The son of a good swimmer

A man walking along the river bank saw someone about to throw a small boy into the water. The child was screaming with terror.

”Why do you want to throw that child into the river?” asked the passer-by.
“His father is a good swimmer,” was the answer.

But it does not follow that the son of a good swimmer can swim.

Allegorical Meaning

This fable from Master Lü’s Spring and Autumn Annals satirizes the deadly fallacy of inherited traits and declares: Wisdom dies where critical thinking stops.

The Perverted Logic of Heredity

The father’s reasoning — “This child’s father excels at swimming, therefore the child must inherently swim well” — exposes a catastrophic category error:

• Confusing Potential with Competence: Genetic predisposition does not equal instant skill mastery.
• Ignoring Developmental Reality: A newborn lacks muscle memory, lung capacity, or neurological readiness for swimming.

This mirrors humanity’s eternal flaw: mistaking correlation for causation.

The Violence of Unquestioned Tradition

The act of throwing the infant symbolizes:

• Blind Transfer of Legacy: Forcing the next generation to replicate the past without adaptation.
• Ritual Over Reason: Sacrificing individuality at the altar of ancestral worship.

Developmental Contempt: “The Infant Can’t Cry Loud Enough”

The baby’s screams are ignored — a haunting metaphor for:

• Systemic Erasure of Youth Agency: Dismissing new voices as “inexperienced noise.”
• Generational Narcissism: Parents projecting their achievements onto children (“My success is your destiny”).

This foreshadows modern crises: burnout in hyper-competitive education, mental health collapse under parental expectations.