郢書燕說
See also: 郢书燕说
Chinese
| name of an ancient city | letter | Yan state | to speak; to interpret; to be happy | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| trad. (郢書燕說) | 郢 | 書 | 燕 | 說 | |
| simp. (郢书燕说) | 郢 | 书 | 燕 | 说 | |
Etymology
Literally, “Ying writes a letter and Yan reads it” (or “Yan delights in it”).
This idiom came from an anecdote told by Han Fei (韓非):
- 故先王有郢書而後世多燕說。…郢人有遺燕相國書者。夜書，火不明，因謂持燭者曰：「舉燭。」云而過書「舉燭」。「舉燭」非書意也。燕相受書而說之，曰：「舉燭者，尚明也。尚明也者，舉賢而任之。」燕相白王，王大說，國以治。治則治矣，非書意也。 [Classical Chinese, trad.]
- From: Han Feizi, circa 2nd century BCE
- Gù xiānwáng yǒu Yǐngshū ér hòushì duō Yānyuè.... Yǐng rén yǒu wèi Yān xiàngguó shū zhě. Yè shū, huǒ bù míng, yīn wèi chí zhú zhě yuē: “Jǔ zhú.” Yún ér guò shū “jǔzhú”. “Jǔzhú” fēi shū yì yě. Yān xiàng shòu shū ér yuè zhī, yuē: “Jǔzhú zhě, shàng míng yě. Shàng míng yě zhě, jǔ xián ér rèn zhī.” Yān xiàng bái Wáng, Wáng dà yuè, guó yǐ zhì. Zhì zé zhì yǐ, fēi shū yì yě. [Pinyin]
- Therefore, the ancient wise kings left us with much easily-misunderstood classics, and posterior generations delight in their distorted interpretations.… A man from Ying was writing a letter to the Chancellor of Yan. As he was writing at night and the lighting was poor, he ordered to “hold up the candle”, but he wrote down what he uttered by mistake. The words "to hold up the candle" was meaningless in the letter's context. When the Chancellor of Yan received the letter, he was much delighted, for he interpreted “to hold up the candle” as “to honour light”, and hence “to promote the wise”. The Chancellor recounted this to the King, who was also much delighted, and his State became well-governed because of those measures. Well-governed as it was, it had never been the letter's intended effect.
故先王有郢书而后世多燕说。…郢人有遗燕相国书者。夜书，火不明，因谓持烛者曰：“举烛。”云而过书“举烛”。“举烛”非书意也。燕相受书而说之，曰：“举烛者，尚明也。尚明也者，举贤而任之。”燕相白王，王大说，国以治。治则治矣，非书意也。 [Classical Chinese, simp.]
Pronunciation
Idiom
郢書燕說
- to misinterpret the original meaning; to distort the meaning in order to fit one's ideas; to pile up errors