One neighbor of Yang Zi-a famous scholar lost a sheep. He asked all his relatives and friends and Yang Zi's servant for help. 

 

Yang Zi asked, "Why do you send so many people out just for one lost sheep?"

 

His neighbor said, "Because there are a lot of branch road."

 

After a while, all the people came back. "Have you found the sheep?" Yang Zi asked.

 

"No," they answered, "Each road has branch roads and each branch has its forked（有叉的） roads. We just do not know which road to follow. So we give up."

 

On hearing this, Yang Zi became silent. His student did not understand what the teacher was thinking about. He passed the question to Xin Du Zi, a friend of Yang Zi. Xin Du Zi replied, "Your tutor¹ is worrying about your study. What have happened reminds him of the difficulty of learning² and researching. He thinks that if you fail to find the right orientation³ and method of study, you can accomplish nothing, just like those people trying to find the lost sheep."

 

The idiom is used to show that when confronted⁴ with so many choices and complicated⁵ things, one who seeks truth is likely to get loss or go astray（迷路） without a correct method.

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