《桐叶封弟》成语英译与典故

六十九、桐叶封弟

周武王死时长子姬诵还是个小娃娃，

这姬诵虽继位却难以治国家，

就由他叔父姬旦辅佐他。

他便是周公辅佐的周成王，

太平世多亏这叔侄俩。

成王的弟弟叫姬虞，

平时和哥哥姬诵同玩耍。

有一次，姬诵捡起一片桐树叶，

剪成个圭玉的形状手里拿，

“我用这封你到唐国做君主！”

其实是小孩子说的玩笑话。

这句玩笑话刚出口，

一旁的叔叔听见啦，

到后来周公经常劝成王：

“做天子可不能说玩笑话。”

便真的封了姬虞为唐君，

那姬虞把唐地治理得真不差。

他改修良田兴水利，

提倡农耕强国家。

他死后儿子姬燮（xiè）继父业，

改唐为晋是后话。

晋水旁建起了一座庙宇叫晋祠，

后人便千秋万代纪念他父子俩。

Presents Vavasory to His Younger Brother with a Tung Leaf

When King Wu，in the Western Zhou Dynasty（1122—771B.C.）died，his eldest son Ji Yong was only a baby.Young as he was，he had to inherit his father's throne.So his uncle Ji Dan was appointed to help him，and this is called Duke Zhou aiding King Zhou Cheng.

Thanks to the uncle and nephew，the people had peaceful times.King Cheng's younger brother named Ji Yu，liked to played with him.Once，the elder broth⁃er picked up a tung leaf，and cut it into the shape of Gui⁃jade.“With this I confer upon you Lord of Tang State！”

Obviously，it was only a joke between the two children，but when that was said，Uncle Duke Zhou heard it and took it seriously.After that Duke Zhou often warned him：“Nothing is a joke to a king.”He then duly conferred Lord of Tang State on Ji Yu，and the latter ran the state really well.He improved farm⁃ing and navigation systems，and he promoted agricul⁃ture to strengthen the state's power.

When he died his son Ji Xie inherited the lord⁃ship.Who would later change the Tang into the Jin State.Beside the Jin River a temple was built：the Jin Memorial Temple，and later generations remember the father and son for ever.