Thoughts Need Metabolism Too

Prelude

It was Qixi yesterday, and I spotted several young couples carrying roses on the street.

This morning I suddenly recalled the story of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl. In the version I remembered, the Cowherd steals the Weaver Girl’s clothes while she bathes on earth so she cannot return to Heaven, and eventually she marries him. That sounded like hooliganism and theft—how did such a story become part of our folklore? Maybe that is why a certain melon thief and the officers who defended him in Qixian were convinced that “stealing” a watermelon is just “picking” it. I wanted to write a piece criticizing the tale.

But as I dug through materials, I realized the legend has many versions, and none of them are as crude as the one in my head. Most versions build in two key turning points—past-life destiny and the talking ox—that make the Cowherd taking the garments feel inevitable. My memory held the most skeletal version, riddled with plot holes.

Reflection

So this is not about fables, ignorant crowds, or lenient policemen. I should take it as a mirror.

Kids love to show off—“My dad says…” Adults do not say it aloud, but the underlying logic is the same: what our parents told us must be true, especially when it comes to common sense or historical anecdotes.

Rigid thinking and self-righteousness are born from pure empiricism. We act and speak based on our value system, mental models, and knowledge base, yet the original sources of those inputs are not always reliable. Folklore reaches us through bedtime stories and comics; errors in the story or our memories can leave us with distorted facts. Those stories feel trivial, so we rarely revisit them, which means we carry incorrect knowledge for life.

Practice

The bigger the heart, the more accommodating. Being humble, cautious, inclusive, and open is not empty talk. Recognize your own limitations and the fallibility of memory so you stay modest in action, rigorous in speech, and eager to learn.

Never take any source at face value. Whether we see it with our own eyes or hear it from parents, teachers, or books, it may still be wrong. To understand any concept or event, trace it back to its origin, follow its development, and cross-check information from multiple sources. That is the only way to piece together the closest thing to truth—especially in social sciences and history, which are often written by the victors.

Update your knowledge regularly. Scientific understanding evolves, especially in astronomy, information technology, life science, and medicine. Even if core theories do not flip overnight, technology advances nonstop. Leukemia’s five-year survival rate, for instance, has risen from 14% in the 1960s to 64% by 2007, yet many people still believe it is incurable. Without refreshing our thinking, we stay trapped in obsolete conclusions.

Published at: Jan 2, 2019 · Modified at: Nov 21, 2025