Once Zhuang Zhou went to Marquis Jianhehou to borrow provisions(食品，規定).

Marquis Jianhehou said, "Yes, but you have to wait until the end of the year when the taxes have been collected. I will lend you three hundred jins of gold."

Zhuang Zhou replied angrily, "Yesterday a crucian(鯽魚) in a tract of a wheel begged me to give it a liter of water to save its life. I promised that I would go to south to persuade the King of state Wu and the King of state Yue into leading the water of Xijiang River there and save its life. The crucian said to me angrily, 'I will die if I leave water. Now I only need a liter of water to save my life. But you will go to a place a thousand miles away. When you come back, you just go to the store that sells dried up fish to find me!'"

莊周去向監河侯借糧。

監河侯說：“可以，但要等年終稅收上來后，那是我可以借給你三百斤黃金!”

莊周生氣地回答：“昨天，車轍里有條鯽魚求我給它弄一升半的水活命，我答應說我到南方去說服吳王、越王把西江水引來營救它。鯽魚板著臉氣憤地說：‘我離開了相依為命的水就會死亡。我只要得到一升半的水就可以活命，而你卻要去千里之外，等你回來時，到干魚鋪子里找我好了。’”