Widespread Idioms and Allusions
The fisherman takes advantage of the fight between the snipe and the clam (Profit from others’ conflict) During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period,seven states kept fighting.One day,Zhao wanted to attack Yan.Su Dai,Su Qin’s younger brother,mediated in the dispute on behalf of Yan.He crossed the Yishui River and reached Zhao to persuade King Huiwen of Zhao.He first told a story.
“When I crossed the Yishui River to Zhao,I saw an interesting scene: A clam opened its shells in the shallows to enjoy the sunshine.A snipe secretly came and pecked the meat of the clam with its long beak.The clam responded quickly,closing the shells like lightning and clamping the long peck of the snipe.They both put forth their strengths,and neither would make a concession.The snipe said,‘If it doesn’t rain today and tomorrow,there will be a dead clam!’ The clam said,‘If I don’t let you go today and tomorrow,there will be a dead snipe.’ Neither side would give in,and it was deadlocked for a long time.A fisherman came,and he was very happy at the scene.He caught them both.”
With this story,Su Dai told King Huiwen that: The fisherman would take advantage of the fight between the snipe and the clam.Both Yan and Zhao are small and weak states that had been bullied.If they went to war and consumed their own strength,a bigger state would take advantage of their conflict.King Huiwen felt it reasonable,so he canceled the plan of attacking Yan.Therefore,people often use proverbs like“The fisherman would take advantage of the fight between the snipe and the clam,”“the profit of the fisherman”and“profit from others’ conflict”to explain how a third party can take advantage of the fight between two sides.
Knife out when the scroll is spread (Song of Departure by the Yishui River) During the Warring States Period,Crown Prince Dan of Yan sent Jing Ke to assassinate the King of Qin,with Qin Wuyang,a warrior of Yan,as his assistant.When seeing them off,people dressed in white and came to the Yishui River to pay homage to the ancestors,set up a banquet for a farewell party,during which Gao Jianli played the zhu (a percussion instrument),and Jing Ke sang mournfully with the rhythm.Everybody was crying.Then the music turned suddenly.Jing Ke sang in a generous and tragic voice,“The wind blows sadly and the river flows cold.The hero is once gone,he will never return!”The people seeing them off were inspired,with their eyes wide open and their hair bristling with anger.The autumn wind blows the Yishui River and the fallen leaves covered the river sides.Jing Ke and Qin Wuyang got on the carriage and went away.
When Jing Ke arrived in the Qin State,he first paid a lot of money to court officials of Qin,through whom he explained Yan’s sincerity to offer Fan Wuji’s head and cede the land of Dukang.The greedy King of Qin was very happy.He wore a royal gown and set up a nine-official ceremony to welcome the envoys from Yan at Xianyang Palace.Jing Ke,holding the wooden box containing Fan Wuji’s head,and Qin Wuyang,holding the wooden box containing the map of Dukang,entered Xianyang Palace.When Qin Wuyang saw the King of Qin,he trembled hard with his face turning pale.Jing Ke showed his quick wit in an emergency.He said to the King of Qin:“He’s just a vulgar man from a barbarian land who has never seen the world.Please tolerate him so that he can complete his mission,your majesty.”The king asked them to hand in the map.Jing Ke took the map and presented it to the king.The king unfolded the map gradually,and when he rolled it to the end,a dagger hidden in the map appeared.Jing Ke grabbed a sleeve of the king with his left hand and stabbed him with the dagger in his right hand.The king was frightened.He jumped out and broke his sleeve.He tried to draw his sword but failed.Jing Ke chased the king,who run around a pillar.The ministers were stunned and at a loss.Because according to the laws of the Qin State,no court ministers were allowed to carry weapons to the court.At this time,the attendant doctor of the King of Qin was unexpectedly calm.He threw his medical bag towards Jing Ke.Seeing that the king failed to draw the sword out in front.He cried:“Push your sword backward,my lord!”The king did so and drew his sword out.Jing Ke’s dagger was short and disadvantageous in the fight.The King of Qin wielded his long sword and cut off Jing Ke’s right leg.Jing Ke fell down and threw the dagger at the King of Qin.It missed and hit a bronze pillar.Jing Ke was then stabbed eight times more by the king.Jing Ke,knowing that he had failed,leaned against the pillar and laughed.At this moment,the guards rushed forward and killed Jing Ke.
In the face of a powerful enemy,Jing Ke was brave and fearless.Jing Ke’s assassination of the King of Qin,although failed,has become a touching story through the ages.Jing Ke’s song“The wind blows sadly and the river flows cold.The hero is once gone,he will never return!”seems to be still in our ears.Idioms and allusions,such as“When the map reached its end,the dagger appeared”and“The song of departure by the Yishui River”have been passed down to this day.
Oath in the Peach Garden In the novel The Romance of the Three Kingdoms,the first story is“Oath in the Peach Garden,”which is about Liu Bei,Guan Yu and Zhang Fei,who took an oath in Zhuojun (present-day Zhuozhou City,Baoding).There were really Liu Bei,Guan Yu and Zhang Fei in history.Then is the story real? According to the research of the experts,the story has been spread since the Song and Yuan dynasties.In Hao Jing’s Rebuilding the Temple between the Yuan and the Song dynasties,relevant records already appeared.In works of Yuan Dynasty,there was also one called“Oath of Liu,Guan and Zhang in the Peach Garden.”According to Hao Jing’s Temple Monument of Emperor Zhaolie of Han in Zhuojun of the Yuan Dynasty,there was always a temple of Emperor Zhaolie of Han,which was later called the Sanyi Palace,from Sui Dynasty to Jin Dynasty.The clues of the story have not been broken.In the time of the Ming Dynasty,in Luo Guanzhong’s novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms,the story of“Oath in the Peach Garden”became more vivid and spread more widely to every household.The story is as follows: Liu Yan posted a notice on recruiting troops to Zhuozhou.Liu Bei noticed the notice when he went to the market to sell straw sandals.The notice reads:“Now the country is in turmoil,we hope that people with lofty ideals will sign up for the army and serve the country.”Liu Bei couldn’t help but sigh when he thought about his situation.Suddenly,there was a sneer from his back:“As a man,why are you standing here sighing instead of contributing to the country?”Liu Bei turned around and saw a bearded man looking at him with his eyes wide open.Liu Bei thought that this man must be extraordinary,so he asked about his name.The man said:“I’m Zhang Fei.”Liu Bei said:“I have the aspiration to serve the country,but I don’t know how to do it,so I sighed.”Zhang Fei said straightforwardly that he had some money,and he could recruit some brave villagers to work together for the country.Liu Bei was very happy when he heard this,so they went for a drink and discussed it.While they were drinking,a handsome and commanding big guy came,who was just Guan Yu.Liu Bei invited him to sit with him.Learning that Guan Yu also came to join the army,they found there was a lot to talk about with each other.Later,they went to Zhang Fei’s estate to discuss affairs of great significance.They agreed to become sword brothers and work together for a great undertaking.Therefore,in the peach garden behind Zhang Fei’s estate,Liu Bei,Guan Yu,and Zhang Fei burned incense and took an oath to become the three brothers who would share life and death.