During the Jin Dynasty, there was a man named Le Guang who loved making friends and often invited them to his home for drinks and conversations. One day, Le Guang prepared a table full of delicious dishes and held a banquet for his friends. The hall was lively with the clinking of cups and cheerful chatter as everyone played drinking games and enjoyed themselves.

As one of the guests raised his cup to drink, he accidentally noticed something in his wine cup that looked like a small wriggling snake. Out of respect for the host and the other guests, he forced himself to drink the wine despite his discomfort. However, after finishing the drink, this guest abruptly excused himself and left without explaining why. This puzzled Le Guang, who wondered why his friend had suddenly left.

Several days passed, and Le Guang didn’t see this friend again. Missing him, Le Guang decided to visit him in person. To his surprise, he found that his friend had been bedridden for days and was gravely ill. Le Guang asked in confusion, "You seemed fine when we were drinking the other day. How did you suddenly fall so ill?"

At first, the friend hesitated and avoided answering. But under Le Guang's repeated questioning, he finally revealed the truth: "That day, when you kindly treated me to the banquet, I was having a great time. After a few drinks, I suddenly noticed a small snake in my wine cup, wriggling as if alive. I was terrified and disgusted, but I didn’t want to offend you, so I forced myself to drink it. After returning home, I couldn’t stop thinking about the snake in my stomach, and I’ve felt unwell ever since. I’ve been so worried that I fell seriously ill."

Hearing this, Le Guang thought carefully and suddenly remembered that there was a curved bow hanging on the wall in his house. He guessed that the "snake" his friend saw in the wine cup was probably the reflection of the bow. To prove his theory, Le Guang invited his friend over again. During the visit, Le Guang poured wine into a cup and asked his friend to raise it. Sure enough, the shadow of the curved bow hanging on the wall was reflected in the cup, looking exactly like a wriggling snake. The friend was shocked and stared at the cup in disbelief.

Le Guang then pointed to the bow on the wall and explained, "It’s all because of this bow! The snake you saw in the cup was actually just the reflection of the bow." He then took the bow down from the wall, and the "snake" in the cup instantly disappeared. Realizing the truth, the friend exclaimed with relief, "Ah, so that’s what it was! The snake in the cup was just the shadow of the bow on the wall." With his doubts cleared and the burden lifted from his mind, the friend’s illness disappeared, and he recovered completely.

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This story is a classic Chinese tale that teaches the importance of not jumping to conclusions and the psychological impact of fear and imagination. It is also the origin of the Chinese idiom **"杯弓蛇影" (bēi gōng shé yǐng)**, which translates to "seeing the reflection of a bow in a cup as a snake" and refers to unnecessary fear or misunderstanding caused by misperception.

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• Jiang Ziya Fishing with a Straight Hook
• Nie Xiaoqian (I)
• Nie Xiaoqian (II)
• Nie Xiaoqian (III)
• Nie Xiaoqian (IV)
• Nie Xiaoqian (V)