New Biography of Buying Coffins and Returning Pearls

Text/Chen Xiong

The Zhang family of Chu State and the Li family of Zheng State have been doing business for generations and are the leading shopping malls. Old rivals in the world, the two families fought openly and secretly, each had their own victory or defeat, and both accumulated considerable wealth.

The Zhang family of Chu State passed down to Zhang Wei's generation and began to engage in jewelry business, and the business was extremely prosperous. In contrast, when the Li family of Zheng came to Li's generation, the business began to decline.

Li Zhi decided to put down his dignity and go to Zhang Wei's jewelry store to learn the lesson in person.

When Li Zhi entered the store, he happened to meet the boss Zhang Wei. After chatting with Zhang Wei for a few words, he began to look at the beautifully decorated store. He was fascinated by a beautiful box in the window. .

This box is so beautiful!

Li Zhi asked the clerk to show him the box. He found that the box was made of fine magnolia and exuded a very unique fragrance. When he first smelled this fragrance, he didn't think it was anything special. , but after a little time, you can smell the long-lasting and fragrant fragrance. It can be imagined that the manufacturer must have used an expensive spice to smoke the box for a long time. Looking at the top of the box, it is uniquely decorated with 18 jewels, 9 roses and 3 emeralds, forming a beautiful "heart" shape.

Li Zhi opened the box and found a pearl inside. However, the quality is very average.

Li Zhi asked Zhang Wei: "How can I sell this pearl?"

Zhang Wei smiled: "If Boss Li wants it, I will give you a 20% discount and 10,000 yuan." Sell ??it to you!"

Li Zhi, with his years of business experience, estimated that the pearl was worth at most 2,000 yuan, which meant that Zhang Wei would sell the box for 8,000 yuan. Although the box is good, it is not worth the money. So he bargained with Zhang Wei: "I don't want the pearl, I want this box. Can Brother Zhang sell it to me for 1,000 yuan?"

Zhang Wei refused: "You bought the box, I This pearl is like a chicken with its feathers removed. It doesn’t look good. How can I sell it?”

But Li Zhi loved this box so much that he gritted his teeth and spent 10,000 yuan to buy the pearl. He took the box but did not return the pearl to Zhang Wei. He probably thought to himself: "Zhang Wei, you are so evil, why should I return the pearl to you?"

After Li Zhi left, Zhang Wei said to his son: "Son, Did you see it? This is the 1908th pearl I have sold with the help of a box!"

My son was so impressed with him: "This time even our old rival Li Zhi has fallen into the trap! ”

Zhang Wei laughed: “Supervise the workshop director of the packaging department to let the workers work overtime to produce boxes, so that our company can be listed in Xianyang before the end of the year”

But let Zhang Wei! Unexpectedly, two weeks later, the Chu State Industrial and Commercial Bureau came to Zhang Wei and pointed out that the jewelry boxes he produced were counterfeit products and that they would all be confiscated. The staff of the Industrial and Commercial Bureau took out a new box for Zhang Wei to see. Zhang Wei was shocked when he saw the box. Isn't this the box he sold to Li Zhi? There are just a few more lines on it: This packaging has been exclusively patented by Li Zhi. The patent number is 123456789. Counterfeiting will be investigated.

In this way, Zhang Wei’s pearl box production stopped and Li Zhi lost money. Zhang Wei's jewelry business suffered a huge setback and his family was left in the cold.

A month later, Zhang Wei read from the "Xianyang Evening News" that Li Zhi had set up an advertising and cultural communication company to specialize in preempting goods and became the richest man in Zheng almost overnight.

It turns out that merchants in various countries had no awareness of trademark registration before. When Li Zhi registered their trademarks, he thought of negotiating with Li Zhi. Li Zhi just used these manufacturers' trademarks with nothing. And transferred it to them at a high price. The trademarks registered by Li Zhi include: "Qu Yuan Brand Beer", "Mencius Brand Schoolbags", "Zhang Yi Brand Throat Lozenges", "Jujiu Brand Birdcage", "Ziya Brand Fishing Tackle"...the trademarks registered by Li Zhi The manufacturers hated Li Zhi so much that they wanted to eat his flesh and sleep on his skin, but Li Zhi's preemptive registration was completely legal, and the merchants could only admit that they were unlucky.

