Marking the gunwale to find the sword

[aukepalmhof]

This Chinese stamps tells the fable of the man who marks his gunwale to find his sword.

This fable describes that a man of the State of Chu in ancient times while crossing a river by boat dropped his sword into the water. He hurriedly cut a mark in the gunwale, saying “Here is where I dropped my sword” Later when the boat came to a stop after arriving at the bank, he dived into the water from where the mark was to recover the sword. The sword was still in the original place where it fell while the boat had already moved forward quite a distance. Wasn’t it rather muddle-headed of him to do like that? This fable satirizes those stupid acts that are very punctilious and obstinate rigid and divorced from reality.

China 1981 8$ sg?, scott?