Bird Startled by a Bow
Updated 2026-08-22
INTRODUCTION
English translation pending.
CORE DEFINITION
The idiom tells of a wild goose once struck by an arrow whose wound has not fully healed: at the sound of a bowstring it panics, flies up desperately, and the reopened wound brings it down. The core proposition is that past injury creates a conditioned hypersensitivity, so a small present trigger can set off a defensive collapse far larger than the occasion warrants. The key qualification is that the overreaction is real in the body even when the present danger is not.
SCAFFOLDING EFFECT
Reduce cognitive load
- Spot The Old Wound: find the earlier injury the present trigger is really about. - Separate Then From Now: distinguish the actual current risk from the past shadow. - Desensitize Gradually: reduce the reactivity in small steady steps rather than scolding it.
Anchor fast decisions
Trauma links the memory of danger to cues that only loosely resemble it, and the link is bodily rather than deliberate, so the reaction fires before appraisal finishes. The present cue calls up the original state wholesale, which is why the response is disproportionate and why argument alone does not quiet it.
MINIMUM ACTION
In progress 0/1Practice this model in one real situation:
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Source support: Explicit
- zh.wikipedia.orghttps://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%88%98%E5%9B%BD%E7%AD%96verified
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