After Zhang Wei read it, he sighed and immediately called his son and announced his temporary decision: "You will leave tomorrow and report to Xianyang University as soon as possible to study law!"

Buy A New Interpretation of Returning Pearls

Written by Zhang Hongling

I bought the wooden box and returned the pearls inside.

The Chu man who was selling the beads burst out laughing before the Zheng man who was buying the caskets had gone away: He didn't even know that the beads were worth more than the caskets. He was really a big fool. The Zheng man who bought the coffin turned a deaf ear to the Chu man's laughter and scolding, and walked away in a hurry. He was in a very good mood at this time because he bought the coffin as he wished. But everyone knows that using the money to buy beads only bought a packaging box, the gain outweighs the loss.

The Chu man who sold the pearl was secretly happy with the money in his pocket. He thought that if he sold the pearl again, it would be like selling one pearl twice. He was really lucky. So he put the orb on the table and started shouting. People crowded around him, but they took one look and walked away. What's the luminous pearl? Isn't it just a broken glass ball? If you still want to cheat in public, there is no way. The Chu people hurriedly defended themselves, but no one believed them. Night pearl? Is there anyone selling luminous pearls like you? If you don't even have a box, only a fool will believe that this thing of yours is a night pearl. The Chu people fled in despair.

As for the pearl buyer Zheng, he went to the east end of the market and started selling pearls. In less than an hour, ten beads were sold. Oh, no wonder he only wanted the pearl just now, so he has the pearl himself? This is a big mistake! What he sold was not an orb at all, but worthless glass beads!

How could this happen? It turns out that the pearl is worthless without the beautiful box packaging; because no one believes that it is a pearl. On the contrary, if you put a glass ball in that exquisite packaging box, it will become a priceless night pearl. Because no one doubts it, can you not believe it?

So, everything makes sense. That’s why every Mid-Autumn Mooncake War, the competition is not about the mooncakes, but the boxes containing the mooncakes.

Stop excessive packaging

Text/Bianren

The National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Commerce and others recently jointly issued a document to stop excessive packaging of goods.

What is "excessive packaging"? The ancients have good examples. "Han Feizi·Wai Chu Shuo Upper Left" writes: "Some people from Chu sold their pearls to Zheng. It was a Mulan cabinet, heavy with cinnamon pepper, embellished with pearls and jade, decorated with roses, and arranged with feather emeralds. The people of Zheng bought the coffin. And give back the pearls." This is the origin of the famous idiom "buy a casket and return the pearls." Although this fable-like story is a mockery of the Zheng people's abandonment of the original and the new, we can't help but see that the Chu people's "over-packaging" misled the Zheng people.

Thousands of years have passed, and the luxury of "椟" has been truly magnified in our consumer life today. The excessive packaging of various commodities is dazzling, especially the Mid-Autumn moon cakes. This seasonal snack is culminated in a variety of packaging options. "Cinnamon pepper, pearl jade, rose, feather green", these packaging techniques of the ancients are really insignificant compared with those of today's people.

Paper box, wooden box, iron box, or gold, or silver, or copper, one layer, two layers, three layers. In short, a moon cake is almost "hidden in the boudoir and no one knows it." The packaging is several times the value of the packaged items. And this "packaging" idea is still developing, and the "packaging" methods are still extending: paired with foreign wine, packed with famous tea, decorated with ancient coins, decorated with celadon, a box of small mooncakes is so complicated that it suffocates the most. The simple meaning of eating makes ordinary people stay away from it with "respect"; but where do the large number of "luxury mooncakes" go every year? It’s really hard to ask for details. We are sorry for the misfortune, but do we still have the courage to make people laugh and turn things upside down?

Stop excessive packaging, start with mooncakes! Not only to save material resources and prevent a large number of environmental secondary hazards, but more importantly, to prevent this wonderful food that has been passed down for thousands of years from being contaminated with a different odor. Needless to say, some mooncakes have given us the smell of "drunkards are not interested in wine". Putting the keys to luxury homes and cars in the packaging has made the price of "mooncakes" rise to hundreds of thousands of yuan. This is no longer packaging, but a naked gift of gifts and bribes. Excessive packaging has become a soil that breeds corruption!

Stop excessive packaging, which is needed by a frugal society; stop excessive packaging, which is needed by a clean society! !