《趁火打劫》出处、故事、英文翻译、注释

15.趁火打劫

chèn huǒ dǎ jié

【出处】《三十六计》第五计：敌之害^[1]大，就势取利，刚决柔^[2]也。明代吴承恩《西游记》第十六回：“正是财动人心，他也不救火，他也不叫水，拿着那袈裟，趁火打劫，拽回云步，径转山洞而去。”

【成语故事】春秋时期，吴国和越国为了争夺霸主地位，战争连年不断，不断耗损国力。最后，吴国打败了越国。越国战败后，越王勾践被扣在了吴国，而且失去了行动自由。但是，勾践并没有因此放弃斗争，他早就暗暗下定决心，有朝一日，一定要重建自己的国家。于是，他开始谋划和实施自己的复国计划。他表面上十分讨好吴王夫差，终于骗得了夫差的信任，也因此被放回到了越国。回国之后，勾践仍然做出臣服吴国的样子，每年都送很多财宝给吴国，目的就是让夫差对自己麻痹大意。而在越国内部，他则采取了一系列增强兵力、壮大国家经济实力的措施。果然，几年后，越国的经济和军事实力大增，人心也很稳定。而吴王夫差却被当年的胜利冲昏了头脑，这时的他，早已被勾践制造的假象所迷惑，他根本不把越国放在眼里。几年来，他生活奢侈，无心管理朝政，更听不进忠诚的劝告，还杀了一代名将伍子胥，重用奸臣，使得吴国的经济状况越来越差，百姓生活在水深火热之中。终于，公元前473年，勾践选中夫差外出不在王宫的时机，大举进攻吴国，内部空虚的吴国根本无力还击，很快就被越国打败了。

【寓意】该成语原意是指趁人家遭遇火灾的混乱而无暇自顾的时机抢劫人家的财物，从中攫取利益。现喻指乘人之危来谋取私利的行为。

趁火打劫
To Profit from the Misfortunes

15.To Profit from the Misfortunes

【Idiomatic Story】During the Spring and Autumn period，wars for the dominant position between the Wu Kingdom and the Yue Kingdom continually had lasted for years.Wars had consumed much of the power of the kingdoms.And the wars competing for hegemony resulted in failure of the Yue Kingdom，and the King of the Yue Kingdom was detained in the Wu Kingdom.Though GOU Jian，the King of the Yue Kingdom，had lost his freedom，he never gave up the idea of struggling and made up his mind to reconstruct his kingdom.

GOU Jian secretly made plans and designs for reconstructing his kingdom.In order to win the trust of FU Chai，the King of the Wu Kingdom，he pretended to be weak and yielding.Finally he was released by FU Chai and returned to his own country.

After going back to his own country，GOU Jian still pretended to be obeisant to the Wu Kingdom by offering valuable tributes every year in order to make Fu Chai off his guard on the Yue Kingdom.Meanwhile，GOU Jian took measures to strengthen his kingdom in economy and armed force.

A few years later，the Yue Kingdom had become much stronger both in economy and army，and the people lived a rich and peaceful life.However，FU Chai still indulged himself in the past victory over the Yue Kingdom and was fooled by what GOU Jian did as a loser，so FU Chai kept looking down upon GOU Jian and his kingdom.He was negligent of his political affairs but to seek pleasures.He ignored the good counsels but to follow the flattery words，and killed the loyal officials like General WU Zi-xu but to trust those sycophants.All these had resulted in the decrease of his kingdom in economy and army，which had aroused the complaints of his people.

In 473 BC，GOU Jian commanded his army to launch a large scale of attack on the Wu Kingdom by taking the opportunity of FU Chai's outing.Consequently，the Wu Kingdom was completely defeated because of its weakness.

【Implied Meaning】It originally means that the one who grabed the property or belongings of someone who suffered a fire disaster.Now it is often used to refer to those who take the favorable chance of others do something improper only for their own benefits.

【注释】

[1]害：（敌人）遇到（大的）困难或者危险。

[2]刚决柔：利用敌方之危局，就势而取胜，以少胜多，以弱胜强。