249Japanese idiom 四字熟語
矛盾
むじゅんMujun
“The spear and the shield.”
The meaning
A merchant praised a spear that pierces everything and a shield nothing can pierce; he was asked what would happen if one struck the other. The Japanese word for "contradiction" was born from that silence.
At the origin
Han Fei's parable, now the everyday word mujun.
The characters
In practice
Write down your two convictions that contradict each other — and face them.
Editorial note
Classical Chinese origin (Han Feizi).