《李代桃僵》出处、故事、英文翻译、注释

24.李代桃僵①

lǐ dài táo jiāng

①僵：枯死。

【出处】《三十六计》第十一计：势必有损^[1]，损阴以益阳^[2]。西汉古乐府诗《鸡鸣》：“桃生露井上，李树生桃旁。虫来啮桃根，李树代桃僵。树木深相待，兄弟还相忘。”明代凌濛初《二刻拍案惊奇》：“李代桃僵，羊易牛死。”

【成语故事】春秋时期，晋国有位名叫屠岸贾的大奸臣。他想鼓动晋景公除掉赵氏家族，丝毫不顾这个家族曾对晋国作出的巨大贡献。有一天，屠岸贾亲自率领人马杀光了赵家的人，幸好赵朔之妻庄姬公主已经被提前秘密送到宫中。屠岸贾知道这个消息后，非常不快，继续努力劝说晋景公要把庄姬公主杀掉。庄姬公主是晋景公的姑姑，而且公主正怀有身孕，景公不肯杀她。屠岸贾心想，既然你不忍心杀你姑姑，那我就把婴儿杀掉，让赵家绝种。后来，公主生下了一名男婴，知道消息后的屠岸贾马上带人去公主房里搜查，还好公主将婴儿藏在裤内，躲过了这次搜查。屠岸贾估计婴儿已经被偷偷送出皇宫，立即贴出了很多悬赏的告示：谁要是找到这名婴儿，就可以拿到大量黄金。当时，赵家有两位忠实的好朋友，一个叫公孙杵臼，另一个叫程婴，他们一起商量如何保住赵家这个重要的婴儿。公孙杵臼说：“程兄，我们可以用另外一个婴儿去和赵氏孤儿对换，我带着这个婴儿逃到首阳山后，你就去向屠岸贾告密，让他搜到那个假的赵氏遗孤。只有这样，他才会停止搜捕，公主和赵氏的后代才能够得以保全。”当时，程婴的妻子刚好产下一名男婴，他以大义说服了妻子，决定用自己的儿子去替代赵氏孤儿。那天，他忍着悲痛把自己的儿子让公孙杵臼带走。程婴依照计划向屠岸贾告密。屠岸贾迅速带领士兵追到首阳山，在公孙杵臼居住的茅屋里，搜出一个用锦被包裹着的男婴。屠岸贾高兴极了，活活地把婴儿摔死了，杀死了公孙杵臼。他终于相信赵家已经绝种了，于是放松了警戒。后来，程婴的一个心腹假扮医生，在另外一名忠臣韩厥的帮助下，混入宫中给公主看病，并用药箱偷偷把婴儿带出宫外。程婴听说自己的儿子被姓屠的活活摔死，强忍悲痛，带着赵氏孤儿逃到了外地。十五年后，这名孤儿终于长大成人，也知道了自己的身世。赵氏孤儿在韩厥的帮助下，带领军队，杀了屠岸贾，终于为赵家报了仇。程婴看到赵氏的大仇已报，不肯自己一个人独自享受富贵，拔剑自杀了，临死前他要求将自己的尸体和公孙杵臼合葬在一墓，这就是后人所称的“两个侠义的坟墓”。

【寓意】该成语原意是指李树和桃树生长在一起，受虫咬树根的影响，李树代替桃树而枯死。往往用来比喻兄弟之间互帮互爱，不分彼此。后也用来比喻顶替别人，代人受过。

李代桃僵
To Offer Help by Intentional Substitution

24.To Offer Help by Intentional Substitution

【Idiomatic Story】In the Spring and Autumn period，there was a crafty courtier named TU An-gu in the Jin State.He always tried to instigate the Monarch Jing-gong to get rid of the ZHAO's family in disregard of their great contributions to the Jin State in the past.

One day，TU An-gu commanded a group of soldiers to kill all the people of the ZHAO's family under the approval of the Monarch.Fortunately，ZHAO Shuo's wife，the Princess ZHUANG Ji，had already been secretly sent to the royal palace before the extermination of the family.TU Angu was displeased about hearing that news，so he kept on persuading the Monarch Jing-gong to kill Princess ZHUANG Ji.

The Monarch Jing-gong was unwilling to kill Princess ZHUANG Ji because she was his paternal aunt and she was in pregnant at the time.TU An-gu learned the reluctance of the Monarch，so he planned a premeditated murder of the newborn baby in order to eradicate the ZHAO's family.Not long，the princess gave birth to a baby boy.TU An-gu sent his men to search for the baby in the house of the princess when he got the news，but they could not find the baby because the baby had been hidden into the trousers of the princess.

Failing to find the baby，TU An-gu thought that the boy must have been secretly delivered to some place from the royal palace.Therefore，TU An-gu immediately instructed his men to put up many gold-prize notifications for the missing baby boy.

There were two loyal friends of the ZHAO's family named GONG-SUN Xu-jiu and CHENG Ying.They planned to rescue that only child of the ZHAO's family.GONG-SUN Xu-jiu said to CHENG Ying，“We must find another baby secretly to replace the ZHAO's baby，then I take the substitute one to abscond to the Shou-yang Mountain.You go to inform TU An-gu against me about the orphan.Only in this way can we stop TU An-gu from killing for the ZHAO's baby，and then we can help the princess and her son out of danger.” CHENG Ying agreed on the plan.

It happened that CHENG Ying's wife gave birth to a baby boy at that time.CHENG Ying managed to persuade his wife to replace the baby of the ZHAO's family with their own son.CHENG Ying delivered his own son to GONGSUN Xu-jiu in tears.And then CHENG Ying informed TU An-gu of the news that GONG-SUN Xu-jiu absconded to the Shou-yang Mountain with the baby.

TU An-gu immediately tracked down to the Shou-yang Mountain with his men.They found a baby boy wrapped with a quilt of silk cover in the thatched house of GONGSUN Xu-jiu.TU An-gu was very pleased for finding the baby.He ordered to kill the baby and GONG-SUN Xu-jiu，and he believed that the ZHAO's family had been extinct.TU An-gu began to be off guard from then on.

Later，one of the favorites of CHENG Ying disguised himself as a doctor and went to the royal palace for the diagnosis and treatment of the Princess ZHUANG Ji.And then he took the baby out of the royal palace by containing the baby in the medicine chest under the help of an official named HAN Jue.

CHENG Ying learned his son was killed by TU An-gu，he felt heartbroken.And he escaped the capital city to live in a safe place with the baby of the ZHAO's family.Fifteen years later，the orphan baby had grown up and learned the story.With the help of HAN Jue，the orphan of the ZHAO's family finally sought vengeance upon TU An-gu by killing him at last.

When CHENG Ying witnessed that they had avenged on TU An-gu，he committed suicide because he could not share the happy life with his family.He asked to be buried with GONG-SUN Xu-jiu in the same tomb.The tomb was praised as “Two Chivalrous Men”.

【Implied Meaning】It originally means that the plum tree and the peach tree live interdependently，and the plum tree dies for the peach tree because of the insect damage on the root.Now it is often used to refer to the mutual love and help between close friends.It also used to refer to the voluntary acceptance of punishment for one's close friend or others.

【注释】

[1]势必有损：当形势发生必然带来损失之时。

[2]阴：小利益或者局部利益。阳：大利益或者全局利益。