古代寓言原是民间口头创作，文学体裁的一种。含有讽喻或明显教训意义的故事。它的结构简短。主人公可以是人，可以是动物，也可以是无生物。多借用比喻手法，使富有教训意义的主题或深刻的道理在简单的故事中体现，而还需要自己去理解，思考，这就是和西方寓言的不同之处。

《古代寓言·医驼背》

昔有医人，自媒能治背驼，曰：“如弓者、为虾者、如曲环者，延吾治，可朝治而夕如矢。”一人信焉，而使治驼。乃索板二片，以一置地下，卧驼者其上，又以一压焉，而即踩焉，驼者随直，亦复随死。

其子欲鸣诸官，医人曰：“我业治驼，但管人直，那管人死。”

——《雪涛小说》

Treating Hunchbacks

There was once a charlatan who claimed he could cure deformities of the spine. "Whether your back is like a bow, a shrimp, a ring, or whatever you please, come to me and I'll straighten it in no time."

One hunchback was credulous enough to take his words at their face value and came to him for treatment. The charlatan made him lie prone on a plank, put another on his hump, then jumped up and down on it with all his might. The hump was straightened, but the man died.

The man's son wanted to sue him, but he charlatan said, "My job is to straighten his hump. Whether or not he dies, has nothing to do with me."

Stories by Xue Tao

（杨宪益、戴乃迭 译）

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