臨渴掘井
臨渴掘井
春秋時期，魯國的國王魯昭公喜歡聽人說好話，不喜歡接受別人的意見。于是，擅長拍馬屁的小人們逐漸掌握權利，正直忠誠的大臣們反而被排擠出了中央政府。
慢慢地，魯國由于政府的無能漸漸衰落了，最后被一個敵國消滅了。
魯昭公逃到了齊國，因為他和齊國的國王齊景公有很好的私交。他對自己以前的行為后悔得要死，覺得自己當時能分清好壞，就不會落到今天如此下場。
齊國有名的大臣晏子卻認為：掉在水里的人，一定要等到掉進水里以后，才會想起應該防備失足；迷路的人，迷失了方向之后，才知道應該注意路徑。
猶如面臨災難的人，才急著鑄造兵器；只有感覺到口渴的人，才會去挖井取水。雖然這時候用最快的速度，但是已經來不及了。
后來，“臨渴掘井”就用來形容平時對各種事情不做準備，不加提防，等到事情已就要發生時，才忙著采取措施去應付，那是行不通的。
to begin to dig a well when feeling thirsty
During the Spring and Autumn Period (春秋 chūn qiū,770 - 221BC),the ruler of the state of Lu(lú guó 魯國) was Lu Zhaogong (lú zhāo gōng 魯昭公),a man without the ability to jude the right from wrong. He preferred to listen to the sweet words rather than the opinions which might seemd pretty harsh but quite ture. As a result of this,a large mount of treacherous court officials who were good at licking leader's boots gradully gained their power within the government since they knew exactly how to cater to the vain king. Meanwhile,the dedicated and rayal ones who really committed themselves to contribute to the coutry’s welfare were elbowed out of the central administration. As a consequence of that, nation's comprehensive strength of Lu was weakened day by day on account of the poor managenment and serious corruptions. Before long,the once vigorous state was totally smashed by one army country.
Chu Zhaogong himself had a narrow escape from being killed.He then came to the state of Qi(qí guó 齊國) to seek the shielter for that he and Qi Jinggong (qí jǐng gōng 齊景公), the king of Qi had developed a good friendship. He told Qi Jinggong that he regretted to death for trusting the wrong persons. If not,he would not be down and out right now. Hearing his remark,Yan Zi (yàn zǐ晏子),the intelligent and renowned minster of Qi,replied:"Only when a man falls into the water,can he take care of hie feet;Only when a man be confronted with the invasion,can he manufactured weapons rashily;Only when a man is badly thirsty,can he dig a well for the water. So,it’ s too little to late for your regret. After all ,you can’t turn the clock back."
Today,the phrase"to begin to dig a well when feeling thirsty”is used to refer to people who aren’t well prepared for the future crisis. At that time,it’s too late to complain.
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