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·近视眼》

有二人短于视，百皆讳言之，喜以目力自多。一日，闻某家于神庙悬扁，乃先侦知其字。是日入庙，一人仰视曰：“美哉，‘赫耀声灵’四大字也！”

一人曰：“尚有小字，君未之见，乃‘某月日某书’也！”

正共夸诩，旁有一人问曰：“两君会何？”告以所见，其人笑曰：“扁尚未悬，何处有字？”

——《笑林新雅》

Short-Sightedness

Two men were short-sighted, but instead of admitting it, both of them boasted of keen vision.

One day they heard that a tablet was to be hung in a temple. So each of them found out what was written on it beforehand. When the day came, they both went to the temple. Looking up, one said, “Look, aren’t the characters ‘Brightness and Uprigheousness’?”

“And the smaller ones. There! You can’t see them, they say, ‘Written by so and so in a certain month, on a certain day’!” said the other.

A passer-by asked what they were looking at. When told, the man laughed. “The tablet hasn’t been hoisted up, so how can you see the characters?” he asked.

Xiao Lin Xin Ya (Selected Jokes)

（杨宪益、戴乃迭 译）

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