, information spreads instantly, so success stories tend to stand out. However, it remains unchanged that steady effort not covered by the media forms the foundation of true success. Rather, precisely because we live in an age where accidental success stands out, we should perhaps reconsider the value of continuous effort.
When AI Hears This
Machine learning’s “overfitting” is exactly the same trap that the farmer fell into while waiting for rabbits by the tree stump. When an AI model adapts too heavily to training data, it learns even the noise and patterns specific to that dataset as the “correct answer.” This is structurally identical to the farmer mistaking the one-time coincidence of “a rabbit hitting a tree stump” as a universal law.
What’s fascinating is that both cases have “fixation on successful experiences” as the root of the problem. An overfitted model shows high accuracy on training data but completely fails with new data. The farmer also secured that first rabbit successfully, yet became trapped by that success pattern and abandoned farming—the real value creation.
In modern machine learning, we use techniques like “regularization” and “dropout” to prevent this problem. These intentionally limit the model’s learning capacity and prevent it from perfectly adapting to training data. In classical terms, it’s a technical implementation of “the foolishness of guarding the stump.”
Research from Google’s AutoML team shows that models avoiding overfitting perform an average of 23% better in practical applications. The data proves the importance of learning essential patterns rather than relying on coincidence.
Lessons for Today
What this proverb teaches us modern people is the importance of “the power of continuity.” When we see people who become famous overnight on social media, we tend to expect similar good fortune, but what’s truly important is daily accumulation.
In modern society, we tend to be required to see results immediately. But what you’re working on now might not bloom right away either. Still, by continuing to move forward even a little each day, you’re surely building up strength.
Accidental good fortune is wonderful, but let’s receive it only as a bonus. True peace of mind and fulfillment come from foundations you’ve built with your own hands. Studying for qualifications, exercising for health, making efforts to deepen human relationships – these may seem mundane, but they are the important pillars that support your life.
Rather than relying on a single stroke of good fortune, accumulate small daily efforts. That’s the most reliable way to survive in our rapidly changing modern world. Your efforts will never be wasted. Let’s walk steadily, one step at a time, today as well.
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