84. CHINESE PROVERB: Give a man a fish
September 27th, 2012
I’m sure most of you have heard this proverb before – I wanted to try and take an old, well-known saying and give it the Zen Pencils treatment. Maybe even introduce it to some young readers who haven’t heard it. Some sites credit this to Lao Tzu, most claim it as a ‘Chinese proverb’. I’m guessing it’s been around so long the origin is murky. If anyone is a Chinese historian with some additional information, please let us know.
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Zen Pencils adapts inspirational quotes into cartoons. It's illustrated by Gavin Aung Than and there's a new toon every Tuesday. More info
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Build a man a fire and you keep him warm for a night
Set a man on fire and you will keep him warm for the rest of his life
…
sorry.
Confucius once said,
Man who Run infront of bus, get tire’d.
Man who Run Behind the bus, get Exhausted.
does bus exist in that time?
Man who walk through airport gate sideways going to Bangkok.
It takes a village to raise a viking, but it only takes one viking to raze a village.
I”m glad you posted that wonderful Terry PRatchett proverb so I didn’t have to.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8a6gGkkPtyg
For some odd reason I thought this had its origins in the bible. Or maybe my brain has inadvertently cross-linked two unrelated files.
Come to think of it I had a school teacher recite it to me as a bible reference to.
I read a terrific article a while ago about a biblical scholar that seemed to spend most of his time convincing people that passages they’d always considered biblical, ie. ‘God moves in mysterious ways’, ‘God helps those who help themselves’, not only weren’t in the bible, but kind of contradicted the core messages of the bible as well, like love and care for your fellow man (and woman).
His favourite correction was a student in one of his classes who was adamant the phrase, ‘This dog won’t hunt’, was from the bible.
Give Jesus a fish and he’ll make tuna sandwiches for 10k? LOL
ahem. the chinese history is >5000 years old (BC) btw.
But you got it wrong!
The real proverb is:
“Give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he’ll sit on a boat and drink beer all day.”
It’s true! I had never seen the attraction of fishing, but one day when I was 18, I went fishing with my dad and some of his buddies. We didn’t catch anything! We set the lines and drank beer–it was a good social experience, and I realized that recreational fishing has little to do with actually catching fish.
Anyways, I liked your treatment of it, and I like MUNDANE’s comment
It’s not about the fishes. It’s about sending a message.
Strong gender stereotypes in this penciling.
Yeah – I got the same feeling…
As did I.
You mean how the woman is doing all the organisation and work and the men are goofing off?
I don’t think that was really the intent; this is really more of the sort of activity (learning to fish) that’s (for many people) a father-son moment. Your opinion isn’t wrong, but perhaps you should realize that just because it doesn’t invert a stereotype doesn’t mean it’s adhering to it because the creator thinks of it as truth. Stereotypes do, after all, have some basis in truth.
THANK YOU SIR!
Yes, Ron speaks the truth.
Eloquently put.
I see a mother feeding her child, and a dad teaching him how to fish. What is the problem? I’d love to know how you’d change the illustration to be more p.c.
This utterly pointless comment shows how strong one can struggle to miss the point and, besides, reminds me of another Chines proverb:
“Point a finger to the moon, and the fool will stare at the finger.”
I have nothing to add, but I do love that proverb!
“Do not concentrate on finger… or you miss all heavenly glory behind”
– Bruce Lee
It’s a great proverb and an amazing cartoon. Excelent!
Teach a Man to fish, You feed HIM for a lifetime,
Teach a Woman to fish, you feed a whole family!
Give a man a fish, and he will eat for a day, give a man religion, and he will starve praying for a fish.
Well, I heard it’s a Middle East proverb. Like from Mesopotamia or something.
Anyway, I think it’s one of the most important proverbs if you talk economy. It’s awesome that you’ve drawn it, splendid work!
It’s really not. If you teach a man to fish and then take away all the fish, it’s meaningless.
Give a man a fish, and he’ll eat for a day.
Take a man’s fish away and tell him he’s lucky to be alive, and he’ll catch another fish for you to take tomorrow.
I love to teach the disciplines I know… but with this proverb, it also depends much on the student. Much ore common are ones that are taught and should know how to fish, but want sandwiches handed to them anyway. I wish I could teach only students who light up when I show them how to empower themselves and empower others… but that’s the human condition for you.
What a nice comic.
…and he’ll catch the sea dry.
@Gav: Ever considered printing these on t-shirts?
A tad sexist, no?
no
I like this variation from Terry Pratchett :-
“Give a man a fire and he’s warm for the day.
But set fire to him and he’s warm for the rest of his life.”
Good to see you also support Scott Adams’ version:
“Give a man a fish, and you’ll feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and he’ll buy a funny hat.”
I like this one from Schlock Mercenary:
Maxim 21. Give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Take his fish away and tell him he’s lucky just to be alive, and he’ll figure out how to catch another one for you to take tomorrow.
