The Zhao State was taking up arms against the Yan State, and Su Dai (a military strategist during the Warring States period, and little brother to Su Qin of the School of Diplomacy) traveled to speak with King HuiWen of Zhao on behalf of the Yan State, and he told the following fable:
“When I was coming here I passed over some gentle water, and by chance I happened to see a clam sunning itself. A sandpiper seized the opportunity to peck at the clam’s meat, but the clam slammed the two wings of its hard shell shut on the sandpiper’s beak. The sandpiper said, ‘Today it won’t rain, tomorrow it won’t rain, and there will be one dead clam!’ The clam gave as good as he got, saying: ‘I won’t come out today, I won’t come out tomorrow (so your beak won’t be free), and there will be one dead sandpiper!’ Neither party was willing to give up, and at this time, a fisherman scooped them both up and carried them off. If Yan and Zhao oppose each other, we’ll both fight ourselves weary. I’m afraid the strong Qin State is playing the role of the fisherman, so I hope that your majesty will carefully deliberate on this matter.”

趙國將要討伐燕國，蘇代(戰(zhàn)國時(shí)策士，縱橫家蘇秦的弟弟)替燕國游說趙惠文王，講了如下的寓言故事:
“我來的時(shí)候經(jīng)過易水，恰好看到蚌出來曬太陽。鷸趁機(jī)啄蚌的肉，蚌把兩扇介殼一閉就夾住了鷸的喙。鷸說:‘今天不下雨，明天不下雨，就有死蚌?！鲆册樹h相對(duì)地說: ‘今天不出，明天不出(夾住不放)，就有死鷸?！瘍烧哒l也不肯罷休，這時(shí)過來一個(gè)漁父把兩者一起拎走了?！毖嘹w相對(duì)抗，都搞得很疲勞，我恐怕強(qiáng)大的秦國正在扮演漁父的角色，所以希望大王深思熟慮。
惠文王贊同蘇代的意見，停止對(duì)燕國用兵。