A clam was opening its shell to bask in the sun when a snipe pecked at it. The mussel clamped down on the bird’s beak, and held it fast.
“If it doesn’t rain today or tomorrow,” said the snipe, “there will be a dead mussel lying here.”
“If you can’t pry loose today or tomorrow,” retorted the clam, “there will be a dead snipe here too.”
As neither of them would give way, a passing fisherman caught them both.
Allegorical Meaning
This Warring States fable, where a clam clamps a snipe’s beak and neither releases the other until both are captured by a fisherman, delivers a timeless political warning through zoological metaphor:
Zero-Sum Trap
The titular creatures’ stubbornness (snipe’s insistence on eating the clam, clam’s refusal to open) exemplifies how mutually destructive conflicts often stem from irrational escalation rather than irreconcilable differences.
Third-Party Exploitation
The fisherman’s effortless gain embodies Han Feizi’s realist view: external enemies profit from internal strife — a caution against Qin’s rivals’ infighting during China’s unification wars.
Unlike “win-win” parables, this tale’s bleak outcome (both animals lose everything) reflects cynical pragmatism: in conflict, the greatest risk isn’t losing — it’s letting a hidden third party define the terms of defeat.
The original Chinese idiom “fisherman reaps profit” underscores that the true victor is often the one who never fought.
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