I love your work and enjoy every piece. I do have a request, or suggestion, if I may: it seems most of the images recently have defaulted to Caucasian-looking characters. I’d love to see more non-Caucasians again.
The last one was an Asian girl.
And it doesn’t matter.
I imagine that it must be very frustrating to work hard on something. To put a lot of effort into it and then have strangers look at it and tell you how wrong you did it.
….unless he is too squeamish to clean it.
Thanks for all your comments. Yes, I was aware of possible stereotyping while drawing this but it was all about the father-son bond to me. I went fishing with my dad when I was a kid, doesn’t make me a sexist.
And teach a man how to build fishponds and you may feed generations… This is why a little random news story some time ago about Czech fishponders (?) teaching people in Africa to build fishponds struck a chord with me. Fishponds have hundreds of years of tradition here and they’re still going strong, so hopefully it will make a difference.
Beautiful illustration of the saying. It may be typical, but I like that you taught a child to fish in the comics; it underlines the “feed him for a lifetime” part.
And more Czech. You asked under one of your more recent illustrations for more quotes from exceptional women. Well, here’s one exceptional woman for you, Milada Horáková:
http://coldwarradios.blogspot.cz/2010/11/i-leave-this-world-without-hatred.html
Give a man a fish, you feed him for a day.
Teach him to fish, you feed him for a lifetime.
Leave the dude alone…. and he’ll pretty much figure it out.
-Louis CK
Love your comics, but a simple google of “give a man a fish” reveals this as the second link, explaining the origin of the phrase:
http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/give-a-man-a-fish.html
The idea behind this dates at least to Maimonedes, a 12th Century Jewish scholar also known as The Rambam, who ordered all forms of charitable giving into eight rungs, with “helping someone become self-sufficient, so they do not require charity” as the most righteous form of charity possible.
Thanks for the link Isaiah.
“Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach him how to fish, and he will sit in a boat and drink beer all day.” – George Carlin
“Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day.
Teach him how to fish, and he will eat for a lifetime.
Teach him religion, and he will starve praying for a fish.”
that is strange.. here on mexico is a qoute related to jesus christ… but sound more logic from chiness
Give a man religion and he’ll die praying for a fish.
Back to r/atheism with you.
No Marx?
Sell a man a fish, he eats for a day, teach a man to fish, you ruin a wonderful business opportunity. Mwahha
Sell a man a fish, and you feed him for a day.
Teach a man to fish, and you ruin a good business opportunity.
oops…didn’t see Dave already posted that one.
I’ve been studying Chinese for almost 20 years, and I can assure you that that’s not a Chinese proverb.
20 years thats all. Do you learn a decade a year of Chinese history and culture ?
Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day.
Teach a man how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.
But show a man how to sell fish and he eats steak.
I love ZP, and this is a great quote, but it IS a (slightly, unintentionally, but nonetheless) sexist cartoon. NOT because it is the Dad who teaches the boy to fish – that’s fine. There’s no problem with that whatsoever. Father-son fishing, it’s heartwarming, it’s true to life, great. I’m not asking ZP (or anyone) to break convention just for the sake of it. The problem is that the Mum makes her son an elaborate sandwich, and the Dad walks past with a smug, gruff expression on his face and yanks the boy away, ruining the sandwich. The Mum’s time and effort are rudely wasted, even though this is completely unnecessary to communicate the quote. She is nothing but an background prop to the father-son bonding, which is okay (nothing wrong with having 2D secondary characters) but there is no reason to have her treated badly for minor laughs. She looks mildly surprised, and then, when they return, blandly pleased … If I were her, I’d slap my husband in the face!
Agreed.
I love every comic on this website, they are gorgeous and give me chills, but that panel bothered me as well so I’ll pop on here and agree
Give a man a fish, he eats for a day, teach a man to fish, he can eat for a lifetime, but teach a man to pray, and he will die while praying for a fish…
Hey jesus wasnt chinese so thats not an old Chinese proverb. You seem very dumb and quick with your work i suggest becoming a wal-mart greeder people there already expect you to say something full of shit.
Greeter*. You should look into it yourself.
Give a man a fish and you will feed him for a day.
Teach a man how to fish and you will feed him for a lifetime.
Give a man a religion and he will die praying for a fish.
true
nice
“Give a man a fish he’ll eat it and fall asleep – teach a man to fish he’ll endanger entire species.” Jerm IX
Build a man a fire
and keep him warm for a night.
Set a man on fire
and keep him warm for the rest of his life.
Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you’ve ruined your monopoly on the fish market.
My dad taught me how to fish. He also taught me how to provide for myself and be a man. Wasn’t nothing sexist about it: mom even went fishing with us to make sure we didn’t drink all the beer. It was father-son bonding, and he’s gone now. I miss him a lot, but his memory and words are still alive.
teach a man a proverb online, and he will try to basterdize it to sound smart.
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