The man who was found in the well

The Ding family in the state of Song had no well of its own. Someone in the family sometimes had to spend a whole day doing nothing but fetch water from a distance.

To save trouble, they had a well sunk in their courtyard.

After the job was finished, they said to one another happily, “It seems with the sinking of the well one more person is added to our household.”

One of Ding’s friends heard of the remark and the word passed from that friend to that friend’s friend and yet to another, until the story ran as follows: “The Dings had a well sunk and found a man inside!”

When the Duke of Song heard the tale he sent for Ding to inquire into the matter.

”With the sinking of the well it is as though your obedient servant has secured the help of a man,” explained Ding to the duke, “it isn’t that I actually found a man in the well.”

Allegorical Meaning

The story — where villagers misinterpret “saving one laborer by digging a well” as “finding a person underground” — exposes three layers of epistemological failure:

Literal vs. Intentional Meaning

The original speaker’s pragmatic meaning (labor efficiency) gets distorted into fantastical literalism (physical human discovery). This mirrors modern communication gaps where technical/sarcastic statements are misread as factual claims (e.g., satire misinterpreted as news).

Information Degradation in Transmission

Xunzi would classify this as “naming/reality mismatch”. Each oral retelling strips contextual nuance, demonstrating how:

• Amplification bias: Mundane details (saved effort) morph into sensational claims (underground person)
• Authority distortion: The rumor gains credibility through collective reinforcement, not evidence

Social Consequences of Misinterpretation

The villagers’ readiness to believe reflects:

• Pre-industrial superstition: Willingness to accept supernatural explanations
• Critique: Lack of careful inquiry leads to societal delusion

Philosophical Significance

The story shows how:

• Signifiers (words) detach from signifieds (meaning)
• Social epistemology fails without verification mechanisms

Zihuazi’s lesson endures: Like the “well person,” modern fake news often stems from decontextualized half-truths. All communication requires active clarification — never assume semantic transparency.