抱薪救火

戰(zhàn)國(guó)末期，秦國(guó)向魏國(guó)接連發(fā)動(dòng)大規(guī)模的進(jìn)攻，魏國(guó)無(wú)力抵抗，大片土地都被秦軍占領(lǐng)了。到公元前273年，秦國(guó)又一次向魏國(guó)出兵，勢(shì)頭空前猛烈。

魏王把大臣們召來(lái)，愁眉苦臉地問(wèn)大家有沒(méi)有使秦國(guó)退兵的辦法。大臣們由于經(jīng)過(guò)多年的戰(zhàn)亂，提起打仗就嚇得哆嗦，誰(shuí)也不敢談“抵抗”二字。在這大兵壓境的危急時(shí)刻，多數(shù)大臣都勸魏王，用黃河以北和太行山以南的大片土地為代價(jià)，向秦王求和。

謀士蘇代聽(tīng)了這些話，很不以為然，忙上前對(duì)魏王說(shuō)：“大王，他們是因?yàn)樽约耗懶∨滤溃抛屇ベu國(guó)求和，根本不為國(guó)家著想。您想，把大片土地割讓給秦國(guó)雖然暫時(shí)滿足了秦王的野心，但秦國(guó)的欲望是無(wú)止境的，只要魏國(guó)的土地沒(méi)割完，秦軍就不會(huì)停止進(jìn)攻我們。” 說(shuō)到這里，蘇代講了一個(gè)故事：從前有一個(gè)人，他的房子起火了，別人勸他快用水去澆滅大火，但他不聽(tīng)，偏抱起一捆柴草去救火，是因?yàn)樗欢貌癫莶坏荒軠缁鸱炊苤L(zhǎng)火勢(shì)的道理。大王若同意拿著魏國(guó)土地去求和，不就等于抱著柴草救火嗎？”

盡管蘇代講得頭頭是道，但是膽小的魏王只顧眼前的太平，還是依大臣們的意見(jiàn)把魏國(guó)大片土地割讓給秦國(guó)。到公元225年，果然秦軍又向魏國(guó)大舉進(jìn)攻，包圍了國(guó)都大梁，掘開(kāi)黃河大堤讓洪水淹沒(méi)了大梁城，魏國(guó)終于被秦國(guó)滅掉了。

Carrying Faggots to Put Out a Fire

In the last years of the Warring States period (zhàn guó 戰(zhàn)國(guó), 475-221BC), the State of Qin (qín guó 秦國(guó)) attacked the State of Wei (wèi guó 魏國(guó)) on a large scale repeatedly and occupied large areas of land, for the State of Wei was too weak to defend itself. In 273 BC, the Qin army launched another attack upon the State of Wei with a momentum more vigorous than ever.

The king of the State of Wei summoned his officials,and asked with a worried look if anyone could propose a way to defeat the Qin army. After years of chaos caused by the wars,the officials trembled when fighting was mentioned, and no one dared to speak of “resistance”. At the critical moment when a large enemy force was approaching the border, most of the officials persuaded the king to sue for peace, at the cost of giving away to the State of Qin the large area of land north of the Huanghe River (huáng hé黃河) and south of the Taihang Mountain (tài háng shān 太行山).

However Su Dai (sūdài 蘇代), a counsellor, did not agree. He hurried up to the king and said:"Your Majesty, they don't think about the interests of the country at all.It is just because they are cowardly and afraid of death that they ask you to sue for peace by betraying the country. Of course you can temperarily satisfy the ambition of the king of the State of Qin is insatiably greedy. It will never stop assaulting us until our land is totally given away."Once there was a man whose house was on fire. People told him to put out the fire with water, but he would not listen. Instead, he carried a faggot to put out the fire, only to make the fire fiercer. That was because he didn't know that,instead of putting out the fire, faggots could only make it burning more vigorously. Isn't it equivalent to carrying faggots to put out a fire if you agree to sue for peace at the cost of the land of the State of Wei?"

Though Su Dai's argument was very convincing, the king accepted the suggestion of those officials and gave away to the State of Qin a large area of the land of the State of Wei. For the king of the State of Wei was cowardly and only cared for peace at the moment. As might be expected, the Qin army assaulted the State of Wei on a large scale in 225 B.C, surrounding the capital city Daliang and flooding it by digging open the dykes of the Huanghe River. The State of Wei was finally destroyed by the State of Qin. This story appears in the Historical Records Written by Sima Qian. The set phrase"carrying faggots to put out a fire"is used to mean adopting a wrong method to save a situation and ending up by making it worse.

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