《反客为主》出处、故事、英文翻译、注释

27.反客为主

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【出处】《三十六计》第三十计：乘隙插足，扼^[1]其主机^[2]，渐之进也。明代罗贯中《三国演义》第七十一回：“渊为人轻躁，恃勇少谋。可激劝士卒，拔寨前进，步步为营，诱渊来战而擒之，此乃‘反客为主’之法。”清代文康《儿女英雄传》第四回：“心里正在为难，只听得那女子反客为主，让着说道：‘尊客，请屋里坐。’”

【成语故事】三国时期，袁绍与韩馥结成了盟友，共同应对敌人。后来，袁绍的势力渐渐强大，他听从了别人的谗言，不顾朋友之间的感情，决定夺取老朋友韩馥的粮仓——冀州。他先给公孙瓒写了一封信，建议他和自己一起攻打冀州，公孙瓒欣然同意了。随后，袁绍又暗地派人去见韩馥，假装向韩馥告密说：“公孙瓒联系袁绍，要联合攻打冀州了，袁绍是你多年的盟友，你为什么不先联合袁绍，一起对付公孙瓒呢？如果你让袁绍带兵进城，共同对付公孙瓒，冀州不就可以保住了吗？”韩馥觉得此言有理，而且他当时也没有更好的选择，于是邀请袁绍带领军队进入冀州城。这位被韩馥请来的客人袁绍，表面上很尊重韩馥，实际上他暗地里将自己的手下一个个安排进了冀州的要害部门和重要位置。后来，韩馥才明白过来，他自己这个“主人”已经被袁绍这个“客人”替代了。无奈之下，为了保全自己的性命，他只好一个人逃出冀州，弃城而去，将冀州拱手让给了袁绍。就这样，冀州粮仓便轻而易举地成了袁绍的地盘。

【寓意】该成语原意是指充分利用机会，慢慢由弱变强，形成势力，直至最后掌控局面。现常常用来喻指通过某种手段或者方法，改变被动的形势，形成主动掌控的局面。或者指改变事物的次要性，使之成为主要的事物。

反客为主
To Intentionally Gain the Initiative Position

27.To Intentionally Gain the Initiative Position

【Idiomatic Story】During the Three Kingdoms period，YUAN Shao entered into an alliance with HAN Fu for resisting the enemy.Afterwards，YUAN Shao became more and more powerful.YUAN Shao was advised to take Ji-zhou which was under the control of HAN Fu，because Ji-zhou was a very good place of grain production for commissary.YUAN Shao approved the suggestion disregarding their friendship with HAN Fu.Then YUAN Shao wrote to invite GONG-SUN Zan for cooperation to capture Ji-zhou.GONG-SUN Zan accepted the invitation without any reluctance.

Then YUAN Shao sent his emissary to meet HAN Fu secretly.The emissary pretended to inform HAN Fu of the secret news.He told HAN Fu that GONG-SUN Zan wrote to invite YUAN Shao for attacking and seizing Ji-zhou，and he advised HAN Fu to actively join hands with YUAN Shao against GONG-SUN Zan because of their good relationship.He suggested that HAN Fu should actively invite YUAN Shao to command troops stationed in the Ji-zhou city for resisting the attack of GONG-SUN Zan and his army.

HAN Fu followed the advice because it sounded reasonable and he himself had no other ways to solve the problem.He actively invited YUAN Shao to command his troops entering the Ji-zhou city and stationed in the city.

After entering the Ji-zhou city，YUAN Shao seemed to be a “guest” and pretended to show his respect to HAN Fu in all senses.But he secretly arranged his loyal followers into the key departments and important positions in the Jizhou city.

For a period of time，HAN Fu gradually found the“guest” he invited had become the “host”.He had been completely replaced by YUAN Shao.He had no choice but to leave the Ji-zhou city with his family for survival.

In this way，HAN Fu completely lost Ji-zhou，the grain production base，and YUAN Shao got it without any efforts.

【Implied Meaning】It originally means to make good use of any chance to change the situation gradually from weakness to powerfulness，and finally control the situation or play the dominant role.Now it is often used to refer to the change of the passive state into an active state and finally becoming the master or owner.It is also used to mean to change the subordinate matter into the superordinate matter and getting the initiative position.

【注释】

[1]扼：控制。

[2]主机：主要或者关键部位。